Oyako Donburi

Donburi is a Japanese rice bowl dish which brings instant comfort to anyone craving for rice and stew. Being Asian, I have a soft spot for anything that involves rice. Sweet or savory, rice dishes tend to bring such nostalgia and a child-like pleasure to me.

When I was studying in Basel, donburi was my go-to meal whenever I was feeling homesick, tired or just plain hungry-and-student-broke. It’s very easy to make, and the ingredients do not necessarily have to cost a fortune. You can actually make donburi paired with any meat or vegetable available in your fridge. You just have to make sure you have a stock of typical sauces that you can be creative with.

Meet my first Oyako Donburi. This basically consists of japanese rice, chicken, onions, and an egg.

Oyako Donburi
Serves 4

Rice
2 1/2 cups Japanese rice cooked
Cook your rice according to package directions and keep warm.

Broth
1 1/2 cups dashi broth
6 tbsp sweet soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 1/2 tbsp Mirin
Put ingredients together in a saucepan, heat and keep warm. Do not leave it simmering though as it will evaporate.

Topping
4 chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces
one medium brown onion finely sliced
a handful of mung bean sprouts
2 spring onions chopped
4 eggs
Roasted nori seaweed finely sliced for garnish – I use scissors to cut this
Into a small frying pan over medium heat, tip just over a 1/4 of a cup of your broth. Add in 1/4 of the chicken, 1/4 of the onions, 1/4 of the mung bean sprouts and 1/4 of the spring onions and cook for 3 or so minutes until the chicken cooked through. Beat one egg in a small bowl and pour over chicken-onion-beansprouts mixture in the pan, swirl a little with a spatula and leave to cook until the egg is done. Place one serving of rice in a bowl and pour the cooked chicken and egg mixture over the rice. Add a spoon of the broth over the rice bowl and garnish with the roasted nori. Repeat these steps for the 3 remaining rice bowls.

Serve and enjoy tout de suite. ✌︎