Minced chicken cooked in soy sauce, sugar, sake and mirin served over rice with egg and greens. The chicken is seasoned like teriyaki but a bit sweeter. One of our favorite donburi dishes, soboro don cooks fast and the ingredients are staples in most Asian kitchens.Â
Cook’s notes
Soboro (minced meat, fish or eggs) don (short for donburi which means rice bowl dish) consists of three components:
It’s not that difficult. The fillets are cut into thin strips then the strips are cut into small cubes. The cut pieces are larger than ground meat but I like it that way. Chunkier meat gives the dish better texture.
Some cooks say that properly cooked soboro don means the chicken is not allowed to brown nor should the sauce be cooked long enough to allow it to caramelize. I find that bland on both counts.
My method for cooking the chicken is to spread it in the pan, allow the skins to render fat and cook until the first signs of browing is visible. Then I add the seasonings and grated ginger. Everything is cooked with occasional stirring until the mixture is quite dry, and the chicken pieces are glossy.
I prefer to cook the eggs as a thin omelette which is rolled and cut into thin strips. You don’t have to cook and cut the eggs this way but, should you have the inclination, the entire process is illustrated in the instructions section.
We buy edamame frozen. Unshelled. I cook them in the microwave with a little water and salt, allow them to cool a bit and then shell them.
This is an updated recipe. In the old one, chicken breast meat was used because that was what we had and my daughters were hankering for soboro don. While it turned out okay, there is nothing like soboro don cooked with skin-on chicken thigh fillets.
- Meat
- Eggs
- Greens
Chicken
Ground chicken meat is the most common cut used for cooking soboro don. But, in my part of the world, ground chicken means ground breast meat. Because it is almost fatless, ground breast meat turns dry and stringy by the time the sauce has reduced. To avoid the trap of using what is most convenient, I just mince chicken thigh fillets by hand.
It’s not that difficult. The fillets are cut into thin strips then the strips are cut into small cubes. The cut pieces are larger than ground meat but I like it that way. Chunkier meat gives the dish better texture.
Some cooks say that properly cooked soboro don means the chicken is not allowed to brown nor should the sauce be cooked long enough to allow it to caramelize. I find that bland on both counts.
My method for cooking the chicken is to spread it in the pan, allow the skins to render fat and cook until the first signs of browing is visible. Then I add the seasonings and grated ginger. Everything is cooked with occasional stirring until the mixture is quite dry, and the chicken pieces are glossy.
Scrambled eggs
Scrambled eggs, barely set and still wet, is the most popular way of cooking the eggs that go with the chicken.
I prefer to cook the eggs as a thin omelette which is rolled and cut into thin strips. You don’t have to cook and cut the eggs this way but, should you have the inclination, the entire process is illustrated in the instructions section.
Greens
Thinly sliced scallions are traditional but, sometimes, other greens are used. Green peas, for instance. In this recipe, it’s edamame.
We buy edamame frozen. Unshelled. I cook them in the microwave with a little water and salt, allow them to cool a bit and then shell them.
This is an updated recipe. In the old one, chicken breast meat was used because that was what we had and my daughters were hankering for soboro don. While it turned out okay, there is nothing like soboro don cooked with skin-on chicken thigh fillets.Soboro don
Ingredients
- 6 eggs whisked
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons white sugar
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 kilogram skin-on chicken thigh fillets (2.2 pounds) ground / minced
- ¼ cup Japanese soy sauce
- ¼ cup cooking sake
- ¼ cup mirin
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger (with the juice)
- 1½ cups cooked and shelled edamame
- cooked rice to serve
- toasted sesame seeds to garnish
Instructions
Cook the eggs
- Whisk the salt and sugar with the eggs until dissolved.
- Heat the cooking oil in a pan and pour in the eggs. Leave until the edges are firm then roll to form a log.
- Move to a chopping board and thinly slice the eggs. Set aside.
Cook the chicken
- Without wiping off any oil that remains in the pan in which the eggs were cooked, spread the chicken, set the heat to medium and cook until the chicken skins render fat and the edges are just starting to brown.
- Stir together the soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar, whisk until the sugar is fully dissolved then pour over the chicken. Drop in the grated ginger and stir.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the liquids have dried up and the chicken pieces are coated with a thick and dark reddish glossy sauce.
Assemble the rice bowl
- Ladle cooked rice into bowls.
- Spoon cooked chicken over half of the rice and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Fill the other half with egg strips. Drop in edamame across the middle. Optionally, top with pickled ginger (gari) before serving.
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