Beef negimaki is a classic Japanese dish that features thinly sliced beef rolled around scallions. The little roll ups are coated in a special sauce and grilled to perfection. This flavourful dish is not only delicious but also so easy and quick to make. It’s perfect for a sophisticated yet simple appetizer, main meal, or bento box addition!
Table of contents
What is Beef Negimaki?
Beef negimaki is a popular Japanese dish that consists of thinly sliced beef rolled around scallions and then grilled with a flavourful marinade. The marinade sauce has a savoury-sweet taste, similar to teriyaki sauce, which adds delicious umami flavors to the dish. The word “negimaki” translates to “scallion roll” in English. “Negi” means scallions and “maki” means roll. Altogether it literally translates to Beef Scallion Roll.
It’s a popular dish because it’s so simple but has a delicious flavour, nice presentation, and is convenient to eat since it’s all rolled up. It makes a fantastic weeknight dinner with a bowl of steamed white rice to soak up the tasty sauce. The leftovers can be used in bento boxes for lunch the next day.
Beef Negimaki Ingredients
This beef negimaki recipe requires the following ingredients:
Beef
You will need very thinly sliced cuts of beef for this dish. Thin cut meat is very typical in Japan and is especially good for this dish because it makes it easy to roll and cooks quicker. You can buy thinly sliced beef cuts from Japanese/Korean butchers or Japanese/Korean grocery stores if you have any in your area. Otherwise you can slice the meat yourself. Simply get flank steak and slice it as thin as you can, then use a meat tenderizer to make it thinner. A little trick I learnt is to half freeze the meat first, then with a very sharp knife, carefully slice the steak thinly about 5cm (2 inches) wide.
Vegetables to roll with the Beef
I used negi (scallions), carrot and green beans. Negi scallions (or green onions) provide a fresh and oniony flavor and the carrots add sweetness and crunch. Green beans bring a pop of color and texture to the dish. These veggies need to be Julienne cut. Slice them into thin strips using a sharp knife or mandoline.
Special Teriyaki sauce
Special Teriyaki sauce : teriyaki sauce is usually made from soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar. The sauce for this dish is a special teriyaki sauce because oyster sauce is used instead of mirin. Garlic cloves and sesame oil are also added to this marinade unlike in regular teriyaki sauce. Oyster sauce gives basic teriyaki sauce more depth of flavour and the garlic and sesame oil bring a delicious fragrance to it.
How to Make Beef Negimaki
- Prepare the rolled beef: Lay out the thin slices of beef flat on a clean work surface or a cutting board. Arrange your julienned vegetables along one edge. Roll up tightly and secure with toothpicks if you need to.
- Cook the Rolls : Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet/pan/grill over medium-high heat. Cover the roll ups with flour. Add the beef rolls, seam side down, and cook until browned on all sides (about 2-3 minutes per side).
- Make the Sauce : In a small bowl, combine all the sauce ingredients.
- Add the Sauce : Pour the sauce over the beef rolls and bring it to sizzle or until the sauce has thickened and the beef is cooked through.
- Serve : Remove the beef rolls from the skillet and transfer them to a plate. Drizzle any remaining sauce from the skillet over the rolls. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.
Tips to Make Beef Negimaki
- Choose the Right Beef: Make sure to use thinly sliced beef for easy rolling and quick cooking. Rib-eye or sirloin are excellent choices for their tenderness and flavor. As I said above, if you can not buy thinly sliced beef, get flank steak and let it half freeze then slice it as thinly as you can and use a meat tenderizer to make it even thinner.
- Seam Side Down: Always start cooking the rolls with the seam side down to help them hold their shape.
- Use Fresh Scallions: Fresh, crisp scallions will give the best texture and flavor to the beef negimaki.
Beef Negimaki Variations
- Different meat : thinly sliced pork belly is often used for making Negimaki in Japan. As long as the meat is thinly sliced and can be rolled, you can use any meat you like.
- Different vegetable fillings : the vegetables that are rolled up in the beef can be changed as well. You can try asparagus, capsicum/pepper, and anything else you’d like to try.
- Regular teriyaki sauce : if you also don’t have oyster sauce or sesame seed oil, you can just use basic teriyaki sauce too.
Serving Suggestions
Beef negimaki pairs wonderfully with steamed rice and a simple salad. You can also serve it with miso soup, pickled vegetables, or a side of edamame.
Negimaki is also perfect for bento boxes. These tasty beef roll ups tick many Bento box golden rules. They’re very appetising when they’re cut and look pretty in a bento box. Also because they’re well seasoned with the sauce, they are still delicious when cold in the bento box. The sauce is thick and coats well, so it won’t make other food in the lunch box soggy nor will liquid leak out of the bento box. You can cook the negimaki for dinner then put leftovers in the refrigerator to use the next day in bento boxes.
More Weekday Dinner Ideas
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Beef Negimaki 牛肉のネギ巻き
Ingredients
- 300 g Thinly sliced beef *1
- 8 Blanched scallions
- ¼ carrots Parboiled *2
- 8 green beans Parboiled
- 1 tbs plain flour or potato starch(Katakuriko)
Sauce
- 1 clove garlic mashed
- 1 tbs sesame oil
- 3 tbs Sake *3
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- 1 tbs oyster sause
- 1 tbs sugar
Instructions
- Cut the blanched scallions into 5cm (2 inch) wide strips. Cut carrots into sticks and cut green beans in half then parboil them and set aside.
- Lay the thinly slice beef on a chopping board and place prepared scallions and vegetables on the beef then tightly roll it up. The beef strip should be about 20cm (8 inch) long. If the meat is shorter than that, overwrap beef slices slightly to make it 20cm (8 inch) long.
- You can secure by using a toothpick to tie the end of the meat (optional)
- Repeat this same process until all the beef is used (I made about 8 negimaki out of 300 g beef)
- Cover the roll ups with flour.
- Heat a little sesame oil in a frying pan over medium heat and place the beef roll ups in the pan.
- Cook one side for about 2- 3 minutes or until browned with a lid on.
- Turn the beef roll ups over and cook the other side for a further 2-3 minutes.
- Combine all the sauce ingredients and pour over the beef roll ups in the frying pan to sizzle.
- Serve with green salad and rice.
Hi I’m Kate, currently living in Japan. I’m very interested to try cooking this, but I’m not quite sure what brand of soy sauce to use. I see a lot of soy sauce in the supermarket, but I can’t even read Kanji. I hope you can give me a suggestion?
Hi Kate, can you take photos of soy sauce shelf and send it to me either email in contact page or through Chopstick Chronicles facebook page, then I can help:D
My mom used to make these with carrots and green beans…because my sister and I wouldn’t eat scallions when we were kids. ๐
Hi Bianca, my mother used to make with asparagus or green beans and carrots too ๐
Thank you – I do not like scallions either.
This looks and sounds delicious! The best part is it’s so simple I think even I could make it!
Definitely Deborah ๐
Very scrumptious looking and quite simple.
Hi Emily Yes it is so simple and great for weekday dinner ๐
delicious all i have to say!
thank you! xD