Chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し) is a savory egg custard dish which served as an appetizer in Japanese restaurants. It literary means ‘steamed in a tea bowl/cup’. Chawan in Japanese means tea bowl or bowl, and -Mushi means steamed.
Typically Chawanmushi includes ginkgo nuts, shiitake mushrooms, kamaboko fish cake and filled with an egg mixture that is flavored with dashi, soy sauce, and mirin.
I often put shrimp in Chawanmushi as it looks pretty when shrimp’s orange/red color peeks from top of the egg custard. My signature recipe for this dish includes ikura (salmon roe) and uni (sea urchin) on top of the Chawanmushi. It’s our favorite way to eat Chawanmushi and I hope you give it a try!
I hope you will enjoy making this Chawanmushi with shrimp recipe! If you try it, don’t forget to share your picture on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter with #JustOneCookbook. Thank you so much for reading, and till next time!
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- 2 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 3 Tbsp water
- ½ cup dashi (click to learn more about this soup stock) (120 ml)
- ½ boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 4 shrimp (peeled and deveined)
- 1 Tbsp sake (for chicken and shrimp)
- 1 large egg (50 g w/o shell)
- 4 ginkgo nuts (pre-cooked) (optional)
- ½ pkg shimeji mushrooms
- 4 slices Kamaboko (fish cake)
- 4 Mitsuba (Japanese parsley) (or scallion/green onion)
- 2 pieces Uni (sea urchin)
- 2 Tbsp Ikura (salmon roe)
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Gather all the ingredients. You can add any seasonal ingredients.
- In a small bowl, put 2 dried shiitake and 3 Tbsp water and rehydrate for 15 minutes. When shiitake becomes soft, squeeze water out and slice them thinly. Tip: This liquid is Shiitake Dashi. If you want to use this Shiitake Dashi as a part of your dashi in this recipe, remove 2 Tbsp from ½ cup dashi, and replace with 2 Tbsp Shiitake Dashi.
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Cut chicken into small cubes so that they will be cooked fast. Marinate the chicken and shrimp in sake for 15 minutes (sake will get rid of unwanted smell).
- Whisk the egg in a medium bowl. Add seasonings and ½ cup dashi. Mix well.
- Then strain the mixture through a sieve into another bowl.
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In a large pot, bring water to boil. The amount of water should cover ½ of chawanmushi cup. When boiling, reduce the heat to the lowest heat.
- Divide all the ingredients into 2 cups. I start with chicken, shiitake, ginkgo nuts, and shimeji. Then put kamaboko, shrimp, and mitsuba on top (the colorful ingredients should be at the top).
- Gently pour the egg mixture into the cups to avoid creating bubbles. Instead of covering the ingredients completely with egg, leave some ingredients exposed so chawanmushi will look nice. Put the chawanmushi lid on (or tightly cover with aluminum foil).
- Gently place the chawanmushi cups inside the hot water (it should NOT be “boiling”) and cover the pot with the lid. Cook for 25-30 minutes on the lowest heat. If you are not adding shrimp and/or chicken, the cooking time should only be 15-20 minutes. Insert a skewer in the center of the cup to check if the egg is done.
- Serve warm with uni and ikura on the side (optional). Place them on top right before you eat.
Soy Sauce: Use Usukuchi Soy Sauce (light color soy sauce) so the egg mixture will not become too dark.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Hi Nami
If i will like to have 20 servings of chawamushi, how should i increase the ingredients?
Thanks.
Cheers
EG
Hi Esther! It is a bit tedious but you just need to multiply this recipe by 10. I usually make 4-6 by simply multiplying and it works. By the way, the steaming 20 cups is probably the most difficult part, especially if you want to serve at the same time. Chawanmushi is usually too hot to eat right after cooking, so you don’t necessarily need to serve “right away”. But still, it tastes good when it’s warm. Good luck!
Ahhhh,, I remember how I used to love New Years celebration because I knew my mother’s friend would always make Chawanmushi! I loved the ginkyo nuts the best, and she would always put extra in mine. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Mary! I hope you enjoy making this at home. It takes a bit of time and effort to make really good chawanmushi, but the result is always worth it. 🙂
Hi Nami, What do you often serve chawanmushi with? Is it considered a side dish? It seems ambiguous! Is it too much to serve it with rice and soup or rice and a simple broiled fish? Or is this a sort of breakfast by itself? Thank you so much!
Hi Nana! Typical chanwanmushi cups are the one you see in my pictures – small, like Japanese tea cup size. We serve it as an appetizer or side dish. Not a main dish, typically. BUT every home cook can make their own way. You can use a big bowl to make chawanmushi and treat it like a main dish. However, you can take so much of the egg mixture, so unless you are a huge fan of egg custard food, I think it’s best served as a side dish. As this is more traditional dish, a broiled fish would be great for a main meal. 🙂
I could not find a video to accompany this recipe for Chawanmushi.I am very frustrated&sad/disappointed 🙃.please include them when you post recipes.If there is no video I have no reason to buy the cookbook or receive your email because the techniques described in a recipe are cold and do not show what you mean.If I can make a dish well I will keep the recipe&explore more recipes from the book.That is fun&does not waste food,time,or money.
Hi LJ! Unfortunately, I don’t get to make a video for each recipe as filming takes a long time to produce and I want to publish more recipes on the website. Most websites do not provide step by step images but I do offer to compromise, even though it takes time to take pictures every step of the cooking. I hope you understand. My priority is always the website with some videos, and I’m not a YouTuber without running a website. Luckily, there are a lot of Japanese recipe videos on YouTube you can explore. 🙂
So far I have only used fresh shitake mushroom to add to my steamed egg because I thought they get cooked faster and hence more suitable for steamed eggs. Which would taste better in steamed eggs? dried or fresh shitake mushooms?
thank you again!
Hi! Dried shiitake mushrooms definitely have more flavor when you’re comparing specifically the flavor. Same thing for fresh herbs vs dried one. Dried ones are more powerful and you need more fresh herbs to have the same effect. 🙂