Oyakodon (Chicken and Egg Bowl)

I came across Oyakodon when I was traveling in Japan a few years back, and since then we make it on a weekly basis. It's all you need in a dish — eggs, chicken, rice — and most importantly, kids love it. The meaning of Oyakodon (親子丼) is "parent-and-child rice bowl," where the chicken is the parent and the egg is the child. We make double the amount of the original recipe, so it's more than enough for lunch or dinner for 4–5 people. The key to this dish is first keeping the proportions of the stock, and second, don't overcook the egg — it should be a bit raw and runny.

Oyakodon, steps in making this dish successful

Unlike the original dish, I like to sear the chicken and onion a bit and then add the sauce to the pan while the chicken and onions keep cooking — it saves time. After we sauté the chicken and onion for a few minutes, we add the dashi (see note below on the dashi), sake, mirin, and soy, and cook until incorporated. It's a fast dish, so we don't want too many liquids to evaporate — immediately add the eggs and cook for another minute.

A few words about Dashi in Oyakodon

If you have dashi stock, great — it saves time and effort for the Oyakodon dish. But if you don't, you can make it easily; it takes just a few minutes. We make the dashi stock with two main ingredients: kombu kelp and katsuobushi, which are bonito flakes. In a large saucepan, add 2 cups of water and the kombu kelp, bring to a gentle simmer, then remove the kombu kelp and add the katsuobushi. Cook on low heat for another 5 minutes and strain the broth. The idea is to get a highly flavored umami broth that's a base for many dishes. If you're making a lot of Japanese dishes, this broth is essential — it appears in almost every Japanese recipe.