With savory and juicy sliced beef served over steamed rice, this delicious Yoshinoya Beef Bowl (Gyudon) is a keeper for a weeknight meal!
Gyudon (牛丼) or Beef Bowl is a popular quick meal in Japan. It consists of a bowl of steamed rice topped with thinly sliced beef and tender onion, simmered in a sweet and savory dashi broth seasoned with soy sauce and mirin.
What is Beef Bowl (Gyudon)?
Thanks to Yoshinoya (吉野家), the largest beef bowl restaurant chain, Japanese gyudon became known as the “beef bowl” and is enjoyed by many people all around the world. You might wonder when the Japanese started to enjoy gyudon.
The Japanese adopted Western customs like eating beef between the late 1800s and early 1900s and these customs eventually spread throughout Japan.
Gyudon originated from another dish, Gyunabe (牛鍋) and Sukiyaki (すき焼き) where thin slices of beef are cooked with vegetables in a pot. At some point, it was served over rice in a bowl as “donburi” (rice bowl).
In 1899, the first Yoshinoya restaurant opened in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district. The use of cheaper beef cuts helped lower the cost, and ultimately drove the success of Gyudon. Today, it continues to be a popular quick, and inexpensive lunch menu for salarymen.
How to Make Yoshinoya Beef Bowl
In Yoshinoya’s gyudon, they simmer onion and thinly sliced beef in dashi broth and other seasonings. Every household makes gyudon slightly different, so feel free to adjust the flavor as you like.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Thinly Sliced Beef: If you don’t eat beef, you can make this dish with thinly sliced pork as well. Just make sure the meat is thinly sliced. Japanese, Korean, and Chinese grocery stores carry thinly sliced meat (both pork and beef), but if you can’t find it in the refrigerated or frozen meat sections, you can purchase a block of meat and slice them on your own. I’ve added the instructions in the recipe below.
- Onion: If you really do not like onion, you can skip it; otherwise, please include it. Cooked onions are tender and give sweetness to the sauce. I consider the onion just as important as the meat in this recipe. You can use regular yellow onion, sweet onion, or even purple onion (if the color doesn’t bother you).
- Shirataki Noodles (Optional): I usually cook gyudon at the very last minute (not planned) so I don’t have shirataki noodles in my fridge. However, it’s a great addition to gyudon and it’s a smart way to add the volume of the food without adding more meat. The texture also improves with shirataki noodles.
- Dashi: This recipe requires dashi. We cook the beef and onion in the dashi-based sauce. You can make dashi in 3 ways if you’re not sure how to make it.
- Seasonings: This recipe requires basic Japanese condiments—sake, mirin, soy sauce, and sugar.
- Steamed rice: You will need a little bit more amount of steamed rice than the usual rice bowl amount.
- Pickled Red Ginger (beni shoga): Typically, pickled red ginger is served on top of gyudon, and it gives a nice refreshing break to your palate. Similar to how sliced pickles are added inside juicy burgers. I personally like every bite to include a bit of pickled ginger but the amount is entirely up to you.
- Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese seven spice): If you like it spicy or got bored eating the same gyudon, sprinkle some shichimi togarashi on top. It’s a mixture of seven different kinds of spices and adds layers of flavors.
Overview: Cooking Steps
- Prepare the ingredients by cutting the onion, green onion, and beef. Make dashi if you haven’t already.
- Cook the onion till tender in the dashi and seasonings mixture.
- Add the beef and simmer with the onion.
- Serve the gyudon over steamed rice.
What to Serve with Yoshinoya Beef Bowl
We almost always serve donburi or rice bowl dish with miso soup. As you’re required to make dashi for this gyudon recipe, you might want to make a big pot of dashi. Take out some of the dashi for gyudon and keep the rest for miso soup.
