Oyakodon
Chicken and onion simmered in dashi, soy, and mirin, then a soft egg spooned over hot rice.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Serves
- 2
- Difficulty
- easy
A classic Japanese home method compiled from common versions of 親子丼. Use a 10-inch skillet for both bowls. Have the rice hot before the eggs go in; the last minute moves fast.
Oyakodon is 親子丼, the parent-and-child rice bowl: chicken and egg over hot rice. Japanese lunch counters serve it all week. Home cooks make it in one pan.
The sauce is dashi, soy, mirin, and a little sugar. Onion and chicken simmer together until the meat is just cooked. Eggs go on in two pours so the whites set around the chicken and the top stays loose. Spoon it over rice so the sauce soaks down.
A dashi packet or powder is fine here. Thighs stay juicier than breast.
Ingredients
- 10 oz (280 g) boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into ¾-inch pieces
- ½ medium onion (about 4 oz / 110 g), sliced ¼ inch thick
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature if you can
- ½ cup (120 ml) dashi (packet, powder, or homemade)
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp mirin
- 2 tsp sugar
- Optional: 1 Tbsp sake, tossed with the cut chicken and left 5 minutes
- About 3 cups hot cooked short-grain rice, divided between 2 bowls
- 1 scallion, thinly sliced
- Optional: a few sprigs of mitsuba, or shichimi togarashi at the table
Method
- 1Rice should already be hot. Slice the onion. Cut the chicken. Stir the dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar until the sugar dissolves. If using sake, toss it with the chicken and wait 5 minutes. Crack the eggs into a bowl. Lift and cut the whites 5 or 6 times with chopsticks, then poke the yolks so they break. The mixture should look marbled. Do not whisk it smooth.
- 2Spread the onion in a 10-inch skillet. Pour in the sauce; it should just cover the onion. If it does not, the pan is too wide and the sauce will burn off. Set over medium heat and bring to a simmer.
- 3Lay the chicken on the onion and spread it out. When the sauce simmers again, lower the heat to medium-low. Cook uncovered for about 5 minutes, turning the chicken once, until the pieces are cooked through with no pink and the onion is tender. The sauce should still look wet, with small bubbles. If the pan is almost dry, add 2 tablespoons dashi or water. If you used instant dashi, taste the sauce. Add a splash of water if it is already very salty.
- 4Raise the heat to medium so the sauce simmers at the edges, not a hard boil. Drizzle about two-thirds of the egg over the chicken in a circle, keeping it off the bare metal at the rim. Wait 30–60 seconds, until the whites turn opaque and the center is still wet. Cover for those seconds only if the whites stay glassy.
- 5Pour on the remaining egg. Scatter the scallion. Lower the heat to medium-low. Cook 30–60 seconds more, until the top is glossy and softly set. Turn off the heat.
- 6Divide the rice between two bowls. Spoon half the chicken, onion, and egg onto each bowl. Drizzle the pan sauce over. Mitsuba or shichimi at the table if you have them.
Notes
Useful details
- Two servings fit a 10-inch skillet. An 8-inch pan or a traditional oyako-nabe is for one bowl: halve everything and cook a second round.
- Do not cook four servings in this pan. The sauce will not reduce and the chicken will stew.
- Four eggs bind the topping so you can spoon it. Three is the minimum; two will leave loose chicken in the sauce.
- Leave the eggs streaky. A fully beaten mixture cooks into one flat yellow sheet.
- The eggs should look set and glossy. If you want them firmer, give them another 30 seconds. Do not scramble them in the pan.
- Chicken breast works if you slice it thin and simmer 3–4 minutes instead of 5.
- No mirin: use 2 tablespoons water mixed with 2 extra teaspoons sugar, or 2 tablespoons sake with those 2 teaspoons sugar.
- Packet or powdered dashi is the weeknight path. Homemade awase dashi tastes cleaner if you already have it.
- Mitsuba is the restaurant garnish, a Japanese wild parsley. Scallion is what most home kitchens use.