Air Fryer Steak – Japanese Style

Learn how to cook a perfect medium rare Japanese style (Wafu) steak cooked with the Ninja Air Fryer. This is a low carb keto friendly recipe topped with grated daikon, crispy sliced garlic, green onion, and ponzu sauce.

I made some tweaks to the directions that came with my Ninja Air Fryer but I was amazed at how easy it was to make a perfect Japanese style steak. I probably won’t be cooking my steak at home any other way now. No more oil splatters and no more over or under cooking!

Here are some reasons why I prefer to cook a steak in an air fryer vs a grill or cast iron skillet:

1. Your steak will come out perfectly every time as long as you consistently use the same settings. I used to burn or under-cook a lot of my steaks using the grill or cast iron pan but this will never be a problem for me again.
2. It’s almost hands free besides having to flip it once at the 5 minute mark.
3. It keeps your kitchen clean. Oil does not splatter everywhere in the kitchen as with a fry pan.
4. You can throw the steak in the air fryer straight out of the refrigerator. The steaks came out perfectly this way. You no longer have to wait until the steak reaches room temperature.

For this recipe, you can go light on the salt and pepper. The ponzu sauce should provide enough saltiness.

A key point here is to place the steaks into the air fryer cold with both the basket and crisper plate in the air fryer bin. I tried letting the steak warm up to room temperature before cooking but I found that it would get over cooked at 390F for 8 minutes. If you don’t stack the basket and crisper plate the steak will come out too rare.

You can cook different cuts in the air fryer but just remember to adjust cooking times based on thickness of steak. The cut I used here is a chuck eye steak that is around an inch thick. You can expect a nice crust around the edges of the fat with this recipe.

Air Fryer Steak Ingredients

• 1.15 lbs Choice of steak around an inch thick  I used chuck eye
• Salt and pepper

Garnish

• 6 oz Daikon radish
• 6 Cloves Garlic
• 3 Stalks of green onion
• 2 oz Ponzu sauce

Prep and Air Fry Instructions

• Thinly slice the garlic cloves.
• Slice the green onions.
• Grate the daikon using a daikon grater. Drain some of the excess liquid by lightly squeezing the grated daikon.
• Season the steaks lightly with a small amount of salt and pepper and place in the air fryer. Try not to season the steak too much. The ponzu sauce will provide enough saltiness.
• Place the cold steaks in the air fryer with basket on top of the crisper plate.
• Set the air fryer for 8 minutes at 390F. Flip once after 5 minutes and resume cooking for the last 3 minutes. Remove the steak from the air fryer and let it rest for a few minutes.
• Remove the basket and crisper plate and place thinly sliced garlic at the bottom of the bin with the steak fat. Air fry at 390F for 4-5 minutes or until crispy.
• Top the steak with daikon first, followed by the green onion and crispy garlic. Lastly, pour the ponzu sauce over the garnishes and steak.

Notes

It might be hard to find a daikon grater in the States. I’m guessing a blender should work fine for grating the daikon radish.