Lipby has asked me to make more Japanese dishes for him, and I’m happy to oblige. Donburi is a meal over rice in a bowl. Oyako is a compound word– oya means parent, ko means child. In this case, it refers to the two main ingredients: chicken and egg. The recipe comes together fairly quickly, and for me, it’s a simple, comforting dish.
This is adapted from the cookbook Japanese Cuisine For Everyone, by Yukiko Moriyama– one of my favorite go-to books.
Ingredients
about 10 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 eggs
4 large dried shiitake mushrooms (I used 8 small)
1 medium onion
mitsuba (I can rarely find this here, so I use baby spinach or arugula. Flat-leaf parsley works, too, but it has a much more pronounced taste)
for the sauce:
1/4 cup water
4 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoon sugar
about 4 cups of cooked rice, cooked ahead of time
Directions
Soak the shiitake mushrooms in hot water until soft. Remove the stems and cut each mushroom in half.
Cut the onion in half, and then into thin slices.
Chop the greens coarsely.
Cut the chicken into thin strips.
In a large skillet, add sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium, and layer the onion, mushrooms, chicken, and spinach/arugula. Cook until the onions are soft and the chicken is done.
Beat eggs in a bowl and pour over the chicken mixture. Cover the skillet and cook until egg is set to your liking (I like it a little soft, but my mom cooks it until it’s firm). Add the mitsuba/parsley if using here.
Serve by putting about a cup of rice in a bowl, and placing the chicken and egg mixture on top. Drizzle some of the sauce remaining in the pan. Serve hot.
Serves 4.
