Cooking Oyakodon Family Style

Oyakodon is one of my favorite Japanese comfort meals. It has chicken, onions, all under a runny egg yolk in a dashi soy sugary broth. To top it off, oyakodon is over rice, which is always better. What makes oyakodon a great family dinner is how easy and quick it is to cook. If you cook Japanese food regularly then you have all the usual ingredients in the pantry for the sauce. Mirin, soy sauce, sugar, and dashi. The traditional oyakodon recipe calls for sake as well, but I usually omit this when making it. It does add a bit more flavor, but you have plenty of flavor with the mirin, soy, sugar, and dashi. In this recipe I focus on how to cook oyakodon family style.

The one problem I have with cooking Oyak0don is that typically it is cooked one bowl at a time. I can appreciate this style of cooking, however when cooking for a family there is one way I want to cook 4 different batches of oyak0don. If you are anything like me, you want to dump all of the chicken, all of the onions, and all of the sauce in a pan and get that bad boy cooking. So I adapted a recipe a to make it easier to cook in one helping, and now this is how we cook oyakodon for a family in one go.

Tips for cooking Oyakodon family style

1. Pan – Make sure that you get a pan this is big enough so that you can have your chicken and onions in one layer. If you see that the chicken is in a couple layers you are going to have problems with the chicken being undercooked and the dashi broth not getting into the chicken and onions.
2. Pan Lid – While you can cook oyakodon without a pan lid, this makes it a bit awkward to cook the egg on top of the chicken and onions. You really want the steam to cook the egg, otherwise you have to cook the chicken and onions probably a bit longer than you want to.
3. Don’t you forget the broth – Make sure all of the bowls of oyakodon have dashi broth that gets to seep into the rice. It makes all the difference in the taste.

Fun condiments that go with Oyakodon

1. Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese Seven Spice) – Gotta have that spiciness added to my oyakodon. Sprinkle this bad boy on, and it adds just the perfect amount of heat.
2. Green Onions – Makes your oyakodon pretty, plus it gives it the fresh vegetable taste.
3. Sriracha – If you aren’t going to use the shichimi tograshi, add what some heat then sriracha always goes good with the eggs.

What to eat with Oyakodon

1. Miso Soup is probably my favorite thing to eat with oyakodon. Nami at Justonecookbook has a great recipe for miso soup.
2. Garlic sesame spinach is another good vegetable to serve alongside oyakodon. It is easy to make in a wok or non-stick pan, and you can cook this up in 5 minutes flat. That makes it a good pair with oyakodon because you want to give oyakodon hot.
3. Kim Chi – My family is part Korean so we eat Kim chi with everything, plus the crunchy napa cabbage is great with the soft texture of oyakodon. If you like kim chi with your ramen then you will probably want kim chi with oyakodon.

Oyakodon Family Style

Oyakodon is a great family meal with chicken thighs, onions, and slightly runny eggs in a dashi broth.

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Servings 4

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Equipment

• Non-stick pan and lid

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 lb Chicken thigh
• 3 tbsp Soy sauce
• 3 tbsp Mirin
• 3 tsp Sugar
• 4 Eggs

Dashi Broth

• 1 cup Water
• 1 tsp Dashi powder

Optional

• 4 stalks Green onion

Instructions

 

• Get Ingredients
  

Prep

• Peel and cut onions in slivers
  
• Cut chicken into bite sized cubes
• To make your dashi mix 1 tsp of dashi powder with 1 cup of water.
• Whip 4 eggs in a bowl.

Cooking

• Put 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in the pan and set to medium heat.
• Add your chicken and onions to the pan, and cook for about 5 minutes. I like to actually brown the chicken and soften the onions. This helps to take the bite out of the onion when serving for families.
  
• Add your dashi broth to the chicken and onions, and bring to a boil. Put on medium-low heat and cover the pan with a lid.
  
• Cook for about 7 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and the onions are soft.
• Add your whipped egg to the pan, while being careful not to stir too much. If all the egg is in one spot, go ahead and stir it around so it covers most of the onions and chicken evenly.
  
• Put the lid back on and cook for another 5 minutes, or until the egg is how you like it. I tend to cook it a bit longer to around 7 minute so that the egg is harder.
  
• Serve in bowls filled with rice, and top with green onions, hot sauce, or Japanese seven spice.
  

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This oyakudon recipe was adapted from Nami at Justonecookbook.