Sanshoku don is a colourful and tasty dish made with seasoned Japanese "soboro" chicken, scrambled eggs and blanched spinach served on top of a bowl of hot and fluffy Japanese rice. It's tasty, filling and perfect for dinner and lunchboxes!
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Sanshoku Soboro Don
So the name of this dish is a bit of a mouthful, but "sanshoku" (三色) simply means "three colours" and represents the 3 main ingredients to top this dish.
- Ground "soboro" chicken → Brown
- Scrambled egg → Yellow
- Boiled veg → Green
Even though 3 colours commonly refer to these ingredients, the ingredients can vary by region and family. Some people use salmon (pink) instead of chicken, or even make it 4 colours! I added pickled ginger to give my dish an extra pop of colour and flavour, but this is optional.
What is Soboro?
Soboro (そぼろ) is the Japanese word for ground meat or fish that has been seasoned and fried. It doesn't only have to be chicken. Soboro is most commonly served on rice.
Seasoning
My soboro chicken is seasoned with the following:
- Soy sauce
- Oyster sauce
- Sake
- Mirin
- Sugar
Substitutes
If you don't have sake, you can substitute it for dry sherry or white wine.
And if you dont have access to mirin, you can use rice wine vinegar with a bit of extra sugar (to counteract the sourness).
Soboro Don for Lunch
Because it's a colourful dish, this is also a popular option for a bento box (lunch box).
You can also use leftover soboro chicken to make onigiri (rice balls). Check out my recipe here.
You can sometimes find it in Japanese convenience store's bento boxes too.
Alright, let's enjoy this tasty, filling and easy dish!
Check out our video for How to make Sanshoku Donburi
Step by step recipe
Chicken Soboro Don (Sanshoku Donburi)
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 2 Servings 1x
Description
How to make vibrant Japanese Sanshoku Soboro Donburi (三色丼ぶり) with seasoned ground chicken, sweet scrambled egg and boiled spinach served on fluffy Japanese white rice.
Ingredients
Main Ingredients
- 2 bowls of Cooked Rice (approx 150g uncooked. See how to cook Japanese rice here.)
- 150g (5oz) Ground chicken mince
- 3 medium Eggs
- 2 cups (60g) Spinach
- 1 tsp Red pickled ginger (optional)
For the Mince
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp sake (see note)
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 1 tbsp sugar
For the Egg
- ½ tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp sake
- 1 pinch of salt
For the Greens
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 pinch sugar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- ½ tsp white sesame seeds
Instructions
- First, crack the egg into a small bowl with ½ tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp sake and a pinch of salt, then whisk them together.
- Take a non-stick pan and heat on medium (oil optional) and pour in the egg, fry it until half cooked.
- Turn off the heat and mix it up to make it scrambled.
- Take it out of the pan and set aside in a bowl.
- Return the pan to the heat and add the chicken mince. (No need to clean it out, oil is optional here too as the mince usually contains enough fat to prevent it sticking to the pan.)
- Add 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp sake, 1 tbsp mirin and 1 tbsp sugar to the mince and cook on a high heat until the liquid is completely reduced. Once all the liquid is gone, remove the pan from the heat.
- Blanch the spinach separately in a small pan of boiling water and a pinch of salt for approx 1 min. Once done, pour the contents of the pan through a colander to drain the water out.
- Place the blanched spinach in a small bowl and mix with 1 tsp soy sauce, a pinch of sugar, 1 tsp sesame oil and ½ tsp of white sesame seeds.
- Dish up the cooked rice into two large bowls and then arrange the egg, soboro chicken and greens on top.
- Garnish with red picked ginger (optional) and enjoy!
Notes
If you can’t find sake then you can substitute with dry sherry or white wine
The alcohol in the sake will be cooked away but if you really don’t want to use it, you can just add an equal amount of water instead.
Using a rice cooker is the easiest way to cook rice for donburi but if you want to see our post on how to cook Japanese style rice on the stove, see here.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Rice
- Method: Fry
- Cuisine: Japanese
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OTHER DONBURI RECIPES
If you love rice bowls, check out some of my other popular donburi recipes!
- Yakinikudon (Beef fried in a yakiniku BBQ style sauce and served on rice)
- Katsudon (Crispy pork cutlet and steamed egg served on rice)
- Butadon (Thick pieces of pork belly fried in a caramelised soy sauce served on rice)
- Garlic Teriyaki Chicken don (Flavourful chicken thigh coated in a garlic infused teriyaki sauce and served on rice)
- Oyakodon (Delicious pan fried chicken and steamed egg served on rice)
