Since we started our website and YouTube channel back in 2012, these have been the 10 most popular Japanese recipes on Japanese Cooking 101. To celebrate our 10th anniversary, all 10 recipe videos were recreated in 2022 with a few new tips and variations.
Mitarashi Dango
Mitarashi Dango (みたらし団子) is one of many very traditional Japanese Mochi sweets. Small round Mochi balls are skewered on bamboo sticks and covered with a gooey sweet and salty brown sauce. Mitarashi Dango is a great snack and quite satisfying without being overly sweet. You may want to try it one afternoon with hot green tea.
Get the Recipe: Mitarashi Dango
Chicken Udon
Chicken Udon (鶏うどん) is Udon noodles and chicken thigh pieces cooked in hot soup. It is an easy and light meal, but satisfying enough to stand alone. Chicken Udon is a good food to eat at anytime, but this hot noodle soup is especially delicious in cold seasons.
Get the Recipe: Chicken Udon Noodle Soup
Zaru Soba
Zaru Soba (ざるそば) is cold buckwheat noodles with dipping sauce. It is a cool noodle dish often served in summer in Japan. Zaru means a colander or a strainer in Japanese, and cold Soba noodles are usually served on a slotted bamboo mat that lets water drip through. Zaru Soba is a great dish to beat brutal summer heat and humidity in Japan.
Get the Recipe: Zaru Soba
Karaage
Karaage (唐揚げ) is Japanese-style fried chicken (two words: kara age). It is a great appetizer to go with drinks, a kid (and adult) friendly dinner entree, and also a perfect item for a Bento lunch box. Japanese Karaage is usually seasoned with garlic and ginger along with soy sauce, coated lightly with flour, and deep fried. Because it’s fried in oil, Karaage may not be the healthiest Japanese food, but it’s certainly a very popular dish in Japan.
Get the Recipe: Karaage
Tonkatsu
Tonkatsu (トンカツ) is one of the most beloved “western style” Japanese food in Japan. It is a pork chop breaded with flour, egg, and Panko (bread crumbs), then deep fried. It’s not the healthiest Japanese food, but it is rather a comfort food which everybody can’t get enough of.
Get the Recipe: Tonkatsu (deep fried pork)
Ramen
Ramen (ラーメン) is Chinese-style noodles served in strongly seasoned hot soup with various toppings. Ramen has been a very popular dish in Japan for many years. Now the world is catching up with us. Ramen shops are absolutely everywhere, inside and outside Japan. And people just love it.
Get the Recipe: Ramen
Miso Soup
Miso Soup (味噌汁) is, as many of you may already know, a soup flavored with Miso Paste and usually includes Tofu and vegetables. It is a very essential dish of Japanese cuisine, and comes with any traditional Japanese meal. Many of you might have had Miso Soup once before even if you didn’t order it at a Japanese restaurant, just because it came with your Chicken Teriyaki.
Get the Recipe: Miso Soup
Sponge Cake
Japanese sponge cake (スポンジケーキ) is a very light and fluffy yellow-white cake that is a base component for a lot of Japanese Western-style sweets. Although we have our own traditional Japanese desserts like Mochi rice cake and Anko sweet red beans, Western-style cakes and other treats are tremendously popular in Japan. Once you master Japanese sponge cake, you will be able to make various Western-style Japanese sweets.
Get the Recipe: Sponge Cake
Japanese Curry
Curry and Rice (カレーライス) is Japanese-style thick curry sauce with chunky meat and vegetables over Steamed Rice. It is one of the most eaten dishes in Japan today whether at curry restaurants or at home. Curry and Rice is not traditional Japanese food at all, but it is an essential food in modern Japanese cuisine.
Get the Recipe: Japanese Curry and Rice
Sweet Mochi
Mochi (餅) is Japanese sticky rice cake used both in savory and sweet dishes. Mochi is usually made from “sweet rice” (also called Mochi rice and it’s not actually sweet by itself) cooked and pounded until it becomes a paste that is very sticky and smooth, then formed into cakes or blocks. It is often eaten in New Year’s Ozoni soup or baked with soy sauce. Mochi made from cooked sweet rice doesn’t stay fresh and soft too long, and usually needs to be grilled or reheated to be eaten later. Sweet Mochi, however, uses Mochiko (sweet rice flour) and a lot of sugar, and it stays soft for an extended period of time at room temperature because of the large amount of sugar. It is elastic and malleable, and it can be shaped the way you want for various desserts. You may even see it at frozen yogurt shops in the US as a topping, which is actually Gyuhi (求肥) cut into mall bite size pieces.
Get the Recipe: Sweet Mochi