Delicious Side Dishes
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Yoshinoya Beef Bowl (Gyudon)
Video
Ingredients
- ½ onion (3 oz, 85 g)
- 1 green onion/scallion
- ½ cup dashi (Japanese soup stock) (use standard Awase Dashi, dashi packet or powder, or Vegan Dashi)
- 1 Tbsp sake
- 2 Tbsp mirin
- 1 Tbsp sugar (or more, to taste)
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- ¾ lb thinly sliced beef (chuck or ribeye) (12 oz, 340 g; I use komagire beef from the Japanese market; use shabu shabu beef for higher quality; or slice your own meat)
- 2 Tbsp pickled red ginger (beni shoga or kizami beni shoga)
For Serving
- 2 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice (typically 1⅔ cups (250 g) per donburi serving)
- 2 onsen tamago (optional)
Instructions
Before You Start…
- Gather all the ingredients. For the steamed rice, please note that 1½ cups (300 g, 2 rice cooker cups) of uncooked Japanese short-grain rice yield 4⅓ cups (660 g) of cooked rice, enough for 2 donburi servings (3⅓ cups, 500 g). See how to cook short-grain rice in a rice cooker, pot over the stove, Instant Pot, or donabe.
- For the beef, I use assorted thin sliced beef labeled “komagire“ from my Japanese market and cut the slices further into smaller pieces. It works great for Gyudon. For higher quality, use shabu shabu beef. If you cannot find thin sliced beef in your local grocery store, you can slice your own meat. Freeze a block of fresh chuck or rib eye beef for 1–2 hours and then slice. If the pieces are too large after slicing, then cut them in half. See my tutorial for detailed instructions.
To Prepare the Ingredients
- Cut ½ onion into thin slices and slice 1 green onion/scallion into thin rounds. Set aside.
- Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat and add ½ cup dashi (Japanese soup stock), 1 Tbsp sake, 1 Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp mirin, and 2 Tbsp soy sauce. Tip: Add more sugar, if you prefer a sweeter taste. I don‘t recommend reducing the amount, as you need to counterbalance the salt in the soy sauce.
- Cover the pan with a lid and bring the sauce to a boil. Once the sauce is boiling, add the sliced onions and spread them out in a single layer. Cover to cook until tender (make sure you cover the pan, otherwise the sauce will evaporate).
- When the onions are tender, add ¾ lb thinly sliced beef (chuck or ribeye) and cook until it‘s no longer pink. Remove the foam and fat with a fine-mesh skimmer.
To Serve
- Divide 2 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice into individual serving bowls. Serve the simmered meat and sauce over the steamed rice.
- Top with the sliced green onions and 2 Tbsp pickled red ginger (beni shoga or kizami beni shoga). If you‘d like to top each bowl with an egg (optional), serve with 2 onsen tamago. Alternatively, you can pour beaten egg over the meat when it’s almost finished cooking in the pan (see how I do it in my other Gyudon recipe).
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3–4 days or in the freezer for a month.
My kids love it so much! It’s easy and taste good too. Will try to make the tamago. 🙂 thank you for the recipes
Thank you Wika! I’m so glad you liked the recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
Perfect! The hardest part is finding the meat, it really needs to be paper thin in my opinion, and I just can’t cut it thin enough even frozen and with the right knife. I found some at a local Asian market this time. It tastes just like the places I’ve had it in Japan. I like to eat it when I turnaround on a very long bike ride. Some quick carbs and some protein, but not too heavy or greasy. I like to put some shichimi togarashi on mine too.
Hi M! Thank you for finding the right type of meat to try this recipe. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for your kind feedback!
Thank you Nami! Gyudon is one of my all time fave rice bowl, and because I wanted to homecook for my hubby, I googled the recipe and found yours. Voila! He loves it! 2 rice bowls fyi, hahaha.
I’m so happy to hear that you two enjoyed this recipe and thank you for your kind feedback! xoxo
Easy and delicious! My husband used to eat Yoshinoya’s all the time. He said this one taste just like it! This is going to become a weekly staple in my household. Thank you for sharing your recipe
Hello Mrs! Thanks so much for trying this recipe! I’m really happy to hear your husband enjoyed the dish! Thank you for your kind feedback. xo
[…] 11. Yoshinoya Beef Bowl […]
This is incredibly good… Even making it with the cheaper kind of mirin (haha since I have nothing to compare it to) is freaking delicious. My husband is eating his third plate and is just at awe at how amazing it tastes. I followed the recipe exactly and actually quadrupled the measurements since I used so much meat. The first batch I made it with the dried kelp and fish flakes dashi, the second batch I just used the dried kelp dashi, both were equally great. I haven’t had yoshinoya in over 15 years so this recipe brought back so many of those tasty moments. Thank you so very much for posting this.
