Oyakodon
Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl
Oyakodon means parent and child, and the dish is chicken and egg. Pieces of chicken are simmered with onion in a sweet dashi sauce and the beaten egg is poured over and cooked until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft. It is served on rice, in a bowl, in about ten minutes once the stock is made.
The chef's recipe makes a two-stage dashi, a sauce of mirin, white soy sauce and sugar reduced with the dashi, sears 680 g of chicken thighs skin-side down until crisp, softens an onion in the pan, adds the sauce, pours over eight eggs with the yolks pricked, and covers the pan for 4 to 5 minutes until the whites set.
Ingredients
For the dashi
- 10 cm square of kombu
- 1 litre water
- 40 g katsuobushi
- 600 ml water, for the second dashi
For the sauce
- 60 ml mirin
- 60 ml usukuchi (light) soy sauce or white shoyu
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 20 g katsuobushi
- 300 ml of the second dashi
For the bowls
- 60 ml vegetable oil
- 680 g boneless skin-on chicken thighs, in bite-sized pieces
- Fine sea salt
- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
- 8 large eggs, lightly beaten
- A few sprigs of mitsuba or spring onion tops
- Cooked short-grain rice, to serve
- Sansho powder, to serve (optional)
Method
- Make the first dashi Heat the kombu in the litre of water slowly to about 65°C and hold it there for 10 to 15 minutes. Bring to the boil, remove the kombu, add the 40 g of katsuobushi, simmer for 2 minutes and steep for 5 minutes. Strain and keep the dashi for miso soup.
- Make the second dashi Return the used kombu and katsuobushi to the pan with the 600 ml of water and simmer until golden, about 20 minutes. Strain.
- Make the sauce Boil the mirin, soy sauce, sugar and 300 ml of the second dashi together, add the 20 g of katsuobushi, take off the heat and cool, then strain.
- Cook the chicken Heat the oil in a wide pan over a medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and sear it skin-side down for about 6 minutes until the skin is crisp, then turn it. Add the onion and soften for 3 to 4 minutes. Pour in the sauce and bring to a low boil, cooking until the chicken is cooked through, with no pink and clear juices.
- Add the egg Prick the egg yolks lightly with a fork, pour the beaten eggs over the chicken, cover and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft.
- Serve Divide the rice among four bowls, slide the eggs and chicken over the rice in four portions, scatter with mitsuba and sprinkle with sansho if you like.
Food safety
The egg is left with soft yolks. Use eggs with the British Lion mark, or cook the egg firm, if serving anyone who is pregnant, elderly, very young or unwell. Check that the chicken is piping hot, with no pink and clear juices.
The dashi can be made a day ahead.
Do not stir after the egg goes in, or it scrambles.