OYAKODON (JAPANESE CHICKEN AND EGG RICE BOWL)

Oyakodon (Japanese Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl) image

Oyakodon, a soupy rice bowl with bite-size chicken and softly cooked egg, is often overshadowed by its more glamorous cousins - katsudon, crowned with a golden breaded pork cutlet, and kaisendon, jeweled with sashimi. But to describe oyakodon's layered textures and sweet-salty sauce of onions melting in soy, sake and mirin, the word magical comes up again and again. This recipe, more subtly seasoned than you might find in a Tokyo cafeteria, comes from the photographer Mika Horie, who grew up cooking it with her mother in Kyoto. It calls for cooking the eggs and chicken in two batches. You can cook all of it at once in a larger skillet, but the results won't be as pretty.

Provided by Hannah Kirshner

Categories dinner, for two, quick, snack, weekday, poultry, main course

Time 30m

Yield 2 servings

Number Of Ingredients 11

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Ingredients

6 tablespoons dashi (homemade or instant)
2 tablespoons dry sake
2 tablespoons mirin or aji mirin
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 skin-on chicken thighs, deboned (do it yourself or ask your butcher)
1 small onion, thinly sliced, lengthwise
4 eggs
6 sprigs of mitsuba, cut into 1-inch lengths, or 2 scallions, very thinly sliced on a sharp diagonal
Short-grained white rice (often labeled sushi rice), cooked, for serving
Shichimi togarashi (Japanese 7-spice chile pepper, sometimes labeled nanami) (optional)

Steps:

Make the sauce: In a small bowl, combine dashi, sake, mirin, soy sauce and sugar; stir to dissolve sugar. Set aside.
Heat a small (6- or 7-inch) nonstick (or well-seasoned carbon steel) slope-sided skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the skin side of each piece of chicken until crisp, 3 to 4 minutes (meat will still be mostly raw). Transfer to a cutting board, skin-side down. Dice into 1 to 1 1/2-inch pieces.
Cook chicken and egg in two batches: In a small bowl, beat two eggs until yolks and whites are broken, but still distinct. Return skillet to medium-high heat, wiping out any excess grease. Add half the sliced onions and half the sauce (about 1/3 cup), and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, until onions just begin soften. Add half the cut-up chicken; simmer for another 1 to 3 minutes, stirring, until chicken is white on the outside.
Pour about half of the beaten eggs around the pan; let cook undisturbed for 30 seconds. Add the rest of the beaten eggs, and half the mitsuba or scallion. Adjust heat to low, and cook 20 seconds longer. Cover pan with a lid or foil and remove from heat. After a minute, uncover pan; eggs should be wobbly, but not raw (if they need more cooking, return the covered pan briefly to the heat).
Carefully slide egg, chicken and sauce onto a bowl of cooked rice, trying to keep the mixture from flipping over. Repeat Steps 3 to 5 with remaining ingredients. Serve with shichimi togarashi, if desired.

Nutrition Facts : @context http, Calories 540, UnsaturatedFat 21 grams, Carbohydrate 11 grams, Fat 33 grams, Fiber 2 grams, Protein 39 grams, SaturatedFat 10 grams, Sodium 1199 milligrams, Sugar 4 grams, TransFat 0 grams