Oyako Don

One night, I was watching television and this programme taught how to make Oyako Don!

Oyako Don is a Chicken-and-Egg Rice bowl. Oyako means Parent-and-Child, so it's easy to understand why this dish uses chicken meat and egg right? ^^

I once went to a Japanese restaurant and there was this item on the menu: 他人丼 (Ta-nin Don)

Ta-nin means stranger. 

I was very curious because I've never seen this dish before, so I asked the chef what it was. He explained that, instead of chicken meat, he used pork. A pig and an egg are not related, so it's ta-nin (stranger) don. 

Haha!  It's interesting right!

My Ta-nin Don!

So, you can make ta-nin don too, if you are not fond of chicken meat. Honestly, I'm not a fan of chicken meat. ^^" But, I was strangely attracted to making Oyako Don for that week. I wanted to see if I could make it delicious.

For Oyako Don, these are the ingredients you need:

Ingredients (Serves 2):

- 2 chicken drumsticks (chopped into bite-sized pieces)

- 1/2 teaspoon of salt

- sprinkle of white pepper

- 1 teaspoon sesame oil (optional)

- 1 teaspoon of mirin / hua diao jiu (optional)

- 1 teaspoon of cornflour

- 1 onion

- 1 tablespoon of soy sauce

- 3 tablespoons of water

- 1 tablespoon of mirin

- 2 eggs

- 1 stalk of spring onion, chopped into tiny pieces

- 1 cup of rice, cooked

Side vegetables (Optional)

- A few leaves of cabbage

- 1 teaspoon of salt

- 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar

- 1 tablespoon of sugar

- 1 stalk of spinach

How to prepare chicken:

I'm sure some supermarkets sell chicken thigh meat that are already prepared for you (deboned, de-skinned, chopped into bite-sized pieces). Or, if you are buying from the market, you can ask the chicken seller to help you do it. 

However, if like me, you could only find chicken drumsticks like these...

...I'm actually going to teach you how to peel off the skin and debone your thigh meat for this recipe. If you are scared of meat, or disgusted by meat, I'm really sorry. >"< You may use vegetables to replace chicken meat. ^^"

If you find this too hard, get prepared ones, or chicken breast meat which will be so much easier to handle. 

1. Wash the chicken. I washed it 3 times.

2. Drain the chicken on a colander. 

3. Make a cut at one part of the chicken's skin and peel off the skin slowly. At hard to peel places, use your knife to cut it away from the meat.

4. Your chicken now has no more skin. 

5. Using this similar method, make a cut at one part of the chicken's meat till you hit the bone with your knife. Now, slowly use your knife and cut around the bone, removing the chicken meat. You will end up with a piece of chicken fillet.

6. Now, chicken meat has super many tendons, and one of the major reasons why I hate eating chicken is this. So, cut them away from the meat. This is very easy and straightforward. You see a white tendon, just pull it, then use your knife to slice it off. 

7. Chop your chicken into bite-sized pieces and season it with salt, pepper, sesame oil, mirin, cornflour. Mix thoroughly with your fingers.

8. Slice your onions! 

9. Add onions into a pot. Add in soysauce, water, and mirin. Boil them under high flame.

10. Beat egg slightly. You still want to be able to see some egg white so your finished Oyako-Don will look pretty with white and yellow egg streaks~

11. Add in chicken and let them simmer in the pot till fully cooked (about 15 mins)!

12. Add in half of your egg mixture.

13. Just before serving, add in the other half of the egg mixture and garnish with spring onions. 

14. Prepare 2 hot steaming bowls of rice. Divide chicken-and-egg mixture into the 2 bowls, on top of the rice.

Side vegetables (optional):

15. Boil spinach until leaves are slightly soft (about 1 minute). Drain and put on rice.

16. Boil cabbage leaves until soft (about 3 minutes). Season with salt, vinegar, and sugar. Pour out excess liquid. Add onto rice. 

And we're done~!!!! ^^

Even though I cooked this myself, I still don't really like chicken meat and didn't really want to eat it. Haha! If you don't like chicken meat like me, you can replace with lots of mushrooms/ some other meat! I think it would still be delicious~ I think it's delicious because of the egg and sauce. Hehe! My sauce mixture for this recipe is awesome~! So please try it! 

Where to buy:

1. Mirin

All major supermarkets. Check out the Japanese section! ^^ I'm using Kikkoman!