Authentic Japanese Pork Sukiyaki Recipe, a low-carb and flavor-packed meal with thinly sliced pork, mushrooms, and veggies, all cooked with a sake-based savory sauce. This recipe is a unique and easy dinner for chilly nights!
Why We Love This Sukiyaki Recipe
This Pork Sukiyaki recipe was introduced to me by a dear friend who lived in Japan and learned how to make so many delicious Japanese dishes!
Pork Sukiyaki (ski-ya-kee) is a traditional Japanese dish usually cooked on a hot plate at the table. It’s a very social meal. Families and friends circle the sukiyaki pan stirring with chopsticks and taking bites as the components are ready.
The meat (usually paper-thin pork or beef) and vegetables are poached in a sweet sake-based sauce and served over sticky rice, once they’ve simmered down.
Pork Sukiyaki looks prettiest when it’s first put into the pan, but the muddled brothy aftermath is the true show stopper!
When making Pork Sukiyaki at home, you can cook it family style, with one-third of the ingredients at a time, or use an extra large skillet and cook it all at once. Either way, the taste and texture will make you feel like you’re in Japan!
Ingredients You Need
Most of the ingredients for this Japanese hot pot dish were easy to find. The only issue we had was getting our hands on Konnyaku noodles, a yam starch, gelatinous noodle used widely in Japan. It’s considered a health food, and is gluten-free, low fat, and extremely low carb. If you can’t find it, you can definitely omit it!
- Pork Loin – thinly sliced
- Mushrooms – cremini or shiitake mushrooms
- Enoki Mushrooms – the thin and long kind of mushrooms
- Green Onions – you will use all of the green onion here
- Napa Cabbage – sliced into thick pieces
- Baby Carrots – cut in half
- Tofu – cubed
- Konnyaku Noodles – Also call Konjac noodles (or omit, if you can’t find them)
- Oil – to sear everything in the pan
- Sukiyaki Sauce – made of soy sauce, sake, brown sugar and water
How to Make This Pork Sukiyaki Recipe
- Freeze Pork to Slice: Flash-freeze the pork for 30 minutes so it is slightly firm. This will enable you to cut it very thin, without moving around so much. Prepare all the veggies. In Japan, they like to cut little designs in the mushroom tops!
- Make the Sauce: Make the Sukiyaki sauce in a bowl or liquid measuring cup and set aside.
- Heat Skillet or Wok: Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat. Add the oil, then pile the pork, tofu, noodles, and vegetables in the skillet, reserving the onion greens for later. Sear the meat and veggies for 1-2 minutes, then flip them over and sear for another 1-2 minutes.
- Add Sauce: Pour the sauce into the skillet. Allow the ingredients to cook down for 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally until both the pork and the carrots are cooked through.
- Remove & Serve: Remove the sukiyaki and serve over sticky rice (sushi-style rice), or as is. Sprinkle with the onion greens and enjoy!
Sukiyaki Tips & Tricks
- Usually, the meat used in sukiyaki is paper thin. But if you have a full pork loin and are slicing it yourself, it’s okay to have it a little thicker! Just cut it as thin as you can on your own.
- Serve this pork sukiyaki recipe over rice to soak up all of that delicious sake sauce!
- Use a Junmai type of sake for the most deep flavor with a touch of umami goodness!
Frequently Asked Questions
Sukiyaki is a popular Japanese dish that is often prepared right at the table by slowly grilling or simmering thinly sliced meat, usually pork or beef, along with vegetables and mushrooms. The broth that accompanies it is sweet and savory!
Definitely! You can make sukiyaki with thinly sliced beef instead of pork if you prefer!
Looking for More Japanese-Inspired Dishes? Look No Further!
Sukiyaki Recipe with Pork
Light healthy Pork Sukiyaki, a Japanese recipes with tons of flavor! Try this classic recipe with veggies, konnyaku noodles, and enoki mushrooms.
Servings: 4
For the Pork Sukiyaki:
- 1 – 1 1/2 pounds thinly sliced pork loin
- 12 ounces mushrooms shiitake or cremini
- 6 – 8 ounces Enoki Mushrooms, trimmed
- 2 bunches green onions, cut into 1″ pieces, then separate whites and greens
- 1/2 head napa cabbage, roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 cup baby carrots, cut into quarters by length
- 12 ounces firm tofu, cut into cubes
- 9 ounces Konnyaku noodles
- 2 tablespoons oil
For the Sukiyaki Sauce:
- 2/3 cup Shoyu (soy sauce)
- 6 tablespoons sake
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups water
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Flash freeze the pork for 30 minutes so it is slightly firm. This will enable you to cut it very thin, without moving around so much. Prepare all the veggies. In Japan, they like to cut little designs in the mushroom tops!
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Mix the Sukiyaki sauce in a bowl (or measuring pitcher) and set aside.
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Heat a large skillet to medium-high. Add the oil, then pile the pork, tofu, noodles, and vegetables in the skillet, reserving the onion greens for later. Sear the meat and veggies for 1-2 minutes, then flip them over and sear another 1-2 minutes.
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Add the sauce to the skillet. Allow the ingredients to cook down for 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally until both the pork and the carrots are cooked through.
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Remove the sukiyaki and serve over sticky rice (sushi-style rice) or as is. Sprinkle with the onion greens.
You can make sukiyaki with thinly sliced beef instead of pork if you prefer!
Serving: 8ounces, Calories: 753kcal, Carbohydrates: 103g, Protein: 50g, Fat: 13g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 71mg, Sodium: 2467mg, Potassium: 1637mg, Fiber: 8g, Sugar: 43g, Vitamin A: 7095IU, Vitamin C: 35.6mg, Calcium: 286mg, Iron: 5.2mg
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