Oyakodon (Chicken and Egg Bowl)

Posted by Judy | Bebe Love Okazu on May 2, 2010 in Blog, Chicken, Family Favorites, Japanese Cuisine Favorites, Rice & Sushi | 15 comments

Oyakodon is a common donburi dish often found at Japanese restaurants or the deli section of Japanese supermarkets.  It’s chicken, delicately cooked egg, and thin slices of onion all resting over a bed of rice, and covered with a delicate sweet and savory sauce.

Long ago, my Mom taught me why oyakodon is called “oyakodon” and tanindon (beef and egg donburi) is called “tanindon”.  Oyako in Japanese means “parent and child”; therefore the chicken and the egg are oyako – thus, oyakodon.

Tanin in Japanese means stranger; therefore beef and the egg are strangers, or unrelated – thus, tanin.  I thought this was a pretty cool Japanese lesson.  :)

Anyway, I took bebe E to visit Bachan (grandma, my mom) and Jichan (grandpa, my dad) last week, and I asked my Mom if I could borrow her special donburi pan.

Yes, I couldn’t make oyakodon in a regular frying pan… I HAD to use the donburi pan. After all, the little pan makes the perfect-size omelette that fits exactly in the donburi.  It’s design also makes it easy to slide the egg omelette onto the rice.  I searched for this at the Japanese supermarkets but I couldn’t find them. My mom said she bought hers at Marukai, but no luck in my area. I’ll have to make a special request to my relatives in Japan.

As a kid, I didn’t like oyakodon much because of the pungent onions, but according to my new cookbook, I discovered that a lot of onions was typical for oyakodon. I think my Mom preferred her onions slightly on the raw side, but I make a point to make sure that our onions are well-cooked when I make oyakodon.

Well, I shouldn’t call it MY cookbook.  My mom bought a Japanese cookbook for her and I because she thought I would like the step-by-step photos (I love this!) and because it contained several of my favorite Japanese foods – so fabulous!  Thanks, Mom!  She was very excited about finding this cookbook and called me to tell me how lovely it was, and to let me know that she was looking forward to trying some of the recipes with me.  Awww… so sweet!  Love my mama!  :)

Since I can’t read the authors of the cookbook, and I forgot to ask my mom to read this to me, I’m posting the title (which I can read) and a photo of the cover.  The title is, “Oishii Washoku” (Delicious Japanese Food) and my mom bought it at the bookstore in Mitsuwa market.

The only challenge is that the cookbook is all in Japanese.  I can read most of it, well, that’s not true.  I can guess-timate about 60-70%, but it’s so much easier when my mom reads a recipe to me in Japanese and then I translate it in my head and jot down notes in English in my little recipe notebook.  (Thanks again, aloha girl, for sending these little notebooks as my birthday gift!  They’re perfect!)

Although I made my Mom’s donburi sauce recipe a few days ago, which I used for our kakiagedon dinner, I asked my mom to read the oyakodon and sauce recipe from our new cookbook.  This recipe for the donburi sauce is slightly different from my Mom’s donburi sauce so I decided to give this a try.  It was pretty good but a little too sweet.

Oyakodon

(Serves 4)

for donburi sauce:

• 1 2/3 cups water
• 1 teaspoon dry dashi seasoning
• 5 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
• 4 tablespoons sugar (original recipe calls for 5)
• 1 1/2 tablespoon mirin

for egg omelette:

• 4 cups cooked brown rice
• 400 g chicken thigh or breast
• 1/4 to 1/2 large onion (original recipe calls for 1 whole onion)
• 6 eggs
• Green onions for garnish
• Mitsuba, a Japanese herb (optional)

1) While the recipe calls for thigh meat, which I find to be more tender, chicken breast works great. I used about 3/4 of 1 breast for our oyakodon.  Chop chicken into bite-sized pieces. Alternatively, I use chicken breast tenderloin if I have it stocked in the freezer.

2) Slice onions.  The original recipe calls for a whole onion, but I felt that it was too much.

3) Gently mix the eggs with chopsticks in a bowl and set aside. Don’t over beat them. Mix so that the whites and yolk are lightly incorporated.

4) In a medium pot, combine all ingredients for the donburi sauce and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Add chicken and onions to this and cook for 7 – 8 minutes until chicken is well-done and onions are tender.  Remove from heat.

NOTE: The original recipe called for 5 tablespoons of sugar, but even with 4 tablespoons I thought it was a bit too sweet although Big Onechan likes it.  Donburi sauce is typically sweet, but I recommend adjusting the sugar to suit your palate.

5) Heat the donburi pan over medium – low heat (SPRAY WITH PAM COOKING SPRAY) and scoop a ladle-full of the chicken and onion dashi or “soup” mix onto the donburi pan.

Gently scoop the mixed egg over the chicken and donburi sauce mix, from the center – outwards.  DON’T MAKE SCRAMBLED EGGS.  After you’ve scooped the egg into the pan, just let the egg cook on it’s own and meld with the chicken and onions.  You’ll need to cook this for about 5 – 10 minutes until the egg sets.  Don’t be tempted to increase the heat as the egg will become hard.  I garnish the top of the egg omelette with green onions while the egg is still cooking.

7) Serve brown rice in a donburi and then gently slide the egg omelette off the donburi pan and on the bed of rice.

Voila!  Oyakodon!

Lakers won their first round in the NBA playoffs against the Thunder Friday night… WAY TO GO LAKERS!!!!   Then, Sunday afternoon, Lakers won their first game against the Jazz – thank goodness!  After that, delicious oyakodon for dinner.  A perfect end to a great weekend.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.  I would enjoy hearing from you.

Jya, mata-ne (until next time),

Judy | bebe mama