Easy Japanese Ginger Pork Shogayaki recipe

Dinner in less than 10 minutes
Stop for a minute. The alternative is faster, cheaper and so much tastier. Try cooking this super quick Japanese Ginger Pork Shogayaki (Buta no Shogayaki) dish. It takes just 3 minutes to cook, taste delicious and only uses the most simple ingredients that most people will have in their store cupboard. You just need some ginger, soy sauce, mirin and sake if you have some. The accompaniments are rice and thinly sliced cabbage, eaten raw to balance out the richness of the meat and to cleanse the palate. If you are following a low carb diet, you can substitute rice for cauliflower rice, quinoa or millet.
This Japanese ginger pork dish is really common and popular in Japanese Izakaya restaurants where they serve unpretentious, everyday food. They normally serve it as part of a set meal, teishoku, served with a side of pickles and a bowl of soup.
It’s basically thinly sliced pieces of pork, marinaded in the ginger/soy/mirin sauce and quickly pan-fried. The sauce is sweet and savoury with a bit of comforting heat from the ginger. This same marinade recipe can be used with any other meats like chicken or beef too.
For a quick and tasty mid-week meal, try cooking this super quick Japanese Ginger Pork Shogayaki recipe. Using a simple marinade made with soy and ginger, tender slices of pork loin medallions are turned into something super delicious in minutes.
It takes just 3 minutes to cook, tastes delicious and only uses the simple ingredients that most people will have in their store cupboard. You just need some ginger and soy sauce. If you have Mirin and Sake, then these can also be used, but they aren’t a necessity.
To accompany the meal, I’d recommend serving the dish with rice and thinly sliced cabbage, eaten raw to cleanse the palate
This Japanese ginger pork dish is really common and popular in Japanese Izakaya restaurants where they serve unpretentious, everyday food. They normally serve it as part of a set meal, Teishoku, served with a side of pickles and a bowl of soup.
It’s basically thinly sliced pieces of pork, marinated in the ginger/soy sauce and quickly pan-fried. The sauce is sweet and savoury with a bit of comforting heat from the ginger.
Where the genius of this ginger pork dish comes in is that it uses low-fat pork loin medallions, sliced very thinly to enable it to cook quickly. Pork loin and fillet medallions are good sources of protein and are usually sold with most of the fat trimmed off. If you buy good free-range pork (or even better some rare breeds like Gloucester Old Spot or Tamworth), the taste of the meat is exceptional.
If you cut the pork into bite size pieces, it’s a quick one pan meal – I am all for minimal washing up. Note, if you use pork loin, you don’t need to marinade it for very long or the meat gets too tender.
If you use another cut like the pork shoulder, the meat can take longer to marinate. The meat in the marinade sauce will keep for about a week in the fridge. This will make it easier if you are prepping your meals for the week ahead.
When cooking pork, many Asian recipes like to use ginger. If you don’t have any fresh ginger to hand, you can use the lazy ginger that comes in tubes or the frozen grated ginger that you can buy from some supermarkets. Some friends I know will grate a lot of ginger in one go and freeze it in ice cube trays, ready to use.
A recipe tip, you can cook this with pork fillet medallions or pork loin steaks with the fat removed, which are both easily available in any supermarket. These are quite tender and low fat cuts of pork. If you can buy a whole loin from your butchers, you can freeze it slightly to make it easier to slice thinly.
If like me, you bought a pack of pork medallions from the supermarket, you can tenderise the meat with a rolling pin or a saucepan. This will make the pork pieces much thinner and faster to cook.
Another tip, keep a pack of these pork loins in the freezer handy. Pork is so versatile and can be cooked in many different ways. It is so easy to whip up a quick stir fry with pork strips. I also like to cook pork fried rice using pork loin medallions, or mix the meat with curry paste to make a pork red curry. Pork loin medallions can also be mixed with any vegetables you have to make a stir-fry.
Japanese Ginger Pork Shogayaki

Ingredients
- 300 g thinly sliced pork loin or pork medallions
- Sea salt
- Ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil or vegetable cooking oil
- 1 spring onion finely sliced (optional for garnish)
- 1 White cabbage finely sliced
- Steamed rice
Marinade
- 1 tbsp grated ginger or equivalent
- 1/2 small onion grated
- 2 cloves of garlic grated
- 2 tbsp quality light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 2 tbsp sake
- 1 tsp sugar
Instructions
- Prepare the pork. If you bought a whole loin, freeze it for a short while to make it easier to slice very thinly. If you are using pork medallions, put each slice between two pieces of cling film and bash lightly and evenly with a bottle or rolling pin. You want to make each slice as thin as possible. about 2-3mm.
- Prepare the marinade by grating the ginger, garlic and onion into a bowl. Add the soy sauce, mirin and sake. If you can't find sake, you can omit this. Grate ginger
- 3. Marinade the pork in this mixture for a few minutes. If you are using pork shoulder or something with a bit more fat, you can marinade for much longer, up to a week in the fridge.
- Meanwhile, cook some rice.
- Remove the tough stem of the cabbage, roll into a cigar shape and slice thinly. Set aside.
- Heat a pan to medium heat and add a bit of oil.
- Place pieces of the pork around the pan in one layer, don't overlap.
- Cook each side for about 1 minute and then turn. The time varies with the thickness of your meat.
- After you have turned the second side, add any remaining marinade liquid to the pan and allow to simmer. Don't leave it for too long or the pork will be over cooked and tough.
- After another minute on the second side, remove from heat and arrange on a plate which has been garnished with the sliced cabbage. Pour over remaining sauce or serve it on the side.
- Serve immediately with some steamed rice. Japanese Ginger Pork shogayaki with shredded cabbage adn rice
Here are some other pork recipes you can try:
Aubergine with Minced Pork stir fry
Really Crispy Five Spice Chinese Roast Pork
Heston’s Slow Cooked Pulled Pork
For more easy pork recipes, visit Love Pork.
If you would like to learn more quick Chinese or Asian pork recipes, let me know in the comments below.
This recipe was done in collaboration with Love Pork as part of their #discovertheuntasted campaign