One of the most popular Japanese hot pot dishes, sukiyaki (すき焼き), is great for get-togethers with friends and family. Cooking thinly sliced beef, tofu and vegetables in sweet soy sauce flavour over a portable cooktop on the table is so much fun. It is quick to prepare and so tasty.
There are many hot pot dishes in Japan but I believe sukiyaki is one of the best known hot pots. Unlike other typical Japanese dishes, sukiyaki has a very short culinary history because the Japanese were not in the habit of eating beef until the end of the Edo period in the late 19th century. I am glad that I live in the 21st century because I cannot imagine not being able to eat beef!
In Japan, sukiyaki is considered to be a special dish simply because beef is extremely expensive there. Nowadays, Japan imports Aussie beef and the US beef to sell at affordable prices. But if you want to eat marbled beef from Japan, it often costs more than $150 per kilo (per 2.2lbs). And you do want marbled thinly sliced beef for sukiyaki if you can afford it.
Because the dish was so special and it rarely made it to the dinner table, I used to get very excited whenever my mother announced that we were having sukiyaki for dinner. Each one of my three siblings and I were staring at the beef slices in the pot so as not to miss a piece of cooked beef before it was taken by others. Four kids fighting for beef slices – imagine that! But it was very interactive and also fun.
Kansai Style and Kanto Style
There are two different methods of cooking sukiyaki. Kansai (関西, the western region of Japan which includes Osaka and Kyoto) style and Kanto (関東, the eastern region of Japan which includes Tokyo and surrounding prefectures) style.
In Kansai style, meat is cooked in the pot first, then you add sugar, soy sauce and sake to give the sukiyaki flavour. Then vegetables are added at the end. It relies on the water coming out of the vegetables to dilute the sauce so that the flavour is not too strong.
In the case of Kanto style, the sukiyaki sauce called warishita (割り下) is prepared separately. Warishita is a mixture of soy sauce, sake, sugar, mirin and dashi stock. Cook the beef and shallots (scallions) first, then add warishita, then the remaining vegetables.
In both styles, the flavour of sukiyaki might get too strong due to condensation. You then add some water or dashi stock to adjust the flavour.
My parents were from the Kanto region so I make sukiyaki in Kanto style as you can see in the recipe.
Sukiyaki Ingredients
Typical ingredients of sukiyaki are thinly sliced beef, shallots (scallions), shirataki (しらたき, konnyaku yum noodles), yaki-dofu (焼き豆腐, grilled tofu), shiitake mushrooms and shungiku (春菊, chrysanthemum greens).
To give colour to the dish, sliced carrots are sometimes added. In spring, bumboo shoots are added to give a seasonal touch to the sukiyaki dish. Instead of shiitake mushrooms, you could use shimeji mushrooms, enoki mushrooms or sliced king oyster mushrooms. I sometimes add Chinese cabbage cut into small pieces in winter time.
Shirataki is made from konnyaku potato flour. Its texture is like very firm jelly and the colour is light grey as seen in the photo below. It has virtually no calories but is very high in fibre. So it is a good diet food. It comes in a clear bag filled with water. You can find shirataki at Japanese/Asian grocery stores. You will also find a jelly like block called konyaku (こんにゃく) at grocery stores along with shirataki. Konyaku is basically the same thing as shirataki but just in a different shape.
Yaki-dofu is a firm tofu about 3cm (1⅛”) thick. Both sides of the tofu are char-grilled, making the tofu firmer so that it won’t crumble when cooked with other ingredients. Unfortunately, I cannot find yaki-dofu even at Japanese grocery stores in Sydney. So I use firm tofu as an alternative.
Sukiyaki and Raw Egg
A traditional way of eating sukiyaki is to dip the cooked ingredients in beaten raw egg. I thought the reason for dipping in raw egg was because the flavour of the sukiyaki was so strong that you needed egg to compensate. But I was wrong.
Apparently one reason is that the egg lowers the temperature of the cooked piece of meat or vegetables so that you won’t burn your tongue!
Another reason is that by dipping the cooked sukiyaki in raw egg, it enhances the flavours. I sometimes don’t use raw egg to eat sukiyaki. I think that sukiyaki is delicious even without raw egg. But it is true that sukiyaki is yummier if you dip it in raw egg.
Yumiko
- 90ml (3oz) each of sake, mirin and soy sauce
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 50ml (1.7oz) dashi stock (note 1)
- 250g (0.6lb) beef, very thinly sliced (note 2)
- 2-3 stems of shallots (scallions), about 140g (4.9oz)
- 4 shiitake mushrooms
- 1 pack of shirataki (konyaku yum noodles), 350g (12.3oz) (note 3)
- 150g (5.3oz) shungiku (edible chrysanthemum leaves, note 4)
- ½ pack of firm tofu , 150g (5.3oz)
- 1 tbsp cooking oil (note 5)
- 50ml (1.7oz) dashi stock (note 1) or water to adjust flavour if required
- 2 eggs
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Add all the Warishita ingredients in a small pot and boil over high heat.
