Oyakodon

Oyakodon is a Japanese rice bowl dish with chicken, egg, and onions. The name literally means "parent/child bowl" (oya = parent, ko = child, don = bowl). It's fairly easy to make and is a great rice topper.

The sauce is a very common Japanese mix of soy sauce, sake, sugar, and mirin. If you're not familiar, these are the same ingredients as teriyaki sauce.

I learned how to make this from the great Japanese Youtube cooking channel Cooking with Dog. The one thing I do differently is omit the Japanese wild parsley (mitsuba parsley), mostly because I can't usually find it in grocery stores.

Ingredients

• 50 ml dashi stock
  • If you're using instant dashi, I usually just measure out 50 ml of water and dissolve a pinch of instant dashi.
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sake
  • I don't often have sake on hand, so sometimes I'll substitute rice cooking wine.
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tbsp mirin
• 1/2 small white onion, sliced in 1/4-inch half-moon slices
• 1/3 lb boneless chicken thigh, cut into 1-inch (bite-sized) pieces
• 2 eggs

Directions

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl. Break up the egg whites a bit with chopsticks, and very lightly beat.
   • Don't beat the eggs too much - you don't want them to be completely combined.
2. In a small pan, combine the dashi, sake, mirin, sugar, and soy sauce. Stir to combine.
   • It's important to use a small pan. A large pan will get too hot and cook off all the sauce too quickly. If you don't have a small one, reduce the temperatures in this recipe a bit (like medium or medium-high instead of high) so you don't cook everything too quickly.
3. Turn the heat on high, add the onions, and distribute evenly.
4. Cover with a lid and simmer 3 minutes.
5. Add the chicken pieces on top and distribute evenly.
6. Cover again, and cook until the chicken is almost cooked (about 2-3 minutes). Flip the chicken pieces over, cover, and cook until fully cooked (1-2 minutes).
7. Pour 2/3 of the beaten egg into the pan, and ensure it's evenly distributed.
8. Cover and cook for 10 seconds.
9. Add the remaining egg.
10. Cover, immediately turn off the heat, and let sit covered for 15 seconds.
11. Uncover and serve on top of a bowl of rice.