Oyakodon
Chicken and egg over rice — the name means "parent and child" — simmered together in a sweet-savoury dashi until the egg is barely set and slides over the bowl in soft curds. A fifteen-minute dinner with the comfort of a two-hour one.
Photograph credit: Oyakodon 005 by Ocdp · CC0 1.0 · Wikimedia
Don't Make These Mistakes
Make one portion at a time in a small pan. Doubling it in a big pan gives you scrambled chicken, not oyakodon.
Instant dashi powder is entirely acceptable here and is what most Japanese home cooks use on a weeknight.
A donburi pan with a lid is traditional, but any small lidded frying pan does the same job.
Photograph credit: Oyakodon 004 by Ocdp · CC0 1.0 · Wikimedia
Making Oyakodon
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Beat the eggs with chopsticks just enough to streak the white through the yolk. Over-beating gives a uniform, omelette-like texture instead of soft ribbons.
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Combine the dashi, soy, mirin, sake and sugar in a small frying pan, about 20 cm, and bring to a simmer.
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Add the onion and simmer 3 minutes until translucent.
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Lay the chicken in a single layer and simmer 5 minutes, turning once, until just cooked through.
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Pour two-thirds of the egg over the surface in a spiral. Cover and cook 45 seconds without stirring.
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Pour over the remaining egg, cover, and cook 30 seconds more. The top should still look wet.
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Slide the whole thing over a bowl of hot rice, scatter with spring onion and shichimi, and eat immediately.
Related guide: Choosing rice.
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What's Going On Here
The egg is added in two stages and taken off the heat while still visibly loose, because residual heat from the pan and the rice finishes it — a fully set oyakodon is a rubbery one. Cooking it in a small pan means the liquid stays deep enough to poach the egg rather than fry it.
Leftovers, Reheating and Keeping
Eat straight away — the egg firms and the rice goes soggy on standing. The sauce base keeps 5 days refrigerated.
Swaps and Variations
- Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
Good With
- Miso soup and pickles
- Green tea
- A simple cucumber sunomono salad
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Nasu Dengaku.
What's in a Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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