Oyakodon (Japanese Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl)

Oyakodon is a Japanese rice bowl (donburi) of chicken and onion simmered in dashi with soy sauce and mirin, under softly set egg. "Oya" means parent, "ko" means child and "don" is short for donburi: the chicken and the egg end up in the same bowl. You need chicken thighs, eggs, onion, dashi, soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar and short-grain rice. In Japan it's everyday home food and a regular on cheap canteen menus.

You can, but most of the flavour lives in the broth, so you'll taste the swap. The easiest route is instant dashi powder, dissolved as the packet says. If you don't have that either, use a light chicken stock with a little extra soy sauce and mirin: close, though not the same.

It stays on the heat too long and gets beaten too thoroughly. Break the eggs up with chopsticks in just a few strokes so streaks of white remain, and pour them in two additions. After the second, cover the pan and take it off the heat almost at once: the egg finishes from residual heat and the hot rice. If it already looks done in the pan, it will be overcooked by the time it's on the rice.

Boneless thigh, skin on or off as you like. It stays juicy as it simmers and has more flavour than breast, which dries out quickly in broth and turns stringy. If breast is all you have, slice it thinner and simmer it no longer than 3 minutes. Either way, cut bite-sized pieces so they cook through before the egg goes in.

Both are egg-topped donburi simmered in dashi and cooked in the same small pan. In oyakodon the chicken simply simmers in the broth, while katsudon has a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet instead. Oyakodon is noticeably quicker because there's no deep-frying, and katsudon is more filling and crunchy. The broth is almost identical, so once you've made one, you can cook the other without a recipe.