Pressure Cooker Nikujaga (Video) 肉じゃが (圧力鍋) (2024)

Looking for a well-balanced pressure cooker recipe? Try Nikujaga, a comforting Japanese home cooked dish, featuring sliced meat, vegetables & potatoes simmered in dashi broth.

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 “of*ckuro no aji (おふくろの味)”. Itmeans the flavors/tastes that you are used to and feel nostalgic about, aftereatingmother’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 4Ingredients

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 porkaresimmeredin 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 thismostly-brown-dish, one type of green vegetable is tossed inat the end, typically green beans orsnowpeas. Some recipes include shirataki noodles, but they are optional.

Cooking Tips

I want to sharesome 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 stovetopadds 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 ingredientwill 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’son the stove. However, I got busier withmy work (blogging) and kids’ after-school activities, and I couldn’tfind the time to cook Nikujaga anymore. We all missed eating our favorite Nikujaga.

Thanks to theInstant 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 housewhile food is being pressure-cooked. I am not worried about the house being on fireornot having dinner when we go home.

P.S. Just so you know, myInstant Potrecipes are not sponsored by the company. Although they did send me this Instant Potto try, I’m sharing my recipes because I am very passionate about this cool gadget that could help you makefantasticmeals on weeknights.

To quickly explain, this Instant Pot is a7-in-1 Multi-Functional Cooker. It can be a rice maker/porridge maker, steamer, sauté/browning, yogurt maker, and warmer, but I mostly use thepressure 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!

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