Japanese Food Tips

The word “oyako, ” which means parent and child in Japanese, comes from the use of chicken and eggs in this recipe. “Don” means big bowl in Japanese. Oyakodon is a large bowl of rice topped with chicken and onions which have been simmered in broth made from bonito flakes or dried kelp, soy sauce, sugar, or mirin (sweet sake for seasoning). After the ingredients have been cooked through, a lightly beaten egg is poured in and the heat turned off when the egg is half-cooked. The mixture is then placed over the rice. The sweetened soy sauce broth soaks into the chicken and the semi-cooked egg, and is very tasty when eaten with rice. There is a theory that oyakodon was invented in 1891 by a certain one-pot chicken dish restaurant in Tokyo. Oyakodon is also a home-style dish, sold at supermarkets and bento shops, and is of course available at restaurants and oyakodon specialty restaurants. You can find a recipe for oyakodon on our website, so if you are interested, please try making it.