I attempted this dish with fear and trepidation because I just know most of the Japanese dishes I love to be quite labor intensive with ingredients that aren't always your standard pantry inventory. But I have been craving this so bad and I wanted a new dish to thrill my son and husband with, so I gave it a go anyway. I will most definitely make this dish again and with better orchestration and time management. A little more finesse like an orchestra conductor instead of a mad scientist's clueless apprentice.
INGREDIENTS
7-8 oz (around 200g) chicken breast tenders
3 eggs (1 for breading and 2 for the donburi)
half a white onion, sliced
3/4 to 1 cup panko bread crumbs (depending on how big your chicken tenders are)
3/4 c all purpose flour
salt and pepper
cooked plain rice
for the sauce:
2/3 to 1 c dash broth (I made this from scratch; recipe below if you want to make it too)
1 1/2 TBS soy sauce
1 1/2 TBS mirin
1 1/2 tsp sugar (I used plain brown sugar. Didn't even bother with sugar substitute on this one)
dashi broth:
kombu
bonito flakes
water
DIRECTIONS:
To make dashi broth, because we only need one cup of it at most, you'll need just a piece of kombu (dried seaweed) that measures about 3x3. Soak that in 2/3 to 1 cup of water for 30 minutes. Then put it on medium-low heat and cook to an almost boil (when you start to see bubbles form on the side) then take the kombu out and put the bonito flakes in. Bring the bonito flakes to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for about a minute. Then pour the broth through a sieve to get the bonito flakes out. Set aside (you can use the bonito flakes another time, but since I have a lot in stock and only used a small amount for this broth, I just tossed it).
To make chicken katsu, pat thawed chicken breast dry. Season with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. Then coat in beaten egg, dredge in panko crumbs, and shallow-fry until golden brown (be mindful of your heat so you don't end up with a burnt breading but undercooked breast). I cooked each breast for 2 minutes per side. Once cooked, place on wire rack to keep it crispy.
Next, take your sliced onions and cook them in a pan. Add the soy sauce, mirin, and sugar to the dashi stock and add that to the onions. Bring it to a boil and then turn down heat to medium until onions are cooked through and wilted. Once onions are cooked through, place chicken katsu into the dashi and onion broth and turn heat up to medium high. Take the eggs (I actually didn't want to waste the leftover egg from the dredging and coating stage, so I used that as well), beat them, and then evenly pour them over the chicken katsu and dashi. Cook it all up until the egg is nearly well done but still looks silky and runny.
Serve over hot rice and sprinkle with togarashi if you have it (I am all out of togarashi and it's my favorite Japanese condiment--so I'm a little gutted haha). I felt like sprinkling mine with chives and it worked well.
I hope you enjoy this as much as my little family did! It's a dish that requires multi-tasking but once you get the hang of it, it's not so intimidating.