Be taught the sogigiri “slanted slice” reducing approach with this straightforward tutorial. This easy Japanese reducing technique will allow you to create skinny, flat slices of hen and veggies that cook dinner evenly in your favourite Japanese recipes.
To slice skinny, flat items, we frequently use the sogigiri reducing approach in Japanese cooking. This easy technique helps you narrow meat and thick greens to an excellent thickness so that they cook dinner sooner, constantly, and with higher taste. Right here, I’ll educate you the sogigiri “slanted slice” reducing approach so you possibly can add it to your repertoire of knife abilities and culinary abilities in your house kitchen.
Use the sogigiri reducing approach in my Oyakodon recipe, Japanese Rooster Curry recipe, and Reduce Salmon into Japanese-style Fillets tutorial subsequent!
What’s Sogigiri?
Sogigiri (そぎ切り) is a Japanese reducing approach the place we slice thick elements on a pointy diagonal. This slanted lower will increase the floor space and creates thinner, flatter items—the phrase sogi means “to shave.” Consequently, the ingredient cooks extra evenly and absorbs seasonings higher.
Why I Love Sogigiri: Slanted Slice Slicing Approach
- Promotes even cooking – Slicing to an excellent thickness helps cook dinner every bit of your ingredient on the identical charge, so nothing overcooks or undercooks.
- Meals take up flavors higher – The bigger floor space permits hen, pork, and fish to take in extra seasoning for improved style.
- Accelerates cooking – Extra floor space means extra contact with the new pan’s floor or the simmering liquid, so the thin-sliced elements cook dinner sooner.
- Retains proteins tender – By slicing sogigiri towards the grain of hen and pork, we lower the muscle fibers so the meat has a extra tender texture.
- Creates elegant slices – For visible attraction, you possibly can lower elements like shiitake mushrooms into flat, bite-sized items.
Varieties of Meals for Sogigiri (Slanted Slice)
- Rooster breast
- Rooster thigh
- Chcken tender
- Pork loin
- Fish fillets
- Mushroom caps
- Varied greens with thick elements, like napa cabbage
Discover the printable recipe with measurements beneath.
Key Tools
- sharp kitchen knife – I like to recommend a strong chef’s knife for many elements. I take advantage of a high-quality Nagomi Damascus Gyuto Chef Knife that you could find at JOC Items. You possibly can additionally use a nakiri knife (Japanese vegetable knife) for reducing veggies.
Make Sogigiri (Slanted Slice)
- Tilt your knife again 45 levels or extra. Begin the lower with a ahead movement, then pull the blade by way of to shave off a skinny, diagonal piece. (To regulate the scale of the piece, you possibly can regulate the angle from 30 levels to just about parallel to the reducing board.)
- Repeat these diagonal cuts whereas sustaining the identical angle and thickness for uniform cuts.
Nami’s Suggestions
- Modify the angle of your knife. It’s a easy option to management the scale of every lower—making it straightforward to create bigger or smaller items. The angle can vary from 30 levels to just about parallel to the reducing board.
- Use a easy slicing movement. For clear cuts, attempt to shave off the piece in a single move. I push the knife ahead to begin the lower, then pull it by way of the ingredient to slice off the piece. Don’t use a back-and-forth sawing movement, which may create a jagged floor and mash the meat, fish, mushrooms, or veggies you’re reducing.
- Slice proteins towards the grain. Whenever you take a look at the meat or fish fillet, you will note muscle fibers going in a single course. For neat slices, I like to recommend reducing sogigiri throughout this grain, not parallel to it. Additionally, reducing towards the grain is the key to a young texture for pork, hen, and different meats.
- Preserve a pointy knife. I sharpen my Japanese chef’s knife usually for security and precision. This manner, reducing is easy and also you’ll get very clear slices.
Use the Sogigiri: Slanted Slice Slicing Approach
Now that you know the way to make sogigiri, you should use this knife approach to prep your elements for a lot of sorts of conventional and fashionable Japanese dishes. Listed below are my favourite methods to make use of these flat, skinny slices of proteins and veggies.
Steadily Requested Questions
When making ready Japanese delicacies, I’ll use many various reducing strategies at house. Some distinctive Japanese reducing types that I take advantage of in my day by day house cooking embrace sogigiri or sogi-giri, rangiri (乱切り, random lower or random form), hangetsu-giri (half-moon lower), zaku-kiri (tough chop), koguchigiri (小口切り, skinny rounds), sasagaki (ささがき, shavings for burdock root), and varied kazari-kiri (飾り切り, ornamental cuts). As well as, I take advantage of many fundamental strategies are like usugiri (skinny strips), hosogiri (skinny slices), wa-giri or wagiri (輪切り, spherical lower), and sengiri (julienne lower).
With slightly observe and persistence, you possibly can study many of those culinary abilities from my Japanese Slicing Methods tutorial so that they develop into second nature.
We frequently lower sushi rolls or sashimi like tuna or snapper utilizing a particular sashimi knife known as a sashimi bocho (刺身包丁) or yanagiba (柳刃). There are two fundamental reducing types for reducing sashimi—hira-zukuri (平造り) and sogi-zukuri (そぎ造り). You may learn extra about them in my tutorial Slice and Plate Sashimi. Lastly, one of many superior strategies that an important sashimi grasp would possibly use is the paperthin slicing known as usu-zukuri.
For tomatoes and onions, we usually use the wedge lower known as kushigatagiri (くし形切り).
Stop your display from going darkish
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Tilt your knife again 45 levels or extra. Begin the lower with a ahead movement, then pull the blade by way of to shave off a skinny, diagonal piece. Nami’s Tip: The angle can vary from 30 levels to just about parallel to the reducing board.
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You may regulate the scale of items by altering the angle of the knife.
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Repeat whereas sustaining the identical angle and thickness for uniform cuts.
Editor’s Observe: This submit was initially revealed on December 26, 2012. It was up to date and republished on June 9, 2025, with new pictures and extra useful data to information your cooking.
