Oyakodon is a Japanese rice dish with chicken and egg, served in soba restaurants, fast food establishments, and Japanese households. The dish is easy to prepare and customizable, with popular spin-offs like tanindon and sake oyakodon.
Oyakodon is a Japanese rice dish with chicken and egg. The dish includes a sauce and relies mostly on hot rice to cook or put eggs. One of many rice bowl dishes, popular oyakodon spin-offs include tanindon and sake oyakodon. It is commonly served in soba restaurants, fast food style establishments and Japanese households.
This dish is a type of donburi, or rice bowl, that is served throughout Japan. The word oyakodon roughly translates into English as “parent and child,” noting the inclusion of chicken, as the parent, and egg, as the child, in the same dish. The meat, eggs and gravy are cooked together and served over a bowl of very hot, barely cooked white rice.
To prepare a single meal, pieces of dark or white meat chicken are browned in a hot pan and soy sauce mixed with dashi, a Japanese cooking broth, and mirin, also known as rice wine, is then poured over the chicken to finish the cooking process. In some cases, a small amount of sake, a Japanese-style rice or parsley-based alcohol, is added. Once the chicken is cooked through, the beaten eggs are poured over the mixture while it is still in the pan. As soon as the roe begins to form around the edges of the pan, though still slightly runny in the center, the contents are poured into foil over the hot rice. The temperature of the rice continues to cook the egg mixture and the chicken, egg and sauce coat the top of the rice until ready to eat.
The combination of egg and chicken and the resulting name of the dish is considered a joke in Japanese cuisine. A popular spin-off of this dish is known as tanindon, which translates to “foreign bowl.” This dish replaces chicken with beef and is served with eggs in the same way. A seafood version is oyakodon sake, which features salmon roe and salmon served with warm rice.
Oyakodon is served in a variety of Japanese establishments. Soba restaurants often serve Oyakodon as an alternative to standard noodle dishes. It is very popular at lunchtime, as it is quick to prepare and eat, a top priority for Japanese businessmen and women. Because this meal is so easy to prepare, it is often served by street vendors alongside other varieties of donburi in addition to Japanese fast food.
Outside of restaurants, this dish is a popular lunch and dinner served in Japanese households. It uses ingredients normally kept on hand at home, making it an economical meal. The dish is easy to prepare for both small and large groups and can be customized to each person’s individual preferences.
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