Oyakodon Does It Simple and Easy
By Sherry Li 
July 21, 2010 
21 Comments
Rice bowl dishes is a staple in Asian home cooking, not only because it’s easy to make, but it really embodies the essence of Asian cuisine: rice. Using rice as the foundation and adding different “toppings†becomes your Asian equivalent of pasta or pizza. (Though I would argue that pasta and pizza are just Italian versions of rice bowls.) Rice bowls can be called different things depending on the country – 丼ã¶ã‚Š donburi in Japan, ç›–é¥ gai fan in China, etc.
I’ve made plenty of easy Chinese rice bowls – either creating my own concoction or following my mom’s recipe – but this past weekend, I decided to try something new: oyakodon. What can I say, I was going beyond my Chinese roots and exploring making cuisine across Asia. (I owe LUCKYRICE this inspiration!) Translated literally, 親å丼 oyakodon means “parent and child rice bowl†(親 oya = parent, å ko = child, 丼 don = donburi = rice bowl). Essentially, it is a rice bowl with both chicken and egg, thus the parent and child.
The dish is made very simply by simmering chicken and onions in a mixture of water, dashi, soy sauce, and other seasonings, and then topping it with beaten eggs. Sounds easy, huh? It really was! Even for a first timer!
Oyakodon
- 1 cup water or dashi
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons mirin
- A pinch of sugar
- 1 medium sized yellow or white onion, cut in half, sliced thinly
- 1 lb of chicken breast or skinless chicken thigh, cut into bite sized pieces
- 2 stalks of scallion
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- Shichimi togarashi
- Cook the rice (see recipe below) and prepare the chicken, onions, and scallions. I like to use chicken thigh (I dislike white meat) because they’re tenderer and don’t dry out easily. Slice 1 stalk of scallion long and thin. Leave the other one for garnish. Onions should be sliced thinly.
- Combine the water or dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar in a skillet or wok. If you don’t have dashi on hand like me, you can use water and substitute with hon-dashi in a box.
- Bring to boil (notice there’s no oil involved), about 2 minutes, and add chicken and onions. Simmer until sauce is reduced about half, about 10 minutes. Add scallions.
- Taste and adjust. Pour beaten eggs on top to coat everything evenly (yes, even the liquidy sauce).
- Bring flame down to low. Cover for half to one minute, depending on how raw you like your eggs.
- Serve over rice. Use remaining scallions and shichimi (if you want a slight kick) as garnish. Makes 2-3 portions.
Total cooking time: 12 minutes.
Some people like to add some mitsuba (a Japanese parsley-like plant) with the chicken and onions. That’s entirely up to you. I didn’t have any mitsuba on hand. It adds a nice green color to the dish, like the scallions.
The shichimi is also my personal preference. It adds a little spice to an otherwise monotonous flavored dish (don’t get me wrong, I like the simplicity of the taste).
This time, I decided to be a little adventurous and make a non-traditional steamed rice. Sometimes, to jazz up an otherwise boring bento, Japanese people like to make æ··ãœã”飯 maze gohan, or mixed rice. They put a variety of things in the rice cooker with the rice, such as mushrooms, hijiki, even chicken. This is my take on maze gohan 
Rice Steamed in Chicken Broth
- 1 cup short-grained rice
- 1.5 cups chicken broth
- 1 carrot
- Wash the rice with water and drain until almost all the water is gone.
- Peel the carrot and cut into 2 inch long segments. Slice thinly until you get 2 inch long and thin slices.
- Mix rice and carrot slices well. Add chicken broth. You’re basically substituting the water for chicken broth.
- Turn on your rice cooker and let it do its magic!
Your rice should come out smelling like chicken stew. Yum! I also love the colors of the carrots on the rice. Makes any dish look pretty!
Photos by Patrick Chang for Appetite for Good.
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mmmmm such a delicious and simple recipe! cant wait for the katsu don recipe.
reminds me of matsuri :p focusing on other japanese food besides sushi!
I still think the katsudon was better
you had me at “more than just sushi”
Yay! There is so much more to Japanese food than sushi. Glad you liked the article! Thanks for reading
Sounds great! I’m going to give it a try!
Awesome! Let me know how it goes
this looks so good! i love any and all kinds of Asian food, and cannot wait to give this a try!!
Thank you! It’s so simple… before you know it, you’re done! Good luck and enjoy!
Being an American girl, I Googled Shichimi togarashi to imagine the flavor of this dish. Quite happy I did so, and can understand why you added it, this sounds superb!
Oooh, good point! I should probably link it to a picture or something.
Yes, I love shichimi! I add it to almost everything I cook!
YUM! What a beautiful and tasty dish!
Thanks for reading! It was quite delicious
I love the colors of the carrots with the rice. So pretty. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! Next time, I think I’m gonna add some peas for more color
I love easy chicken dishes. (peas would be a great addition!)
Definitely try it!
A lovely dish…sounds so good:)
Thanks for reading!
It was quite yummy! Give it a try
Haha, it was! I was amazed at how simple it was, too
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