A classic winter comfort dish in Japan, Oden is a one-pot dish with an assortment of fish balls, fish cakes, deep-fried tofu, hard-boiled eggs, konnyaku and some vegetables simmered in soy sauce-based dashi broth. It tastes even better the second day!
This week has been really cold in the San Francisco Bay Area and I was thinking what would be the best recipe that represents winter food in Japan. Although there are regional favorites in each area of Japan, I thought Oden (おでん) or Japanese fish cake stew would be a wonderful dish to introduce.
What is Oden?
Oden is a one-pot dish, which is a little bit different from stew or hot pot. It’s more like a simmered dish: assorted fish balls, fish cakes, Atsuage (deep-fried tofu), hard-boiled eggs, konnyaku, and some vegetables are simmered in soy sauce-based broth.
Although the fish cakes are mostly brown and may not look as appetizing to you, once you eat this dish, it’ll be your new winter comfort dish! In my house, I usually serve Oden with Onigiri (rice ball) after my good friend served her oden with onigiri.
I usually make Oden a day before so that all the ingredients will absorb the delicious broth and it tastes much better the following day.
Make Oden at Home
If you are familiar with Japanese drama or cartoon, you have probably seen a scene of salarymen eating Oden and drinking sake at a food stand at night with their coworkers. It has been known as a food stall dish during the night time for relaxing after a day of working. Fortunately, this dish can also be enjoyed at home and we can even take out from convenience stores (e.g. Lawsons, Family Mart, 7-Eleven…etc) during the wintertime. This has even spread to other Asian countries. When I was in Taiwan last month, I saw the 7-Elevens sell Oden (關東煮).
Get Your Donabe (Earthenware Pot) Ready!
How To Season Donabe (Earthenware Pot)
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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A classic winter comfort dish in Japan, Oden is a one-pot dish with an assortment of fish balls, fish cakes, deep-fried tofu, hard-boiled eggs, konnyaku and some vegetables simmered in soy sauce-based dashi broth.
- 8 cups dashi (Japanese soup stock; click to learn more) (1920 ml; I use Awase Dashi)
- 4 Tbsp usukuchi (light-color) soy sauce (It’s not a low-sodium soy sauce)
- 2 Tbsp soy Sauce
- 2 Tbsp sake
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp mirin
- ¼ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Use half for table salt) (to taste)
- 8 inch daikon radish
- 5 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell)
- Nishime Kombu (dried seaweed)
- 4 oz Octopus Sashimi (4 oz, 113 g; optional)
- 1 pkg konnyaku (konjac)
- 1 Negi (long green onion) (chopped, optional)
- 2 packages Oden set (Japanese fish cakes and fish balls)
- 1 aburaage (deep-fried tofu pouch) (for mochi packets)
- 1 kirimochi or homemade mochi (for mochi packets)
- 1 inch carrot (cut into Flower Petals, optional)
- Japanese karashi hot mustard (optional; to serve)
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In a donabe (earthenware pot), make dashi (Japanese soup stock) and add Seasonings.
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Slice daikon into 1-inch pieces and remove the skin (you can peel first with a peeler too).
- Remove the corners (Mentori technique) so that there are no sharp edges. This will prevent daikon from breaking into pieces.
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If you prepare rice to serve with Oden, preserve the white water from cleaning rice. Put daikon and the white water in a small pot and start cooking until a skewer goes through (do not cover the lid). In Japan, we say the rice water will get rid of bitterness and bad smell from daikon and the water also makes daikon beautiful white color. Make sure to cook daikon from cold water so the center of daikon gets cooked slowly before boiling and that will help cook daikon evenly.
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Boil eggs (cook egg from the water, after boiling set timer for 12 minutes, run cold water and peel off shell).
- Cut Nishime Kombu into short pieces and quickly rinse the coating in running water. Make a knot like below.
- Cut and skewer the octopus.
- Cut konnyaku into smaller pieces. Typically triangle shape like below.
- Add the konnyaku in water and bring it to a boil. After boiling, cook for 1 minute and drain. Set aside.
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Put water in a big pot and bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add Nerimono (Japanese fish cakes and fish balls) in boiling water to get rid of excess oil from them – just for 15-30 seconds. Drain and set aside. Cut big pieces into halves. Do the second batch if Nerimono didn’t fit in a pot.
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Make mochi-filled tofu bags. Quickly run aburaage (fried bean curd) in boiling water to remove excess oil. Drain and cut in half. Cut mochi into half. