Meat Jun Recipe:

Meat Jun Recipe:

My all-time favorite plate lunch entree is meat jun, a Korean fusion steak cuisine from Hawaii. Steak is marinated for the entire night in a mixture of sweet and soy sauce, then battered and pan-fried. It’s excellent and really simple.

Every week while I was a high school student in southern California, my friends and I would go out to $10 AYCE Korean BBQ. Yes, it is correct. Each and every week. We would overindulge in cheap slices of meat and then meet up in the school bathroom the next day to deal with the fallout. You understand what I mean.

I’m trying to eat a lot less meat these days, but I do occasionally indulge in meat jun. This beef is AMAZING. Continue reading if you’re unfamiliar with meat jun; it’s definitely worth learning about!

Meat Jun: What is it?

Meat Jun Recipe:

Hawaii’s meat jun is a dish with Korean influences. It is made out of a very thin steak that is battered and fried after being marinated in a sweet soy sauce mixture. You should start drooling at the mere description. It’s not deep-fried; although, if you’re very ambitious, you could fry it that way. Additionally, there’s only an egg batter—no breading. The outcome is a thin steak with a crust like to tempura that is sweet and salty. Usually, you would serve it with rice after slicing it into strips like a katsu.

Meat Jun’s Favorite Cut of Meat:

Meat Jun Recipe:

In Hawaii, beef jun is quite thin when purchased. Ideally, you would purchase presliced beef that is cut into these sizable yet delicate pieces. I’ve heard that beef that has been thinly sliced and is ideal for meat jun may be found in Asian markets in Hawaii. But in my seriously decades-long search through mainland grocery stores in Washington and California, I have seldom ever seen meat that cuts nicely.

Everyone I know uses flank steak instead. Even so, my local market doesn’t always carry flank steak.
Instead of using finely sliced steak, flank steak is used to make this meat jun.

Now, my mom told me that you had to ask the butcher at your grocery shop to run the flank steak through their meat tenderizer machine twice if you still want the meat to be really thin. Sadly, flank steak isn’t always available at the butcher and supermarket stores in my area. Though they don’t have a butcher, I was able to tenderize the flank steak featured in this blog post by hand. Trader Joe’s is where I normally find flank steak.

Suddenly, I was in a Safeway and saw that they were selling eye of cow round in really thin slices. Naturally, I leaped at the chance to get some meat quickly. But really, I’ve searched the Safeways around my house for this cut, and I can’t find it! So I guess you just have to be really lucky with your grocery stores if you’re from the mainland like me.

Remarks regarding the Marinade:

Meat Jun Recipe:

In relation to the marinade, sake can be used in place of mirin if you don’t have any. If you don’t have either, you should just dedicate room in your kitchen cabinets to one or the other. My yakitori, sukiyaki, and teriyaki recipes all call for mirin and sake. Mirin and sake are staples if you enjoy cooking Japanese and Hawaiian cuisine. In the Asian market, mirin and sake are located in the same aisle as soy sauce and other condiments. Amazon is also an option.

Finally, about the marinade, I’m frequently asked on social media if the sugar content can be lowered. You can, of course, reduce the sugar to your preferred level. Nonetheless, I believe that the harmony of savory and sweet flavors is a defining feature of Hawaiian (and Japanese) cuisine. Don’t skimp on the sugar if you want your cuisine to taste as good as it does in Hawaii.

Now, for the REAL final word on the marinade: marinating overnight is highly recommended! However, you can get by with at least thirty minutes if, like me, you forget the night before.

Advice on Baking Steak:

Meat Jun Recipe:

Meat jun does not have a panko breading, in contrast to other fried meats that are popular in Japan and Hawaii. Rather, the meat is dipped in flour, followed by an egg batter, and then quickly fried.

When my mother used to make this dish when I was a child, the fried batter would always fall off the meat. I discovered that the crust adheres much better to the steak when it is patted dry with a paper towel before being dredged in flour.

How to Present Meat in Jun:

Meat Jun Recipe:

A fantastic plate lunch option is meat jun. Cut it into katsu-style strips and serve it with a few side dishes and rice.