Oyakodon

Ingredients

• 300g boneless chicken thigh, skin removed
• 1 medium onion (about 150g)
• 4 large eggs
• 180ml dashi
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp sake
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 400g hot cooked short-grain rice
• 2 spring onions or a small handful of mitsuba
• Shichimi togarashi, to serve

Before you cook

• Cut the chicken thigh into bite-sized pieces about 3cm across.
• Peel the onion, halve it through the root and slice each half into 5mm half-moons.
• Slice the spring onions thinly on a sharp angle.
• Crack the eggs into a bowl and break the yolks with chopsticks, stirring only four or five times so streaks of white and yolk remain separate.
• Measure the dashi, soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar into a jug and stir until the sugar dissolves.

Steps

1. Pour half the seasoned dashi into a small frying pan about 20cm wide and set it over medium heat.
2. Scatter in half the sliced onion and let it simmer for 3 minutes until it turns translucent at the edges.
3. Add half the chicken pieces in a single layer and simmer for 5 minutes, turning them once, until no pink remains.
4. Pour two thirds of half your beaten egg in a slow spiral over the chicken, starting at the outside and working in.
5. Cover the pan and cook for 45 seconds, until the egg has just clouded over.
6. Pour the remaining egg over the top and cover again for 20 seconds only, so this second layer stays loose and glossy.
7. Take the pan off the heat and let it sit for 30 seconds while you fill a deep bowl with half the hot rice.
8. Slide the whole chicken and egg raft out of the pan onto the rice, keeping it in one piece.
9. Scatter over half the spring onion and add a pinch of shichimi togarashi.
10. Repeat the whole process with the remaining ingredients to build the second bowl, and serve it straight away while the egg is still soft.