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After letting it boil for 5 seconds or so, turn the heat off and put aside until required.
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Beef: If each slice of beef is very large, cut it into two. A slice larger than your palm might be too big to handle when eating.
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Shallots: discard the roots and slice shallots diagonally into about 5cm (2”) lengths.
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Shiitake mushrooms: Chop off the stems of shiitake mushrooms. To decorate shiitake head (optional), make a shallow v-shape cut in the middle of the head, then another v-shape cut perpendicular to the first cut, making a cross (see the photo in the post).
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Shirataki: Rinse shirataki in water. Spread the noodles on the cutting board, about 20cm (8’) wide, and cut them in half. This is to shorten the noodles so that you can pick them up easily when eating.
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Shungiku: Trim the end of the stem. Cut shungiku into about 10cm (4”). If the stems are extremely thick, like 1-1.5cm (½”) thickness, cut the stem vertically in half.
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Tofu: Cut the tofu block into two, then cut again perpendicular to the first cut making 4 small blocks.
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Group each ingredient together on a large plate.
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Place each egg in a small bowl in which the individual can beat the egg and dip sukiyaki.
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Heat a large fry pan with heavy base or shallow cast iron pot/casserole over high heat and add oil.
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Sauté beef slices to lightly brown on each side, about 30 seconds. Add shallots and sauté for 15 seconds.
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Add warishita and the remaining ingredients except shungiku, clustering each ingredient together for better presentation (if you wish).
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Once the sauce starts boiling, turn the heat down to simmer and cook for a couple of minutes, then add shungiku.
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Cook for another couple of minutes or until vegetables are cooked through, occasionally turning over the ingredients so that they will be cooked evenly.
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Leave on low heat while eating sukiyaki directly from the pot. If the sauce is condensed too much to your liking, add some dashi stock or water to adjust and bring to simmer.
1. Please refer to Home Style Japanese Dashi Stock. You could also use konbu dashi which can be found in Varieties of Dashi Stock.
2. You can buy thinly sliced beef at Japanese/Asian grocery stores. If you cannot find it, you can make slices yourself. Please read my post Beef Rolls with Asparagus.
You can substitute beef with thinly sliced pork if you cannot eat beef.
3. Shirataki is made from konnyaku potato flour. Its texture is like very firm jelly. It comes in a clear bag filled with water. You can buy shirataki at Japanese/Asian grocery stores.
4. Common names of shungiku in English include garland chrysanthemum and chrysanthemum greens.
Some vegetable shops sell shungiku, often at Asian grocery stores but I find that in Sydney, it is rather seasonal (winter-spring vegetables). So I often use spinach as a substitute when I cannot find shungiku.
5. The proper way of cooking sukiyaki is to use a piece of beef fat to oil the pan. You only need about 4cm x 4cm (1½” x 1½”). If you can obtain beef fat, I strongly recommend that you use it. It will give the sukiyaki much better taste.
This is such a sensational recipe, Yumiko. Thank you! I made your Dashi this afternoon and then your Sukiyaki tonight. Amazing! Could I ask whether you use an American 15ml tablespoon or an Australian 20ml tablespoon?
Hi Kathleen, Happy New Year and thank you! I am glad that you enjoyed Sukiyaki. I use 15ml tablespoons as it is more commonly used worldwide. Thanks for asking as it makes a huge difference. I should put a note to every recipe.
Made this a couple of weeks ago with no alterations to the recipe. Came out very good and plan on making it again sometime!
Hi Tim, that’s really great. I haven’t made Sukiyaki for a while as it’s summer in Sydney. But today, it goes only up to 22C down from 37C yesterday! Maybe Sukiyaki for me tonight…
Hi Yumiko,
I love sukiyaki and plan to make it for the family this weekend. The recipe looks to be very straight forward, however, the only ingredient I’m unsure about is the saki, do I use cooking saki or do I purchase an inexpensive bottle of drinking saki?
Hi Gida, you can use either but if affordable, real sake tastes better and makes the Sukiyaki Sauce slightly less salty.
I made this about a week ago,and it was really, really good…to the point that my wife picked up the bowl and drank the broth that was left after eating everything else.
Was pretty simple and straight forward. I ended up buying most of the ingredients at a Korean market, because that’s what was closest.
Thank you for the great recipe, meal and memory.
Hi Dana, that’s great! The sauce is yummy isn’t it? Next time when you make sukiyaki, I’d suggest that you get some udon noodles and cook them at the end in the yummy soup. I am sure your Korean shop sells udon noodles either fresh ones or dried ones. Dried noodles need to be boiled beforehand.
