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–+ servings
sanshoku don made with chicken soboro, scrambled egg and blanched spinach served over rice and topped with red pickled ginger on a wooden background

Sanshoku Soboro Donburi (Tricolor Chicken Rice Bowl)

Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Author Yuto Omura
Servings 2 servings

Ingredients 
 

Egg Crumbs

  • 3 eggs with deep-colored yolks, if you can choose
  • ½ tbsp sugar
  • ½ tbsp sake
  • ⅛ tsp salt for the eggs

Chicken Soboro

  • 150 g ground chicken any cut your store has, or ground turkey
  • 1 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp sake
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 10 g ginger root julienned, or 1 tsp grated ginger

Sesame Spinach

Assembly

Instructions 

  • Crack 3 eggs into a bowl and add ½ tbsp sugar, ½ tbsp sake and ⅛ tsp salt. Stir until the sugar and salt dissolve completely (do not whip it).
    whisked egg in steel mixing bowl.
  • Warm a nonstick frying pan over medium heat and oil it lightly. Pour in the eggs. Once they set slightly, stir them into a scramble. When no runny raw egg is left, turn off the heat.
    scrambled egg in a frying pan on the stove top.
  • Spread the egg crumbs on a tray or plate. Wipe the pan clean of egg (wash it if any has scorched on). Stir together 1 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp sake, 1 tbsp mirin and 1 tbsp sugar in a small bowl.
    scrambled egg in a steel container.
  • Put the pan back over the heat, oil it, and stir-fry 10 g ginger root for 10-20 seconds. As soon as the ginger is fragrant, add 150 g ground chicken.
    Raw ground chicken and julienned ginger in a frying pan to make soboro for sanshoku donburi.
  • As the color turns, speed up your stirring a little. Cook until the chicken is in small, separate crumbs and no pink shows.
    Ground chicken and ginger frying in a pan on the stove top.
  • Pour in the soboro seasonings and boil over high heat. While the pan is still wet with plenty of liquid, wash the bowl you used for the eggs. Near the end, keep stirring along the bottom of the pan, and take it off the heat once the liquid has cooked off completely.
    Pouring sauce over cooked ground chicken in a frying pan to make sanshoku soboro don
  • Bring a generous 1 L of water to a boil in a pot. While you wait, fill a bowl with ice and water. Make a cross-shaped cut in the root end of 120 g Oriental spinach, then wash away the grit under running water.
    Cooking the thicker parts of spinach in boiling water (leaves not yet submerged)
  • When the water boils, add 2 tsp salt. Put the spinach in roots first and boil for 30 seconds, then sink the leaves and boil 15-30 seconds longer (do not cover the pot).
    Whole spinach (both stems and leaves) submerged in a pot of boiling water on the stove
  • Transfer the spinach right away to the ice water. After 30 seconds, when it feels cold, take it out. Drain in a colander, wring firmly with both hands and chop into 3-4 cm pieces.
    Blanched spinach in a bowl of ice water
  • Mix 1 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), 1 tsp toasted sesame oil, 1 tsp ground sesame seeds and 1 g bonito flakes (katsuobushi) in a bowl. Add the spinach and toss well.
    Blanched Oriental spinach coated with sesame sauce in a bowl.
  • Rewarm the soboro gently. Divide 2 portions cooked Japanese short-grain rice among the bowls and level the surface with the back of a spoon.
    rice in a bowl
  • Picture the rice in thirds. Spoon the egg crumbs onto one third and the soboro onto another, each in a single mound, then finish the last third with the sesame spinach. Top each bowl with 1 tbsp red pickled ginger (benishoga) if you like. Enjoy!
    sanshoku don (soboro chicken rice bowl) topped with pink pickled ginger (benishoga)

Notes

Break up the white before cooking: Strands of white left in the eggs cook into white specks and cloud the yellow. Keep mixing until no clear strands remain.
Hold off on seasoning while it reduces: Salt and sweetness both concentrate as the liquid boils off. Soboro that tastes right while the pan is wet ends up too strong once it is dry. Taste only when the liquid is almost gone.
If the soboro comes out dry: Add a splash of mirin or water, cover and set over low heat. Turn off the heat as soon as it is warm.
Squeeze the spinach completely dry: Leftover water pools at the bottom of the bowl, turns the rice soggy and thins the dressing. Made ahead, the spinach weeps even more water.
Serve on warm rice: Soboro fat firms up on cold rice. Fill the bowls while the rice and the soboro are both warm.
Mix as you eat: Keep the 3 toppings in their own sections, and scoop a little of each onto the rice with every bite.