Oyakodon

This is a chicken and egg rice bowl.  It's a delicious, quick, and hearty meal for really any time of day.


There is only 1 real key to this dish in my opinion, under cooking the eggs so that they stay gelatinous and soft.

Traditionally, I believe you are supposed to use chicken in this dish for the whole 'egg and chicken' concept, but you can really use any type of meat.


ingredients:
1 serving (if doubling the recipe, use a bigger pan)

1.  Small non-stick pan

2.  1 chicken thigh, skin removed and cut into bite sized pieces (or 3/4 cup of any bite sized meat)
3.  1/2 onion, cut into strips

note: - measure all these ingredients with measuring spoons.  Being off by even 1 tsp can push this dish into slightly too salty or too sweet.
4.  1 TBL water
5.  1/8 tsp dashi powder
6.  2 tsp soy sauce
7.  1 1/2 tsp sake
8.  1/2 tsp mirin

9.  1 TBL minced parsley
10.  2 eggs, very lightly beaten (just until yolks and whites have been broken up and mixed together)


recipe:
1.  spoon 1 cup of rice into a bowl and set aside (this dish is actually better after it has cooled slightly, so steaming hot rice is not necessary)
2.  Heat up small nonstick pan over medium heat for a few minutes.  When hot, add everything, EXCEPT parsley and eggs.  Let cook for 2 minutes uncovered so that the sake can evaporate, then COVER (to retain as much liquid and sauce as possible) and cook over medium just until chicken is barely done (DON'T OVERCOOK CHICKEN)
3.  Pour in all of the egg, swirl pan around to distribute egg evenly, COVER, AND COMPLETELY TURN OFF HEAT.
4.  While still covered, swirl around pan so that the egg can spread out and the sauce can also slightly cook the eggs.
5.  After 1 minute, uncover and check the eggs.  If they are not finished cooking, cover and wait another 30 seconds with a few swirls of the pan.  Repeat this step until eggs are done.

Here is the slightly tricky part.  You need to under cook the eggs properly.  The stage you are looking for is the whites to be 3/4 cooked, 1/4 jiggly and translucent.  This should take 2-3 minutes.  Do not play it safe and wait for the eggs to solidify.  If you wait for that point, you will end up just eating scrambled eggs.  The whites should still be 1/4 translucent.

6.  Spoon everything, including all the liquid, on top of rice, sprinkle with minced parsley and serve immediately.