Pork shogayaki (豚の生姜焼き) — ginger pork — is one of the true staples of the Japanese home dinner table. Thin slices of pork are pan-fried with onion and coated in a glossy sauce of soy sauce, sake, sugar, and plenty of grated ginger. It’s savory, a little sweet, warming from the ginger, and it makes you want to eat a big bowl of rice. Along with karaage and hamburg steak, it’s one of the dishes that shows up again and again in Japanese households, and it’s a regular in our weeknight rotation.

Most versions use pre-sliced pork, but this time I bought thick-cut pork loin steaks and butterflied them open myself so they were nice and thin — it’s a little more work but the pieces are big and satisfying. I served it the classic way: a mound of finely shredded cabbage, a blob of mayo, a few cherry tomatoes, and a bowl of rice and miso soup. This is exactly how we eat it at home, right down to the Kyushu sweet soy sauce.

Japanese pork shogayaki with onion in ginger sauce, served with shredded cabbage, mayonnaise, and cherry tomatoes

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

A rice-devouring classic. That sweet-savory ginger sauce is made for eating with a big bowl of white rice.
Fast and weeknight-friendly. From pan to plate in about 15 minutes.
Just a few pantry staples. Soy sauce, sake, sugar, and fresh ginger — that’s the whole sauce.
A genuine Japanese home meal. Serve it with shredded cabbage and rice for a proper teishoku set.

What is Shogayaki?

Shogayaki (生姜焼き) literally means “ginger grill/fry,” and buta no shogayaki is the pork version — by far the most common. It’s a cornerstone of teishoku (set-meal) culture: walk into any Japanese diner or lunch spot and pork shogayaki will be on the menu, served with rice, miso soup, and a pile of shredded cabbage. The defining flavor is fresh ginger, which cuts the richness of the pork and gives the dish its signature warmth.

It’s in the same family of easy, sauce-glazed Japanese mains as my teriyaki chicken and hamburg steak — the kind of homey dishes that make a whole meal when you add rice and a couple of sides.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

Ingredient	Amount	Notes
Pork loin	2 thick steaks (or 250 g sliced)	Butterflied thin, or use pre-sliced pork
Onion	1/2	Sliced
Plain flour	1 tbsp	For dusting the pork
Sesame oil	1 tbsp	For frying
Ginger sauce
Grated ginger	2 tbsp	Fresh — this dish is all about ginger
Soy sauce	2 tbsp	Kyushu sweet soy sauce here
Sugar	1 tbsp
Cooking sake	1 tbsp

The heart of this dish is plenty of fresh ginger and a good Japanese soy sauce — a sweeter Kyushu-style one is lovely here, but any will do. I fry the pork in toasted sesame oil, which gives the whole dish a wonderful aroma. A light dusting of plain flour helps the sauce cling to the pork and keeps it tender. If you’re buying thick-cut loin like I did, just butterfly and lightly pound it; pre-sliced pork skips that step entirely.

How to Make Pork Shogayaki

Step 1: Prep the Pork and Onion

Slice the onion. If you’re using thick-cut pork loin, this is the moment to butterfly it — but if you have pre-sliced pork, you can skip ahead. Score the edges of the pork in a couple of places to stop it curling up as it cooks.

Thick-cut pork loin steaks in a metal tray next to sliced onion on a cutting board

Step 2: Butterfly the Pork (Optional)

Since I used thick loin steaks, I sliced each one open like a book and pressed it out flat so it was thin and wide. Thinner pork cooks fast and soaks up more of the sauce. Skip this if your pork is already sliced.

A thick pork loin steak butterflied open into a thin, wide piece on a cutting board

Step 3: Dust with Flour

Lightly dust both sides of the pork with a thin coat of plain flour. This little step helps the ginger sauce cling to the meat and gives it a nicer texture — don’t skip it.

A thin pork loin steak dusted with a light coating of flour

Step 4: Mix the Ginger Sauce

In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, cooking sake, sugar, and grated ginger. Mix until the sugar dissolves. Having the sauce ready to go means you can pour it in quickly once the pork is cooked.

Ginger sauce mixed in a bowl with soy sauce, cooking sake, and sugar in the background

Step 5: Fry the Pork

Heat the sesame oil in a pan over medium heat and lay in the pork. Cook until the underside is lightly browned, then flip. You want a little color for flavor.

Two thin pork loin steaks frying in a pan

Step 6: Add the Onion

Add the sliced onion to the pan and cook until it softens and turns translucent. The onion soaks up the pork juices and, later, the sauce — it’s just as good as the meat.

Sliced onion added to the pan alongside the frying pork

Step 7: Add the Sauce

Once the pork is cooked through and the onion is soft, give the sauce a quick stir and pour it in. Let it bubble and reduce, spooning it over the pork so everything gets glossy and well coated.

Ginger sauce being poured over the pork and onion in the pan

Keep turning the pork in the sauce until it thickens slightly and coats everything in a shiny glaze. It only takes a minute or two — you don’t want to boil it away completely.

Pork and onion simmering in the glossy ginger sauce in the pan

Step 8: Plate and Serve

Pile the pork and onion onto a plate and spoon over any sauce left in the pan. Serve with a big mound of finely shredded raw cabbage, a dab of mayonnaise, and a few cherry tomatoes — the cabbage is traditional and cuts the richness perfectly.

Plated pork shogayaki with ginger-glazed onion, shredded cabbage, mayonnaise, and cherry tomatoes

Set it on a tray with rice, miso soup, and a small side or two and you’ve got a proper Japanese teishoku. Here it is with the green pepper and chikuwa namul I made the same night.

A full Japanese teishoku set — pork shogayaki, rice, miso soup, green pepper namul, and tofu on a wooden tray

Tips and Variations

Use pre-sliced pork for speed. Thin pork loin or belly slices skip the butterflying step and cook in minutes.
Don’t skip the flour dusting. It’s the trick that makes the sauce cling and keeps the pork juicy.
Use fresh ginger. Grated fresh ginger gives the brightest flavor; tube ginger works in a pinch.
Add grated onion to the sauce. For an extra-tender, restaurant-style version, mix a little grated onion into the sauce as a marinade.
Don’t over-reduce. Pull it off the heat while the sauce is still glossy, not dried out.

What to Serve It With

Shogayaki is built for a teishoku-style spread:

A big bowl of white rice — non-negotiable — and a bowl of miso soup.
Finely shredded raw cabbage on the plate, with mayo or a drizzle of dressing.
A quick vegetable side like green pepper namul or kinpira gobo.

Storing and Reheating

Leftover shogayaki keeps in a sealed container in the fridge for 2–3 days, and it’s excellent in a bento the next day — the flavor deepens as it sits. Reheat gently in the microwave or a pan. It also makes a great shogayaki-don: just pile the leftovers over a bowl of hot rice. The cooked pork freezes reasonably well for up to a month.