The organocatalytic alpha-hydrazination of beta-keto esters using a bifunctional urea as catalyst and azodicarboxylates as electrophiles has been investigated and is shown to proceed in high yields and with good enantioselectivity. The scope of the reaction is demonstrated for various substrates and the urea catalyst 1b was revealed to be superior to thiourea la. Furthermore, transformation of the obtained product 4aa into optically active amino acid derivative 10 is also presented.