Oyakodon

There are hundreds of weeknights in a year. That’s a lot of dinner! Test kitchen editor Kendra Vaculin is here to help. In her series Speedy Does It, she shares whoa-worthy meals you can get on the table like snaps fingers that.

Oyakodon, or oyako donburi, is a Japanese chicken and egg rice bowl—a classic comfort food that gets its name from the “parent and child” relationship of its two main ingredients. Chopped chicken pieces and beaten egg are simmered in dashi; while you can use homemade dashi stock, Hondashi, or instant dashi powder, is just as flavorful. Like bouillon cubes but for deeply savory bonito-and-kelp stock, Hondashi is highly concentrated and can be kept in your refrigerator for up to a year. With a few additions (soy sauce, sugar, and fragrant sake), it becomes a balanced sweet and savory broth you’ll want to spoon over white rice until the last drop is gone.

Traditionally oyakodon is made in special, small pans; each batch serves two, and when it’s ready, home cooks in Japan slide the chicken and egg mixture (with the broth underneath) right onto a bowl of rice. For this larger format version, we’re cooking four servings in one frying pan.

Adding the eggs in two stages ensures you get varied texture in every bite: some fully set and some a little softer, which adds to the overall coziness of this rustic, homey dish.

Dry sake is ideal here, as it’s slightly less sweet. If you happen to have sweet sake on hand, go ahead and use it! Just halve (or omit, depending on your taste preferences) the sugar in the broth.