Make Ground Meat Soboro

Soboro means finely chopped meat that is seasoned with Asian flavors. It adds a blast of flavor to every dish you add it to.

I use it in homemade egg rolls and chow mein, toss some in fried rice and ramen and eggs, and just generally use it in everything that needs yummy, salty and sweet meat.

Luckily it's super easy to make and freezes well so it's easy to make big batches and freeze it for later.

Let's start with the most basic fact about Soboro, everything is optional.

Use what you have and what tastes good to you. Add more soy sauce. Stir in no sake. Use ground hamburger, ground turkey, ground lamb, vegetarian meat crumbles.

Recipes are just starting places. You are the one cooking and eating, make it how you want it.

Take a clove of garlic and peel off the outer skin. Mince the clove finely with a sharp knife.

I often just use already minced garlic since I always have a jar of it in my fridge. It's much easier to just scoop out a little and add it to any recipe.

Use a vegetable peeler to remove the rough outer layer of a hunk of ginger, then finely mince it.

This is another item I buy pre-minced. It comes all prepared in a small jar that I can just keep in my fridge. Then I add a spoonful to all sorts of dishes. I've noticed having it on hand already prepared makes me try it in more dishes, and I've found it ginger tastes good in a lot of recipes I never would have expected.

Cut off the bottom white parts of the green onions to snack on later, then chop the green parts finely.

Add a dollop of sesame oil to a nonstick pan and heat it. Be a little careful, sesame oil has a low smoking temperature so you can't get it as hot as other oils.

When the oil is hot add the green onions, garlic, and ginger. Saute until the onions have softened.

You can use any ground meat for this recipe, whatever you have is fine.

It's easiest to find ground beef here, so that's what I usually use, though I most frequently make it with half ground sausage and half ground hamburger. Flavored ground sausage is especially a favorite around my house since maple goes really well with the sweetness of the oyster sauce.

If using ground turkey or other drier meat you may want to add extra liquid so it doesn't get too dry.

Brown whatever meat you are using, whether ground beef, ground chicken, minced pork, or ground turkey.

Cook to about 90% of what you would normally consider done, so the meat is still just a tad pinkish. Since it will spend several more minutes on the stove it will finish cooking then.

Once the ground meat is browned sprinkle the sugar over top and then stir it in. Keep stirring until sugar coats the meat and gets a bit caramelized.

If you are using Sake stir it in now and keep stirring until it basically evaporates.

Add the oyster sauce over top.

Pour the soy sauce over top of the ground meat.

Add the sesame oil, then stir the meat thoroughly so everything is well mixed.

Let the meat simmer until liquid is almost all gone but the meat is still moist. The meat will absorb all the flavors as the liquid cooks off. Once it is dry it is ready to use.

Use soboro anywhere you want to add an Asian flair and you would normally use ground beef.

Ideas include:

• Scrambled Eggs
• Chow Mein
• Egg Rolls
• Wonton
• Noodles
• Rice
• Ramen
• Bento Boxes
• Vegetables
• Lentils
• Onigiri
• Stir Fry
• Tacos
• Gyoza Dumplings
• Meatloaf (don't brown the hamburger)
• Enchiladas

The video below shows a nice little meal using a different sort of soboro. Use his recipe or just use the soboro recipe on this page and use his as a starting point on how to use it.

Shiso Beef Soboro on Tomato Recipe

Ingredients

• 200g ground beef
• 1 med size tomato
• 40g green onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 8 shiso leaf
• 1 tbsp sake

Dressing Ingredients

• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• Wasabi (flavored) paste

The video below shows another version of soboro and yet another use for it. I love soboro alongside eggs and rice, it tastes so good!

• 1/2 lb (225g) ground chicken
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 Tbsp Mirin
• 1 Tbsp Sake
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 15 green beans
• Steamed Rice

Get instructions here: Chicken Soboro Don

Because soboro is so good and addicting and useful, I usually make it much larger batches.

It's so easy to scale up the recipe and just cook a bunch at once that usually we do it 5 pounds of hamburger at a time.

After cooking, once it cools, just divide it into individual portions and put it in the freezer. It keeps for quite a while and it's so easy to just defrost a bit to stir into whatever.

The only problem is that it gets used up so fast I never have enough in my freezer.