Like many home cooks, I often rely on quick and budget-friendly dinners that actually taste delicious. And this Butadon (豚丼) or Pork Bowl couldn’t be easier. It is one of the many donburi (rice bowls) that I enjoy making when I am reluctant to cook a full spread Japanese meal. Partner the rice bowl with miso soup and a simple salad or meal prep sides, you’d get a complete and nutritious dinner!
What is Butadon?
Hailed from Tokachi (十勝) region in Hokkaido, Butadon is a popular specialty food that you want to check out when you visit the northern island of Japan. Topped with grilled thin-sliced pork, the rice bowl is true comfort food at its best! The dish is all about the quality of pork (known in Tokachi region) and rice grown in Hokkaido, and delicious sweet and savory “tare” sauce. The thin pork loin slices are grilled (over binchotan charcoal) till tender, and dipped in or brushed with the sauce layer after layer. They are then served over fluffy steamed rice with a generous helping of sauce drizzled over the meat for one last time. The juicy meat, amazing sauce and hot steamy rice will make you craving for more.
The Ingredients You’ll Need for Butadon
1. Thinly Sliced Pork Loins
You can get these thinly sliced pork loins from a Japanese, Korean, or Chinese grocery store. It is a popular cut in our cuisines and often used for hot pot and stir-fries. At the refrigerator section of the Japanese market, there are typically 2 kinds. Paper-thin slices for “Shabu Shabu” or medium-thin slices for “Shoga Yaki” or “Ginger Pork”. For Butadon recipe, you’d want to go with the medium-thin slices.
Substitute: If you don’t eat pork, you can use chicken, beef, fish, shrimp, firm tofu, zucchini, eggplant, or king oyster mushrooms. If you can’t get thinly-sliced pork, you can put the pork loin in the freezer for one hour (or more) until firm on the outside and slice it thinly (see my tutorial here).
2. Japanese Short-Grain Rice
When you make Japanese donburi or rice bowl dish, I recommend using Japanese short-grain rice. The steamed rice stick to each other and not in loose form, so you can pick up small chunks of steamed rice, thin-sliced pork, and garnish all in chopsticks.
Substitute: Korean brands of short-grain rice is similar to Japanese short-grain rice. If you plan to make more Japanese dishes, I highly recommend getting short-grain rice. Here’s more about Japanese short-grain rice.
3. Simple “Tare” Sauce
To make the delicious sauce, you would need just three simple ingredients: sugar, soy sauce, and sake. I really like how simple it is. Instead of mixing all the ingredients, we actually make the caramel sauce first, then add soy sauce and sake. When the sugar turns darker in color and tastes nuttier with a slightly bitter note, it adds another layer of complexity to the sauce.
I use regular drinking sake in all my recipes. This Sho Chiku Bai is for drinking, just a bit less expensive than what we would normally choose for drinking. For this big bottle, it only costs us $10 or so at an Asian grocery store or Japanese supermarket. Substitute: You can use Chinese rice wine or dry sherry if you can’t find sake. There are other brands that I mentioned in my Sake Pantry Page.
3 Tips for Making Butadon
1. Make several slits for the meat.
Make several slits on the connective tissue between the meat and fat. The reason why you do this is that red meat and fat have different elasticity, and when they are cooked they will shrink and expand at different rates. This will allow the meat to stay nice and flat and prevent it from curling up.
2. Make caramel for the sauce
Read the tips on how to make caramel below and in the recipe. Read the instructions first, as you need to pay full attention to the process once you start.
3. Thicken the sauce (optional).
If you like your sauce to be thicker, you can coat your pork slices with potato starch or flour (all-purpose flour would do) before pan-frying. Pan-fry the same way, following my recipe. This extra coating will thicken the sauce as you pour into the pan. Lower the heat and quickly coat the meat with the sauce.
Tips for Making Caramel
1. Use a heavy bottom pot.
The heavy bottom pot helps cook the sugar evenly. Make sure the pot is big/tall since the caramel will bubble quite a bit once the boiling water is added. Non-stick or coated pans are not recommended because the sugar can pull the coating off the pan.
2. Add boiling water to stop caramelization.
To stop the caramel from cooking further, add boiling water. Why boiling water? As the boiling water temperature is close to the caramel, it splutters less. This should be done very carefully, as the liquid will hiss and sputter. This brings us to the next tip.
3. Protect your fingers from splatters.
While you’re making caramel sauce, you’re required to pour boiling water. It’s so important to protect your fingers and face from splatters. When you pour boiling water, protect your hand that you’re pouring water with a kitchen glove. Hold a lid with the other hand to minimize the splatter.
Itadakimasu!
Serve the Butadon with miso soup and small sides of vegetables that you can make in advance. Here are some of my recommendations.
Vegetable Miso Soup Kinpira Renkon Simmered Fried Tofu and Greens Spinach Ohitashi Broccoli Blanched with Sesame Oil
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here. Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
More Delicious Rice Bowl Recipes You’ll Love:
Soboro Don (Ground Chicken Bowl) Vegan Poke Bowl Yoshinoya Beef Bowl (Gyudon) Oyakodon (Chicken and Egg Bowl)
