One of my favorite things about traveling isn't bringing recipes home—it's bringing techniques and ideas home.

When we were filming in Kyoto, we had dinner at a modern izakaya called Wow Wow Tonight, ran by Yasu Hayashi (the same spot that inspired last week's dish, Mayo-Grilled Potato Hash). One of the dishes that immediately caught my attention wasn't especially elaborate. It was simply thinly sliced beef and tofu simmered together in a lightly sweetened dashi broth. It reminded me of the beef you'd find topping a bowl of udon, or the flavors of sukiyaki, but served as its own hearty little stew. It was comforting, deeply savory, and exactly the sort of thing I wanted to eat with a cold beer.

Back home, though, I found myself thinking less about recreating the dish than about how I could adapt it to a summer cookout.

What I Love About This Dish

This recipe takes one of the things I love most about charcoal grilling—that it creates distinct cooking zones—and uses them in a way I don't think enough people do. While you're grilling over direct heat, a second pot quietly simmers away on the cooler side of the grill, picking up gentle heat and a little bit of wood smoke the whole time.

The result is something that feels halfway between sukiyaki and beef udon, with the added complexity of lightly charred onions and beef that's kissed by charcoal before it ever enters the broth. It's hearty enough to serve as the main event over rice, but also makes a fantastic side dish at a barbecue where guests can simply help themselves throughout the evening.

It's also wonderfully forgiving. As long as the pot stays at a gentle simmer, you can let it bubble away while you cook everything else, adjusting the broth as it reduces until it tastes just right.

Zoning In

Most people think of a grill as a place where every ingredient has to spend its entire life directly over the fire. But one of the things I love about charcoal grills is that they're really outdoor stoves. Once you have your fire established, you have zones of different temperatures that you can use simultaneously. One side can be screaming hot for grilling while another quietly simmers a pot for hours. It's a setup that opens up all sorts of possibilities beyond burgers and steaks.

For this stew, I'll use both zones at the same time.

The onions go over the hot coals first until they pick up just enough char to add another layer of sweetness and complexity without becoming fully cooked. Then they get sliced and transferred to a secondary pot, where they begin simmering in dashi, soy sauce, mirin, sake, kombu, and a little sugar.

While that broth slowly develops, the grill is free again for the beef.

Beef It Up

Choosing the right cut matters here. You want something with enough marbling to stay juicy during a long simmer but not with so much connective tissue that it requires hours of braising. Thinly sliced chuck roll is one of my favorites because it has plenty of beefy flavor and just enough fat to enrich the broth as it cooks. Ribeye would work beautifully if you're feeling extravagant. Brisket, short rib, or other braising cuts sliced paper-thin also work surprisingly well because, although they're tough as steaks, slicing them across the grain and letting them gently simmer leaves them tender while contributing lots of flavor.

The grilling itself is intentionally brief. I'm not trying to cook the meat through. In fact, I don't even care if every slice browns evenly. The goal is simply to expose as much surface area as possible to the charcoal—to pick up little pockets of caramelization, a few charred edges, and, maybe most importantly, that unmistakable aroma that comes from beef fat dripping onto hot coals and billowing back up as smoke. All of those flavors end up in the finished stew.

After the beef goes into the pot, the rest of the cooking is almost entirely hands-off. Cover it, move it to the cooler side of the grill, and let time do the work. The onions soften until they nearly melt into the broth, the beef enriches the stock, and everything slowly comes together while you're free to grill vegetables, burgers, skewers, or whatever else is on the menu.

The tofu waits until the very end. Firm silken tofu is my favorite because it holds together while remaining delicate and custardy. It doesn't need much cooking, but giving it fifteen or twenty minutes in the broth lets it absorb those sweet, smoky, beefy flavors while firming up just enough to hold its shape.

For a backyard barbecue, this is exactly the kind of recipe I want: Something that asks for very little attention, makes clever use of the grill while it's already lit, feeds a crowd, and gives everyone an excuse to gather around the fire just a little bit longer.

