Ever since I fell in love with pressure-cooking foods using my Instant Pot, I’ve been trying to convert some of my favorite stovetop recipes to pressure cooker recipes. Today I’m sharing a classic Japanese home cook dish, Pressure Cooker Nikujaga (圧力鍋で作る肉じゃが).
What is Nikujaga?
Nikujaga, or Meat and Potato Stew (I’m not fond of the translation much), is one of the classic Japanese “mother’s recipes”. I have a regular non-pressure cooker Nikujaga recipe here. Do you have dishes like that in your cuisine? We call this type of dish “ofukuro no aji (おふくろの味)”. It means the flavors/tastes that you are used to and feel nostalgic about, after eating mother’s cooking for years. Nikujaga is a staple dish to many Japanese. My dad likes potato dishes, so my mom made Korokke and Nikujaga often in her meal rotation when we were growing up. Nikujaga for me is definitely true comfort food.
Simple 4 Ingredients
Niku (肉, にく) in Japanese means meat. Jaga is a shortened word from Jagaimo (ジャガイモ), which means potatoes in Japanese. So Nikujaga always includes meat and potatoes. Usually, potatoes and thinly sliced beef or pork are simmered in dashi-based soup, seasoned with the standard Japanese condiments – soy sauce, sake, mirin (and sometimes sugar). Besides meat and potatoes, there are onions and carrots. These four ingredients are almost always in any variety of Nikujaga. To add some color to this mostly-brown-dish, one type of green vegetable is tossed in at the end, typically green beans or snow peas. Some recipes include shirataki noodles, but they are optional.
Cooking Tips
I want to share some helpful tips that you can consider implementing when you make this recipe.
Sauté for more flavors – Sautéing foods first just like you would usually cook on the stovetop adds extra taste. So spend several minutes to brown the meat and vegetables, before adding other liquids and cooking under pressure. Cut ingredients into different sizes – Cut the meat into smaller chunks, but luckily many Japanese recipes require thinly sliced meat so you don’t have to worry. If you are cooking a bigger cut of meat, then cut the vegetables slightly bigger than you would usually cut for conventional cooking. That way, the required time to cook each ingredient will be similar. Different ingredients require their own cooking time for the ideal texture and flavor in a pressure cooker. Ideally, for pressure cooking, you want to add and cook ingredients at different time intervals. This is especially true when mixing different types of foods (meat, potatoes, vegetables, etc.). You should start with ingredients that take a long time to cook, such as meat. Since I don’t want to open the pressure cooker halfway through to add the vegetables, I cut my vegetables slightly bigger so they don’t get mushy.
Why I Love Cooking Nikujaga in the Pressure Cooker?
My family and I love Nikujaga. I enjoy the smell of cooking while it’s on the stove. However, I got busier with my work (blogging) and kids’ after-school activities, and I couldn’t find the time to cook Nikujaga anymore. We all missed eating our favorite Nikujaga. Thanks to the Instant Pot, Nikujaga started to appear on our dinner table once again. Although I would rather stay around in the kitchen watching my Nikujaga being cooked, the best part about Instant Pot is that I can actually leave the house while food is being pressure-cooked. I am not worried about the house being on fire or not having dinner when we go home. P.S. Just so you know, my Instant Pot recipes are not sponsored by the company. Although they did send me this Instant Pot to try, I’m sharing my recipes because I am very passionate about this cool gadget that could help you make fantastic meals on weeknights. To quickly explain, this Instant Pot is a 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Cooker. It can be a rice maker/porridge maker, steamer, sauté/browning, yogurt maker, and warmer, but I mostly use the pressure cooker and occasionally slow cooker function.
Try Our Popular Instant Pot Recipes
Pressure Cooker Curry Pressure Cooker Short Ribs
Check out more Instant Pot recipes on Just One Cookbook! 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.
