What is oyakodon?
Oya means parent, ko means child: chicken and egg end up in the same bowl. Don stands for donburi, the deep bowl with rice and a topping. The Tokyo poultry restaurant Tamahide traces the dish back to 1891. Today Japanese families cook oyakodon as a quick dinner, and donburi restaurants list it as a standard on the menu. For an overview of the whole family of rice bowls, see the article Donburi.
The right ingredients
- Chicken: The recipe card uses breast. Japanese cooks mostly reach for boneless thigh, which stays juicier and forgives an extra minute. Simmer breast for 5 minutes at most.
- Dashi: Instant dashi from granules is enough for this dish. You can find the dosage and a comparison with homemade broth in Dashi and dashi powder.
- Mirin: The sweet rice wine rounds out the sauce and makes it glossy. Substitutes and the differences from sake are explained in Mirin.
- Rice: Japanese short-grain rice, freshly cooked and hot. Plan on 150 g of cooked rice per bowl.
How to get oyakodon right
Cook in portions
In Japan, cooks make each portion in a small, shallow pan with a vertical handle, the oyakodon nabe. A nonstick pan of 18 to 20 cm does the same job. Put in half of the sauce, chicken, and onion, cook everything, and slide the finished portion straight onto the rice. Then make the second portion.
Barely beat the eggs
Beat the eggs with chopsticks only a few times. Streaks of white and yellow should stay visible. That way you get tender spots and firmer pieces in the same bowl.
Egg in two steps
Pour two thirds of the egg over the chicken in a circle, put the lid on, and wait 30 seconds. Then add the rest. After another 20 to 30 seconds, pull the pan off the heat. The egg keeps cooking on the hot rice. If you are cooking for pregnant women or small children, let it set firm.
Common mistakes
- Too much sauce: The rice gets soggy and falls apart. The sauce should only moisten the rice.
- Egg cooked through: It turns rubbery, and the bowl tastes like scrambled egg.
- Cold rice: The egg does not keep setting on it, and the dish ends up lukewarm.
- Onion not cooked long enough: Give it 3 to 4 minutes in the sauce until it is soft and sweet. Raw, it tastes sharp.
Variations
If you replace the chicken with a breaded cutlet, it becomes katsudon. With beef or pork instead of chicken, the bowl is called tanindon, which translates as "bowl of strangers," because the meat and egg do not come from the same animal. Without egg and with thin beef, you make gyudon. Besides scallions, nori strips and a pinch of shichimi togarashi work as a garnish. Serve a small miso soup and pickled vegetables alongside. Do not reheat leftovers: the egg keeps cooking and turns firm, so cook only as much as you will eat.
