Tender diced beef steak cooked in garlic infused oil and topped with grated daikon and ponzu soy sauce. This Garlic Saikoro Steak is the sort of dish that restaurants charge a small fortune for. Now with this recipe, making a fabulous steak dinner at home is much easier than you think!
Saikoro Steak (サイコロステーキ) is a popular izakaya (Japanese tapas style) dish. The cubes of tenderloin are quickly pan fried on high heat until medium rare, then seasoned with a refreshing citrus soy sauce called Ponzu sauce, and finally served with grated daikon.
What does “saikoro” mean? It actually means “dice”. The steak pieces are sliced into cube shapes like dice.
Watch How to Make Saikoro Steak
When you wish for a steak dinner, make this Garlic Saikoro Steak. Tender diced beef steak cooked in garlic infused oil and topped with grated daikon and ponzu soy sauce.
The inspiration for this Saikoro Steak recipe came from one of our favorite Japanese restaurants in San Mateo, CA – Ginji. Since they recently stopped serving the dish, I thought it would be fun to post a recipe here. This is an extremely easy Japanese steak recipe to make and perfect for a busy weeknight meal.
Before you leave for work in the morning, simply set a timer on your rice cooker to cook the rice before you get home. When do get home, straightaway make miso soup and your favorite salad. This steak doesn’t need to be marinated, so all you need to do is to cook it right before you eat.
But is this Saikoro Steak flavorful enough? Of course! The combination of ponzu, grated daikon, and fried golden garlic chips is simply mind blowing. Slightly bitter daikon and citrusy ponzu sauce awaken the palate while the savory fried garlic chips and tender meat satisfy to the last bite.
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Garlic Saikoro Steak
Video
Ingredients
- 2 inches daikon radish
- 2 cloves garlic
- ¾ lb tenderloin steak (at room temperature)
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1½ Tbsp neutral oil
- 2 Tbsp sake (can substitute with dry sherry or Chinese rice wine)
For Garnish
- 1 green onion/scallion
- Korean chili thread (optional; I used mild chili threads)
- 3 Tbsp ponzu (you can make my Homemade Ponzu recipe)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. I recommend a stainless steel pan or cast iron pan for this recipe as steaks required high heat to cook. Most nonstick pans are not designed for use at high heat.
- Cut the top 2 inches daikon radish to use in this recipe (the top green part is sweeter than the white part, which gets bitter toward the bottom) and peel the skin.
- Grate the daikon. Drain the liquid from the grated daikon and set aside.
- Slice 2 cloves garlic. Thinly slice 1 green onion/scallion and set aside for garnish.
- Trim off the fat and tendon from ¾ lb tenderloin steak and cut into cubes 1–1½ inches (2.5–3.5 cm) wide.
- Season the steak with Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Heat 1½ Tbsp neutral oil in a large stainless steel frying pan or cast iron pan over medium heat. Fry the garlic slices until they are golden brown. Reduce the heat if necessary so the garlic slices do not burn. Transfer them to a paper towel to drain the excess oil. Keep the garlic-infused oil in the pan.
- Heat that same oil over high heat until it begins to smoke. Pat dry the steak with a paper towel and place it in the pan in a single layer. Cook the steak until browned, about 1 minute. Don‘t move the steak until the bottom browns and releases on its own. Flip the steak over to continue cooking the other side until nicely browned. To prevent oil splatter, you can use an oil splatter guard.
- Pour 2 Tbsp sake and shake the pan to evenly distribute it in the pan. Then, transfer the steak to a plate if you like it medium rare. For a medium steak, continue cooking for 1 more minute.
- To serve, place the garlic slices, grated daikon, and chopped green onion on top of the steak. Garnish with Korean chili thread. Pour 3 Tbsp ponzu over the grated daikon before serving.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 2 days and in the freezer for a month.
[…] Saikoro Steak […]
We made this last night. It was amazing. We splurged and made this with filet mignon and we have no regrets. We used Kikkomon Ponzu sauce but next time we’re making the Ponzu from scratch. I splurged a few weeks ago and purchased some good mirin (I will never go back to the cheap stuff). Do you have suggestions for soy sauce? As far as Japanese soy sauce goes, all I have is low-sodium Kikkoman. I remember one of your previous blog posts and I’ve done some research on my own… we can do better. I know once I have had “good” soy sauce, I will be ruined for life and can never go back.
Hi Nick! Wow! Filet mignon!🤩
Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your cooking experience with us!
We agree that good quality ingredients and condiments make a huge difference!!
As for soy sauce, Nami loves/recommends the organic soy sauce in this post: https://www.justonecookbook.com/soy-sauce/.
Her favorite one is the first photo by Kikkoman. We hope this helps!
Made this for my Japanese wife tonight. She had never had saikoro steak. Very good recipe. Simple and delicious. The ponzu sauce and green onions go very well with the steak. I added some wasabi to sour cream for another sauce and it also goes well with this steak.
I am guessing that one could swap the beef for chicken and it would be equally delicious. For those into Asian fusion, cut the meat into smaller pieces and this would go well inside a soft tortilla shell with some avocado, onions, tomatoes, lettuce and a splash of lime.
Hi Jim! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! Yuka-san is so lucky you’re cooking for her! 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback and for sharing your tip with us!
Hello Nami,
First I want to say thank you for such delicious dishes. You always make the process so easy to understand and follow. All your recipes that I have tried have always been so wonderful. Unfortunately, it always get eaten before I remember to take a picture to show you haha! My question: For this recipe, I do not have dry sherry. What can I use instead? What is a good substitute in general? Thank you again. Stay healthy! Oh I love all your posts also on Instagram :).
Hi Dinah! Haha, please don’t worry! That’s the best compliment I can ask for! Thank you for your kind feedback. Do you have sake or maybe a splash of white/red wine? That works too (I should mention that in the recipe. Thanks for bringing this to my attention). 🙂
I just purchased your ebook. Now how do I get it?
Hi Leona! Thank you for purchasing my eBook. I see the record, and the ebook download link has already been sent to your Paypal address. Please check your spam folder just in case. By the way, your paypal address is different from this address you used for commenting. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at hello @ justonecookbook.com. 🙂
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The narrative twice mentions “,,,garlic infused OLIVE oil …”, but the Ingredients list calls for a “neutral flavor oil” and does NOT mention ‘olive oil’ as an option.
Which is your intention?
I hope that I have not bothered you with this same question previously.
Hi JazzBruce! Thanks for catching the mistake. The recipe is correct. We’ve been updating/adding the excerpts for the beginning of each blog post, and below the video, and I think it’s mistaken as olive oil.
You can use either olive oil or vegetable/canola oil for this recipe. 🙂