Go Back
+ servings
5 from 2 votes
Top-down photo of Wagyū Steak Don.
Wagyū Steak Don (Wagyū Steak on Rice)
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
20 mins
 

Wagyū Steak Don is a very simple domburi (rice bowl dish) recipe with marbled fine Wagyū beef steak and a tasty sauce poured over it. The slightly sweet soy-based sauce with complex flavours goes so well with the steak.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Main
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: beef steak, donburi, Wagyū
Serves: 2
Author: Yumiko
Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)
  • 240g / 0.5lb Wagyū beef steak (about 2cm / ¾" thick, note 1)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Oil or a piece of fat from Wagyū beef (note 2)
Wagyū Steak Sauce
  • ¼-½ tsp grated garlic
  • ½ tsp grated ginger
  • 1 tsp grated onion
  • tbsp soy sauce
  • tbsp sake
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tbsp apple juice
  • ½ tbsp sugar
  • 2 tsp roasted white sesame seeds , ground finely (note 3)
Serving
  • 150g / 5.3oz cooked rice per serving
  • Finely chopped green onion or green leaf sprouts
Instructions
Cooking Wagyū Steak (note 4)
  1. Take the beef steak out of the fridge at least 30 minutes (preferably 1 hour) prior to cooking (to bring it to room temperature).

  2. Heat a heavy-bottomed frying pan or a skillet over low to medium low to low heat. Grease lightly with oil or melt a piece of beef fat if you have one (note 5).

  3. Sprinkle salt and pepper lightly on one side of the steak, then immediately place the steak on the skillet, seasoned side down.
  4. Cook the meat for 30 seconds, then use a spatula to turn it over. Cook for 30 seconds.
  5. Turn the steak over again and cook for 15-20 seconds, then turn it over.
  6. Repeat cooking for 5-10 seconds and turning over several times until the steak is cooked to medium (note 6).

  7. Transfer the meat to a cutting board and rest for 5-10 minutes, loosely covered with aluminium foil.

Making Steak Sauce
  1. Add all the Sauce ingredients, excluding ground sesame seeds, to the frying pan without wiping off the oil of the steak (oil has a great flavour) and bring it to a boil.

  2. Reduce the heat to simmer and cook for a minute. Then turn the heat off.

  3. Put the sauce through a sieve to remove the grated vegetables.
  4. Add ground sesame seeds to the sauce and mix well.
Serving
  1. Cut the steak at an angle into 0.7-1cm / ¼-⅜" thick slices. The width of the slice should be about 2-2.5cm / ¾-1".

  2. Put 1 serving of rice in a bowl and spread the sliced beef over the rice. Pour 2 tbsp of sauce over the steak and sprinkle green onions over.

Recipe Notes

1. My Wagyū beef was a marbling scale 8 sirloin steak of about 2cm / ¾" thick. You can have a lower scale marbling of course, and the thickness can vary. You can actually use normal beef steak instead. Just call it Beef Steak Don.

2. A sirloin steak usually comes with a band of fat on one side. You can trim the fat and use it.

3. You could use store-bought ground white sesame. But I ground the sesame seeds using mortar and pestle so that some coarse bits remain in the ground sesame seeds to give a texture to the sauce.

4. The cooking method that I used in this recipe is quite different from the normal way of cooking a steak. I used the method used by the world-famous chef, Tetsuya. He says that nicely marbled Wagyū beef should not be cooked at high temperature to seal the surface of the meat by charring it.

But if you are used to the normal cooking method, feel free to use your method.

5. Since the heat is low, it will take a while to extract the oil from the beef fat. If the beef fat is burning, your frying pan is too hot.

6. Because the steak will be sliced and placed on rice, I recommend cooking the steak to medium or medium well so that there will be no blood stains on the rice. It took me about 10 minutes to cook my steak using Tetsuya's method.

If you have a meat thermometer, you can use it to check if the meat is cooked. Medium is 57–63°C / 135-145°F.

If you don’t have one, you can check the firmness of the meat by pressing in the centre and comparing it with the palm of your hand just below your thumb. Bring your thumb to your ring finger and feel the palm below your thumb. If the firmness is the same as the firmness of the meat, the steak is cooked to medium.