Fancy doing some Japanese cooking at home? Here are 30 authentic, simple Japanese recipes to make at home.
I’ve said this many times: Japanese food is my favorite cuisine in the world.
Every meal I’ve had in Japan has been amazing — even ramen from vending machines and takoyaki from streetside stalls are mindblowing and ridiculously good. There’s just so much diversity and complexity to Japanese food that each meal is a surprise.
After sharing some of the best Japanese dishes with you last week, many of you have asked for the Japanese recipes I use. During the past few months of self-isolation, I have been doing a lot of Japanese home cooking and trying out these Japanese recipes.
Here is a curated list of 30 Japanese recipes from expert food bloggers (some of whom are from Japan)!
Sushi is definitely the most famous Japanese dish, and it has taken the world by storm. Sushi isn’t exactly difficult to make, and you can easily make it at home with the right ingredients. Follow this easy Japanese recipe to make a simple maki sushi in just 20 minutes. California roll is by far the most popular sushi roll in the US. It usually contains crab meat, avocado, and cucumber. Usually it is an “inside-out” roll (known as uramaki), which means that sushi rice is shown on the outside of the roll, and nori (seaweed sheet) is on the inside. The roll is sprinkled with toasted white sesame seeds for nice crunchy texture, but sometimes they are garnished with tobiko or masago fish roes for a more elegant presentation. In this healthy Japanese recipe, you’ll learn how to make the delicious sushi roll at home. Handmade sushi is fun to make but it can be a hassle to roll it out and cut it perfectly. Temaki, or hand rolled sushi, is far easier and it's a wonderful dish to make at home with your family. This easy Japanese recipe is fast, tasty, and fun! Onigiri are Japanese rice balls/triangles filled with a variety of fillings and flavors. Onigiri make an ideal quick snack and are a fun alternative to sandwiches for lunch (think kids’ lunchboxes). These rice snacks are so popular in Japan that you can buy them anywhere, from supermarkets to convenience stores to specialty stores! It makes for great snacks especially when traveling Japan with kids. Another hugely popular Japanese food, takoyaki is a delicious street food you find everywhere in Japan. Tako means octopus and yaki means grill or fry, though you can find other ingredients in takoyaki besides grilled octopus. Takoyaki are round in shape and made from a batter of flour, egg and dashi stock with octopus and other ingredients as fillings. Chawanmushi is a silky-smooth savory egg custard that’s a popular side with Japanese meals. It’s easy to make, adaptable and so delicious. You simply mix dashi stock with egg and pour it over your fillings then bake. This makes for a simple Japanese appetizer that can be paired with a main course. Japanese Gyoza, or potstickers, are more of a side dish to complement the rice instead of a main course. This recipe for authentic Japanese Gyoza is filled with pork, cabbage and shiitake mushrooms and served with a delicious dipping sauce. Japanese potato croquettes, or korokke in Japanese, is a beloved comfort food and a popular home dish that one can prepare easily from scratch. Korokke is so common in Japan that you can buy freshly made korokke in almost any Japanese convenient store (konbini) when traveling in Japan. Chicken Karaage is a classic Japanese fried chicken dish. It’s so popular in Japan that you can find it in all izakaya (bar), supermarkets and street food stalls. It is often eaten as a Japanese appetizer paired with beer. The okonomiyaki is a casual and simple bar food that was first created by bar owners scraping together leftover ingredients to make a sort of pancake. Okonomiyaki is made with lots of cabbage, some pancake batter and topped with several other ingredients In fact, the word okonomiyaki literally translates to “how you like”. Tonkotsu ramen is rich, filling, and easy to make at home with a luscious slow-cooked pork and chicken broth, fresh noodles, soft yolks, and tender pork belly. Making ramen is an art form, as the broth simmers for up to 18 hours. That said, it does make about 10 servings worth of tonkotsu broth for the entire family. This traditional Japanese recipe will definitely bring you into the heart of Japanese cooking. If you are looking for an easier ramen recipe (without boiling the broth for 18 hours), this chicken ramen recipe is for you! I absolutely love this ramen recipe and it has helped satisfy my family's ramen craving during the lockdown. This recipe includes a delicious soy sauce chicken broth (or a Shoyu broth), topped with a jammy egg marinated in a sweet soy marinade, with flavor-packed caramelized soy chicken and vegetables. Yakisoba is a classic stir fried egg noodles dish with pork and vegetables, that has a slightly sweet flavor that makes it so irresistable. Yakisoba started to appear in the 1930s, and it became popular among families. Since then, many Teishoku-ya (Japanese diners) added yakisoba to their menu, and it became an icon for Japanese street food. This is an easy Japanese recipe that can be prepared in under 15 minutes! This is an easy Japanese recipe perfect for weekday dinners! Yaki udon is a stir fried Japanese udon noodle dish made with an assortment of vegetables and protein. It’s stir fried with a savory sauce made of soy sauce and mirin. This is different from yakisoba because they are made with different noodles. Translated to mean “grilled chicken”, yakitori are skewers with pieces of chicken grilled over a charcoal fire. It’s a very popular snack to eat while drinking beer, and you can find it at izakaya (bars) throughout