What is gyudon?

Gyu means beef, and don is short for donburi, the big rice bowl. In Japan, chains such as Yoshinoya, Sukiya and Matsuya sell gyudon around the clock as a quick lunch. The dish belongs to the family of donburi, where a warm topping with sauce sits on rice. At home, all you need is a pan, an onion and thin slices of meat.

Gyudon and oyakodon: the difference

Both bowls start with the same base of dashi, soy sauce, mirin and sugar. For oyakodon, you cook chicken thighs in the sauce and let beaten egg set in it at the end. Gyudon needs no egg in the pan, and the beef takes 2 minutes. With a breaded pork cutlet and egg, the bowl is called katsudon. Many Japanese people crack a raw egg yolk or a softly poached onsen egg over their gyudon and stir it into the meat.

The right meat

The chains use fatty beef short plate. Outside Japan, beef chuck rib comes closest. The fat keeps the slices juicy and flavors the sauce. Lean round or tenderloin turns dry in the sauce. The slices should be no thicker than 2 mm, or they will not cook through in 2 minutes. At an Asian grocery store, you can find frozen meat for sukiyaki or shabu-shabu that works for gyudon. Thaw it in the fridge and pull the slices apart before cooking.

How to get gyudon right

• Onion first: The onion simmers in the sauce for 5 minutes until soft and sweet. Only then does the meat go into the pan.
• Cook the meat briefly: 2 minutes is enough. After 10 minutes of simmering, the meat tightens up and turns stringy.
• Skim the foam: Gray foam rises with the meat. Skim it off, and the sauce stays clear and tastes clean.
• Sauce on the rice: Spoon 2 to 3 tbsp of sauce into the bowl. In Japan, diners order extra sauce as tsuyudaku.

Ingredient substitutions

• Dashi: Instant dashi from a sachet is fine for gyudon. The article Dashi and dashi powder explains the difference from homemade stock. Without dashi, use water, but the sauce will taste flatter.
• Mirin and sake: For 1 tbsp of mirin, use 1 tbsp of water with 1 tsp of sugar. Replace sake with water. You can read more about the sweet rice wine under mirin.
• Onion: A mild yellow onion gets sweeter in the sauce than a red one.

What goes with it

In Japanese gyudon shops, beni shoga, red pickled ginger, stands in tubs on the counter. Sprinkle shichimi togarashi over the top for heat. A bowl of miso soup belongs with the meal, such as the miso soup with shiitake and tofu. For Japanese rice, rinse the grains until the water runs clear so they turn out fluffy and shiny.