OYAKO DONBURI

Have you ever come home too tired and uninspired to cook dinner?

That’s me (almost everyday).

This delicious one pot meal is a favourite of my kids and hubby.  I love it too.  It’s savoury and comforting.  Though I’m not Japanese, I’m thinking this might be one of those common weekday meals for the family because it’s so darned easy and economical.

When I came home today, I had all of half an hour to think of and make dinner.  I started my rice cooker and then I whipped out a pot and dumped in the sauce ingredients and brought that to a boil while I sliced onions and the raw chicken.  I dumped the chicken and onions in, lowered the heat and covered the lid for a little while while I cracked the eggs into a bowl.   By the time my daughter had almost finished practicing piano, I was pretty much done with the prep work.

I went down to listen to the last bit of her practicing and we got into another argument about how many times she’s supposed to practice her pieces.  She thinks that playing each piece twice (really fast) is enough; whereas I think that for the money I’m paying for lessons, I’d like her to practice each piece at least 4 times or even more until the icky-sounding parts sound better.  There was a lot of whining, which is high up there on my pet peeves…and a lot of wasting of time while she sighed and threw her little chest out as she pouted.   Since I don’t tolerate whining, there was a stand-off as usual.  Eventually, she relented.   I wonder why I  never acted like this when I practiced when I was younger.  I just did it and kept going at it until the piece of music sounded decent.  I couldn’t stand it if it didn’t sound like music to my ears.  I don’t even recall my mom telling me to go practice.  I just kind of did it.  

Well, by the time she was finished the oyako donburi was ready.   The savoury soy flavoured sauce and tender chicken and egg went down well.  We all forgot about the nit-pickyness of a few minutes ago.  Oyako Donburi tastes like a big hug.

 
OYAKO DONBURI
4 cups cooked rice (Japanese rice preferred)
1 cup chopped chicken meat
1 cup sliced onions
4 large eggs
1 T chopped green onion
Sauce:
2 T sugar
4 T soya sauce
1 T mirin
1/4 t salt
1 t dashinomoto (instant stock mix)
1 cup water
freshly steamed rice to serve.

1. Mix sauce ingredients together and heat in a medium saucepan
   
2. Add chicken or beef and onions to the sauce. Cook until meat is done.
   
3. Add slightly beaten eggs into the sauce mixture. Gently cook on medium heat (do not boil). Once eggs are cooked, turn heat off and let sit for approximately 3 minutes
   
4. Pour the sauce mixture over bowls of hot rice
   
5. Garnish with shredded nori and finely chopped green onions