Hi Mary! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear you and your husband (especially!) enjoyed this recipe. Your kind words mean a lot to me. Thank you for your feedback! 🙂 xo
[…] snabbt, inte allt för dyrt. Näst intill perfekt, helt enkelt. Baserat på denna variant. När man ska äta det blandar man ihop allt så att ägget smetar till resten av […]
To be fair I have not had an authentic yoshinoya beef bowl so I can’t comment on authenticity. I liked this recipe but I feel like it was not as savoury as I expected it to be based on the ingredient list. Maybe my homemade dashi wasn’t flavourful enough? It is relatively easy to make – I used the thinly sliced beef ribeye that you can get in Asian supermarkets, ready for hot pot – I feel like it would have better if I was able to find the kind that was packaged in flat slices as opposed to rolled, because when I dropped the rolled pieces in the sauce they kind of shrunk and cooked into long cylinders which to me is less pleasing than frilly slices. Right after cooking, the beef wasn’t that flavourful, but it did absorb more flavours as it sat in the fridge over a few days (I made it ahead of time on the weekend to be eaten during the week), but the star was the sliced onions – those really absorbed the sweet salty flavours. A sprinkling of shichimi togarashi was a must too. Overall I would make this again but only if I already had leftover dashi.
Hi Jenn! I apologize for my late response. Just like any other Japanese recipes, ingredients are pretty simple, and I’d say the most important part of gyudon relies on good dashi and good quality beef (as that’s main ingredient). Thanks for sharing details info on the beef too. I think I know what you’re talking about as I’ve seen those beef slices at Asian market. Hope that has enough fat in the meat, as it tends to be leaner. Usually, you do not need to cook ahead to get flavorful meat, but maybe if you could add more seasoning it might have helped. Thank you for trying this recipe and hope next one will be a satisfying result. 🙂
[…] to Gyudon and Katsudon, Oyakodun is not only a long-time favorite at restaurants but also a favorite to make […]
My go to recipe for a gyudon. Honestly google’s top pick for beef gyudon so how can one go wrong. Many Thanks even after all these years of following your recipes.
Hi Alvin! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m happy to hear you’ve been following my blog for many years. Thank you for your support! xo
I just made this for lunch today! I will admit, thin slicing the beef was a total pain in the butt…..yet it was totally worth it. This recipe is delicious! Thank you for sharing. It brought be right back to Japan. The only thing missing from my bowl was a little pile of beni shoga! I’m making a batch right now so that the next time I make beef bowls, I’ll be prepared.
Hi Sailormeows! Thanks so much for trying this recipe! Yeah, the thin-slicing meat can be a pain in the neck… but you can’t have the same experience with a thick beef. So good job!! I’m glad you enjoyed it, and I agree, beni shoga is a great flavor component to cut off the fat. Thank you for your kind words!
I didn’t have some of the ingredients, so I had to improvise. I used sweet Maui onions and red bell pepper in the sauce. It was delicious. For the meat, I used Steak-umms. I was making my Hubs a steak sandwich. hat substitution worked very well. I can’t wait to tell my family and friends in Philly! Excellent recipe!
Hi Deborah! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback! 🙂
This is better than Yoshinoya!
Thank you so much, Anita!
Thank you so much for all of your recipes! We’ve tried the gyudon and harusame salad and loved them both! I lived in Japan for a while in college, and miss it very much! Being able to cook the food I loved so much has helped cheer me up! There’s such an abundance of recipes on here! Can’t wait to try more!
Hi Sarah! How wonderful that you tried to make the food you enjoyed while you were in Japan! Hope my recipes brought you back good memories. 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback. xo
My wife made this recipe today and it was awesome. It was just like the gydon I had before at Yoshinoya in Hiroshima.
Hi Justin! Thank you and your wife for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear you two enjoyed this dish! 🙂