Name: Soboro Don
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 250 grams minced chicken ((see notes after the recipe)); 1 tablespoon cooking oil ((halve the amount if the minced chicken includes the skin)); 2 tablespoons soy sauce; 1 tablespoon sake; 1 tablespoon mirin; ¼ teaspoon grated ginger; 1 tablespoon sugar; 3 eggs; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 tablespoon cooking oil; cooked Japanese rice; sliced scallions

Soboro Don

Connie Veneracion

Minced chicken cooked in soy sauce, sugar, sake and mirin. Served over rice with egg and greens.

Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 20 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Japanese

Servings people

Ingredients

250 grams minced chicken (see notes after the recipe)
1 tablespoon cooking oil (halve the amount if the minced chicken includes the skin)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sake
1 tablespoon mirin
¼ teaspoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon sugar

For the eggs

3 eggs
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon cooking oil

To complete the dish

Instructions

Marinate the chicken

In a bowl, stir together the chicken, cooking oil, soy sauce, sake, mirin, ginger and sugar. Cover and set aside.

Beat the eggs in a bowl with salt and sugar.
Heat the cooking oil in a frying pan and pour in the eggs. Tilt the pan to allow the eggs to spread. Cook until set.
Transfer the omelet to a cutting board. Roll up then cut into thin strips. Set aside.

Cook the soboro

Reheat the frying pan. Spread the chicken with the marinade evenly.
Cook over medium-high heat for about a minute then stir. Continue cooking, with occasional stirring, until the liquid has dried up.

Assemble the soboro don

Ladle cooked Japanese rice into three bowls.
Top the rice with soboro, egg and scallions.
Serve the soboro don immediately.

Notes

You can buy ground chicken to make soboro. Ground breast or thighs. Note, though, that because there is very little oil involved in the cooking, ground skinless chicken breast meat will be dry rather than moist at the end of cooking time. Ground chicken thigh fillets, which contain enough fat, would be a better choice.

At home, however, we went a step farther. Grocery-bought ground chicken is too finely ground for our taste. To add more texture to the chicken, we opted for chicken thigh fillets, skin on, that were minced right in our kitchen. The resulting mince had uneven pieces with some larger than others. We loved it.

Now, about the egg. Scrambled eggs, barely set and still wet, is the most popular way of cooking the eggs that go with soboro. We opted to cook the eggs as a thin omelet which was rolled and cut into thin strips.

Keyword Chicken, Rice Bowl

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