Hamburger Steak Recipe

Japanese Hamburger Steak, called  hamburg, is not exactly Japanese food, but like Tonkatsu, it is very popular home cooking.   It is more western style food and loved especially by children (and any meat lovers).

I’ve been eating Japanese Hamburger Steak as long as I remember..over 40 years ( it can not be that long!  I’m only 25..), so it is around for a long time.  It must be a dish inspired by American or European ground meat dish, however, Japanese Hamburger Steak is not exactly American hamburger which is between buns.  The texture is more like meatloaf in the US.   In ground meat (typically half pork and half beef) you mix in Panko bread crumbs and eggs, so it is light and soft enough to eat with chopsticks.

Not only it is home cooking dish, but you can find it at a lot of restaurants such as family restaurants (famiresu) in Japan.  They even have Hamburger Steak specialty restaurants there!

This recipe is the very typical  hamburger that everyone thinks of, beef and pork with ketchup sauce.  But you can make it from any combination or by itself  of beef, pork, chicken, turkey or tofu.  Its sauce can be different, too.  I like a steak with Japanese sauce, grated daikon raddish, soy sauce and vinegar.  That can be in another video in some other time.

This hamburger patties freeze well, so make the whole recipe and save some for another tasty dinner.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Hamburger Steak

Pan-fried ground meat steak with savory sauce

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time25 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: beef, ground meat

Servings: 8 steaks

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Ingredients

• 3/4 cup Panko bread crumb
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 medium onion chopped fine
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pepper
• 1 tsp worcester sauce
• 1-2 tsp oil
• —Sauce—
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup worcester sauce
• 1-2 Tbsp sake or wine

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

• Put Panko in a large bowl, add milk and stir.
• Add meat, onion, egg, salt, pepper and worcester sauce to the Panko mixture. Mix with your hands very well.
• Divide the meat into 8 pieces and roll into oval balls. Push down to flat steaks and make an indentation in the middle. (if you would like to freeze some, wrap each steaks with plastic.)
• Heat oil in a frying pan at medium temperature, place the patties in the hot oil, and fry for 4-5 minutes on one side. Flip over and fry for 3-4 minutes covered until cooked through.
• Meanwhile mix ketchup and worcester sauce in a bowl.
• Uncover the pan, add sake, then ketchup sauce, and cook for 30 seconds.

Video