Japan. Yakitori can include all parts of the chicken: breast, thigh, skin, liver, heart and cartilage. Make yakitori at home with this simple Japanese recipe. It’s great for grilling outdoor or under the broiler! Oyako Donburi is one of my absolute favorite Japanese dishes. “Oya” means ‘parents’, which implies chicken, and “ko” means ‘child’, which implies an egg, so Oyako Don is chicken and egg rice bowl. Donburi or Don is a Japanese name for large rice bowls. This authentic Japanese recipe is surprisingly simple and ridiculously delicious. Tonkatsu is a pork cutlet breaded with panko crumbs and deep fried to crispy perfection. Drizzle a dark, tangy katsu sauce on it and you can eat it with rice and salad. As with many Japanese dishes it is often served as part of a multi course meal featuring things like miso soup and rice. Japanese curry tastes very different from the Indian curry or any other curry we are used to. It is sweet, savory and not spicy at all. The magic of this modern Japanese dish is in the sauce. The most common ingredients are onions, carrots, potatoes, and one of the three main meats (beef, chicken, or pork). Butadon literally translates to pork bowl, and it’s a popular dish in Japan. The recipe involves simmering thin pork slices in a delicious, slightly sweet sauce made with with dashi (Japanese fish stock), soy sauce, and mirin (Japanese rice wine) usually. This Japanese recipe can be prepared in 40 minutes, and is incredibly satisfying over a bed of warm steamed rice! Beef Negimaki, Japanese rolled steak and scallions, has the most delicious umami flavor. Between the fresh, grassy flavor of the scallions, the buttery flank steak, and the sweet and salty sauce, you have an irresistible dish that will make your taste buds go wild. Tempura is a wildly popular Japanese dish of deep-fried seafood and vegetables encased in a light yet most shatteringly crisp batter. Neither greasy or heavy. They are indeed the best fried food on earth! Learn how to make the crispy batter and perfect tempura at home with this easy, authentic Japanese recipe. This Japanese mushroom rice is made in one pot, without too many ingredients, but the result is a wonderfully umami-flavored dish. It makes a great side for many dishes but would be great enjoyed just as it is as well. Yasai Itame is Japanese vegetable stir fry, which sometimes contains a small amount of meat. In most cases thin slices of pork is used but chicken works too! This recipe from Japan is perfect for the vegetarians and vegans out there. Omurice is a short form of omelet and rice, the two essential ingredients of this Japanese fusion dish. To prepare it, pan fry the rice together with chicken and ketchup, then wrap them up in a thin omelet sheet. Finally, drench a generous portion thick ketchup gravy over the omelet. I've made the omurice with this Japanese recipe so many times, and it's always a big hit! Creamy, sweet, and slightly bitter, this Matcha ice cream has a very complex flavor that will amaze your tastebuds. My whole family loves Matcha ice cream and we are thrilled to find how easy it is to make it at home! Sakura Mochi is a type of Japanese sweet made from pink-colored mochi rice cakes filled with sweet azuki bean paste called “Anko” and are usually wrapped with salted sakura leaves. And because the soft pink color mochi resembles a sakura flower, the Japanese often prepare the saku mochi during girls’ day “Hinamatsuri” and the cherry blossom season. Dango is a traditional Japanese sweet treat, presented as rice flour and sugar dumplings skewered on a bamboo stick. In this recipe, we use the three colors that represent peach flowers (pink), the pure color of snow (white), and the beauty of new growth (green). Another easy to make Japanese snack, dorayaki is made of two hand-sized pancakes sandwiched together with a sweet filling, the most popular of which is azuki red beans (anko). However, custard, chestnuts (kuri), and cream (matcha cream, cream with fruits, etc.) are also popular. Enjoy this dorayaki as an on-the-go treat or as a Japanese dessert. Learn how to make the popular Japanese pancakes with this easy Japanese recipe. These soufflé-like pancakes are incredibly fluffy and light, unlike any other pancakes you've had. They might take a few more steps and extra attention to detail to make than American pancakes, but trust us, they are well worth it! This authentic chocolate Marble Japanese Hokkaido Milk Bread is incredibly fluffy and soft. This vegan version of the Japanese Hokkaido Milk Bread will hypnotise with a delicious chocolate swirl for added effect. Besides, your home will smell like a bakery.30 Recipes from Japan
Japanese Recipes for Sushi
Maki Sushi
California Roll Uramaki
Spicy Tuna Temaki
Recipes for Japanese Appetizers and Snacks
Onigiri (Japanese rice balls)
Takoyaki (Octopus balls)
Chawanmushi (Japanese savory egg custard)
Gyoza (Potstickers)
Korokke (Japanese croquette)
Chicken Karaage
Okonomiyaki (Japanese cabbage pancake)
Recipes for Japanese Noodle Dishes
Tonkotsu Ramen
Chicken Ramen
Yakisoba (Stir fried egg noodles)
Yaki Udon (Stir fried udon noodles)
Japanese Recipes: Meat Dishes
Yakitori (Grilled meat skewers)
Oyako Donburi
Tonkatsu (Breaded pork cutlet)
Japanese Curry
Butadon (Japanese pork rice bowl)
Beef Negimaki
Japanese Recipes: Vegetarian Dishes
Tempura (Deep fried vegetables)
Kinoko Gohan (Japanese mushroom rice)
Yasai Itame (Vegetable stir fry)
Omurice (Omelette and rice)
Recipes for Japanese Desserts
Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream
Sakura Mochi
Sanshoku Dango (Rice flour dumplings)
Dorayaki (Japanese redbean pancakes)
Easy Fluffy Japanese Pancakes
Chocolate Marble Japanese Hokkaido Milk Bread
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