Oyakodón, 親子丼, yummy japanese fast food

Oyakodon is a fast and very popular dish of Japanese cuisine, the typical one served at street stalls or the one you prepare when you're in a hurry.

It is made with chicken, egg and cooked rice. The name come to mean Father and Son (親子丼). The Japanese character 親 means father and 子 is son, referring to the fact that you eat the father (the chicken) and his unborn child (the egg). The pronunciation is o-ya-kodón, so now you know how to read a Japanese letter where the dish appears as well as how to request it.

From here there are two ways to cook it: following the Japanese recipe to the letter or a substitute with ingredients that are easier to find. I'll give you both.

By the way, the Japanese did not eat too much chicken or eggs until a boss told them to do so because the protein they received from an almost exclusive diet of fish and rice seemed to him to be little protein, so do not look for Oyakodon or Omurice in old cookbooks Japanese because they did not directly exist.

The "eat by command" thing is not exclusive to the disciplined Japanese people. In the 18th century Frederick II of Prussia ordered the population to eat potatoes to stop starving, which must have been traumatic because until then the peasants used them to feed their cattle. Imagine if they told you that from tomorrow to eat cat food...

INGREDIENTS (4 people)

• 400 grams (14 oz) of boneless chicken thighs, cut into small pieces and without skin
• 300 ml (1 cup and a half) dashi broth*
• 1 cup (200 ml) jasmine rice**
• 1 large red onion
• 4 eggs
• 1 onion
• 1 spring onion (optional)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce*
• 1 tablespoon mirin*
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar

* The dashi broth is obtained by boiling kombu seaweed with dried fish. Nowadays everyone in Japan buys dashi in freeze-dried sachets and adds water to them. It can be found in specialized stores, but if you want to save yourself the trouble or you don't have the possibility to buy it, you can do the same with 300 ml (1 cup and half cup) of chicken broth and half a teaspoon of miso (or even without miso). Soy sauce is easy to find and mirin is rice wine, which can be substituted for white wine heated to lose the alcohol.

Cut the chicken into small, bite-sized pieces.

Next, pour the dashi broth (or substitute, or just chicken broth) into a large saucepan over medium heat. Then add the mirin, soy sauce and sugar. Let it boil and then lower the heat so that it cooks slowly.

We cook the rice. The usual in Japan is jasmine but basmati can be used. In any case always long grain rice.

Add the chicken to the dashi broth and cook for 15 minutes. Julienne the onion and add it when the chicken is cooked.

In a separate pan, pour the beaten eggs - not too much - and cook them over high heat for about 2 minutes. At the end of cooking they will still be quite liquid.

In each individual bowl we pour the rice to the bottom. On top of it, the chicken and the soup proportionally and finally the egg, which will finish cooking in the diner's bowl.

It is served very hot, sprinkling the chopped onion on top, if we like it that way.