Dear Yumiko,
We have made sukiyaki several times with other recipes but tried yours for the first time today. This is the best recipe I have ever had, hands downs! We absolutely loved everything about it and had a wonderful time cooking and eating it. We’ll never use another version again – we’re in love with this one!
I’m excited to try your eggplant and miso dish later in the week! Happy New Year and thank you for all the great reci pies!
Hi Ashleigh, Happy New year to you, too.
I am so glad that you all liked my sukiyaki. You made my day! I hope you like the miso glazed eggplant as well.
I was based in japan in 1950-1951. I learned to love sukiyaki but never got the recipe. As I remember, it was either beef or pork cooked in a soy flavored sauce with onions and poured over cooked rice. Can anyone
help me find the right recipe.
Hi Bob, it is called ‘Gyū-don’ and, well, I posted the recipe very recently. Here is the link, https://japan.recipetineats.com/beef-bowl-gyu-don/.
Hi Yumiko and followers, I have yet to cook Japanese cuisine so have been looking on the web. Your site is one of the easiest to follow and your recipes are conducive to try something new. You are very good at this Yumiko, so thank you so much. I have recently been diagnosed at gluten and dairy intolerant so Japanese cuisine is one of yummy alternatives to my traditional Italian background (although I’m Australian currently living in Spain – I so miss my lovely island home).
Again, thank you,
xx Sylvana
Hi Sylbana. Thank you. I love Italian food and I am sorry that you can’t have traditional pasta any more.I agree that Japanese dishes are made with more gluten free ingredients. If you eat simple Japanese food, it seems to be able to avoid gluten intake without much effort. As you know, traditional Japanese cooking do not use diary products, either. I am glad that my recipes can help you manage choice of dishes you cook.
Konnichiwa Yumiko-san! Lovely dish and as always I love your explanations of the ingredients and cooking processes! Your very kind daughter just made my week by featuring my Thanksgiving recipes! She also said I should ask you if you liked it ?? I would most appreciate your comments.
Hi Dorothy-san. Thanks for your positive feedback on my blog, as always! Thanksgiving recipes! All my golf friends loved them all. They thought stuffing no being stuffed as clever. I like the turkey, too. The flavour of stuffing was better with the juice from the turkey absorbed into the stuffing. My friends loved the cream corn casserole. They asked for the recipe before Nagi posted it. Pumpkin cake was also well received. I don’t eat cakes cry often as most of them are quite sweet. But I liked how pumpkin cake was not very sweet. I could have it with much less frosting.
Konnichiwa Yumiko-san! I so appreciate your feedback! My husband would actually prefer no frosting on the cake, he has a very small sweet tooth. The corn casserole is very good for breakfast as I believe your daughter said 🙂 I hope some of my recipes make it to you and your friend’s tables for Christmas!
We get matsutaki mushrooms this time of year in Oregon. I think that they might be extra nice with the beef., but wonder if they would be too overpowering?
Hi Kathiie.
Do they sell matsutake mushrooms in Oregon? Lucky, you! We can’t get them here in Sydney.
I only know matsutake being very expensive, so my immediate response to your question was don’t waste it by cooking in sukiyaki sauce which has a very strong soy sauce flavour. Contrary to matsutake fragrance overpowering, I think that sukiyaki sauce will kill the wonderful fragrance of matsutake.
You would probably enjoy matsutake by cooking it simply with subtle flavouring, eg. just char grill matsutake, shred it vertically by hand, then simply eat with ponzu. Or cook in clear soup to infuse matsutake fragrance into the soup and enjoy it.
Thank you Yumiko. Yes, we hunt, but they are so difficult for me to spot as they grow underground with only a little hump showing in the moss/sand. Our Asian markets sell them each Fall and being in my 70’s, it is easiest for me just to buy. I like them sliced and grilled with a little soy and garlic or a slice or two in miso soup and I found a matsutake gohan recipe that I enjoy with their unique lovely flavor. I will make your delicious looking sukiyaki with other kinds – this is mushroom country with all of our rains and forests. I truly enjoy your writing and recipes, Yumiko!
Hi Kathiie. Thank you. I love mushrooms! All kinds of mushrooms. If I ever go to Oregon, I must go for a mushroom hunting, then.
Hi Yumiko
I have both drinking sake and cooking sake in my cupboard. When you use sake as an ingredient in your dishes, which would you recommend I use?
Thank you
Susan
Hi Susan,
I usually use cooking sake simply because it is much cheaper. You can use drinking sake as well but if you can enjoy drinking it, then drink instead. Major difference between drinking sake and cooking sake is that cooking sake contains salt. So you might need to adjust saltiness when using drinking sake but I think that using drinking sake gives better flavour to the food.