Oyakodon (Chicken & Egg Rice Bowl)

Name: Oyakodon (Chicken & Egg Rice Bowl)
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 17 min
Yield: 1 servings
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 150 g Chicken thigh; 0.5 each Onion; 2 each Eggs; 1 bowl Warm rice; 1 to garnish Scallion or mitsuba; 80 ml Dashi stock; 1.5 tbsp Soy sauce; 1.5 tbsp Mirin; 0.5 tbsp Sugar

A Japanese rice bowl of chicken and onion simmered in a sweet-savory sauce, then set with softly cooked egg and spooned over rice. 'Oyako' (parent-and-child) refers to the chicken and egg. One pan, about 15 minutes — one of the easiest Japanese home dishes.

Ingredients

1servings

Chicken thigh · bite-size pieces150 g
Onion · thinly sliced0.5 each
Eggs · lightly beaten2 each
Warm rice1 bowl
Scallion or mitsuba1 to garnish
Sauce (1 serving)
Dashi stock · dashi pack, anchovy stock, or water + seasoning all fine80 ml
Soy sauce1.5 tbsp
Mirin1.5 tbsp
Sugar0.5 tbsp

Steps

In a small pan (or a single-portion pot), bring the dashi, soy, mirin, and sugar to a simmer.
⏲ 2 min
Add the onion and cook until slightly translucent, then add the chicken and simmer 4-5 minutes until cooked.
⏲ 5 min
Pour in two-thirds of the beaten egg in a swirl, cover, and cook 1-2 minutes until half-set.
⏲ 2 min
Add the rest of the egg, turn off the heat, cover, and rest 30-60 seconds to your liking (slightly runny is traditional).
⏲ 1 min
Slide it, sauce and all, over a bowl of warm rice.
⏲ 30 sec
Garnish with scallion or mitsuba and eat right away. Add shichimi to taste.

Tips & Variations

Variations

Katsudon: Top with a pork cutlet instead of chicken, same method.
Tanindon: Use beef or pork instead of chicken ('stranger', not parent-and-child).
With mushroom/leek: Add shiitake or scallion for extra aroma.
Cheese oyakodon: Melt a little cheese on top to finish.

Tips

The egg goes in twice so that one egg can be in two states at once. Gyudon sets the family's three eggs side by side: katsudon and oyakodon set theirs in the pan as a blanket over the top, while the loose white of an onsen tamago becomes the sauce. Oyakodon does both in one bowl. The first two-thirds sets into the mesh that holds the chicken and the sauce together; the last third goes on after the heat is off and stays liquid, re-wetting the rice underneath. Poured in all at once it all reaches the same state and you lose one of the two.
Finishing off the heat is a temperature rule, not a preference. Cooking eggs has the numbers: white begins to set at about 62°C and yolk at about 68°C, and above 80°C the proteins contract hard and squeeze water out — dry curds sitting in liquid. The broth is already at a simmer, so with the burner on that line is very easy to cross. Lid on, heat off, thirty to sixty seconds of residual warmth is what keeps the second addition under it.
The small pan follows from the same line. The same quantity of egg in a wide pan spreads thin, and a thin layer reaches that temperature all at once. A single-portion pan keeps the layer deep enough that the bottom can set into a mesh while the top is still loose. Two states need thickness.
"Don't over-stir" means don't let it become scrambled egg. Stirring breaks the setting protein into small curds, and small curds build no mesh. With nothing holding the chicken and the sauce together the dish will not slide onto the rice as one piece — it arrives in parts. The egg here is structure, not a topping.
The name is the ingredient list. Oyako is parent-and-child: the chicken and the egg in one bowl. The tanindon below is the same dish with that relation broken, and it is renamed 'stranger' for it. Not many dishes change their name when you change the meat.
A small dedicated pan or making single portions sets the egg evenly and soft.
Add the egg in two stages for soft layers — don't over-stir.
No dashi? A dashi pack, anchovy stock, or chicken stock works fine.
Finish off the heat with residual warmth so it doesn't overcook and dry out.
Slightly runny egg is traditional — cook 30 seconds longer if you prefer it set.