Recipe: Grilled Beef and Tofu Stew

This recipe was inspired by a similar grilled beef and tofu stew I had at Wow Wow Tonight, an izakaya in Kyoto ran by Yasu Hayashi.

Every recipe I publish here is personally tested, tasted, and approved.

What I love about this recipe:

It turns your grill into an outdoor kitchen by simmering the stew while you grill everything else.

Charring the onions and beef first adds smoky depth to an otherwise simple broth.

It's a perfect cookout dish because it stays hot and gets better as it sits.

Thinly sliced beef becomes meltingly tender without hours of braising.

It works served over rice as a main course or in small bowls alongside grilled food.

Yield: 4–6 servingsActive Time: 30 minutesTotal Time: About 1 ½ hoursNotes: Thinly sliced chuck roll is my preferred cut here. It has plenty of marbling, excellent beef flavor, and becomes wonderfully tender after simmering. Thinly sliced ribeye, brisket, or boneless short rib will also work. Firm silken tofu has the best texture for this dish, remaining delicate while holding together during cooking. Regular firm tofu is a fine substitute.

Ingredients

For the broth:

2 cups (425ml) water

2 tablespoons instant dashi powder

One 4-inch (10cm) piece kombu

1/2 cup (120ml) mirin

1/2 cup (120ml) sake

1/2 cup (120ml) Japanese soy sauce

2 tablespoons (25g) sugar, plus more to taste

For the stew:

2 medium yellow onions, peeled and quartered through the root

1 1/2 pounds (680g) very thinly sliced chuck roll, ribeye, or other well-marbled beef

14 ounces (400g) firm silken tofu, cut or spooned into large pieces

Thinly sliced scallions, for serving

Steamed Japanese short-grain rice, for serving

Method

If using a charcoal grill: Light 3/4 chimney full of charcoal. When all the charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and arrange the coals on one side of the charcoal grate. Set cooking grate in place, cover grill and allow to preheat for 5 minutes.

If using a gas grill: Set half the burners to medium–high and the other half to low cover, and preheat for 10 minutes. Clean and oil the grilling grate.

Grill the onion halves over direct heat, turning occasionally, until lightly charred on the outside but still mostly raw in the center, about 8 minutes. Let cool slightly, then slice thinly.

Meanwhile, add the water, dashi powder, kombu, mirin, sake, soy sauce, and sugar to a disposable aluminum roasting placed over the cooler side of the grill. Stir to dissolve the dashi, then add the sliced onions. Bring to a simmer before moving the pot fully onto the cooler side of the grill.

Using tongs, spread one third of the sliced beef over the hotter side of the grill and cook without moving until until browned and lightly charred in spots. Don't worry about cooking it through—the goal is simply to develop grilled flavor. Transfer Transfer to the aluminum roasting pan and repeat with the remaining batches.

Allow the liquid in the pan to come up to a simmer (move it over the hot side of the grill if it is not simmering yet, then return it to the cool side of the grill). Cover and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the liquid reduces too much, add a splash of water as needed. Taste and adjust the seasoning with additional soy sauce, mirin, or sugar until the broth has a rich balance of savory and sweet.

Gently add the tofu in large pieces, nestling it into the broth without breaking it up too much. Cover the grill and continue simmering for 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove the kombu. Serve the stew over steamed rice, spooning plenty of broth over each serving and garnishing generously with sliced scallions. You can keep the stew hot on the cooler side of the grill and serve as needed, topping it up with a splash of water i it starts to look dry.

Variations

Add sliced shiitake mushrooms during the final 20 minutes of cooking.

Stir in napa cabbage or bok choy near the end for a more traditional nabemono-style meal.

Crack a raw egg into each serving, sukiyaki-style.

Finish with shichimi togarashi or freshly ground sansho pepper for a little heat and fragrance.

🔗 Watch the full Kenji Eats Japan series.