Cassie’s Ruminations

Soboro Don (Japanese Chicken Rice Bowl)

This delicious and fast meal is perfect for week nights. My little rice cooker (Zojirushi NS-LAC05XA Micom 3-Cup(Uncooked) Rice Cooker and Warmer) has a timer so you can put rice and water in the bowl in the morning and have hot fluffy rice just in time for dinner when you get home. It’s an awesome feature.

The chicken is marinated in a sweet and savory sauce for a few minutes, then simmered over medium heat to get the fine grain before the heat is turned up to boil off the remaining liquid and get the yummy browned surfaces. The eggs are scrambled over low heat with constant stirring to get a similar small grain size.

Soboro Don (Japanese Chicken Rice Bowl)
Serves 4

For the chicken:
4 tbsp sake
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 large clove garlic, grated
4 tsp granulated sugar
16 oz ground chicken

For the eggs:
8 eggs
1 tsp kosher salt
4 tsp granulated sugar

For serving:
Cooked rice (I do two rice measure cups for 4 servings)

Whisk together the sake, soy sauce, grated ginger, grated garlic, and sugar for the chicken in a large skillet. Add the ground chicken and gently chop up the chicken with a spatula to stir the marinade in well and break up the chicken into fine chunks. It should almost look like oatmeal when you’re done. Set the chicken aside to marinate for a few minutes.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk together with the sugar and salt until the mixture is a consistent viscosity and color. Set the eggs aside.

Put the skillet with the chicken over a burner on medium heat. As the chicken cooks, continue to stir to keep the pieces of chicken small. Once the chicken is cooked through (about 5 minutes), turn the heat up to medium high and boil off the remaining liquid, Brown the chicken well, then remove the chicken to a serving bowl and set aside.

Wipe out the skillet and add a little non-stick spray. Turn the heat to medium low. Pour the eggs into the skillet and scramble, stirring often to keep the grain size small. When the eggs are cooked through, spoon them into another serving bowl.

Spoon rice into a bowl and add egg to one half of the bowl and chicken to the other half. If desired, garnish down the middle with some diced scallions, chives, or even green peas like I did. Serve warm.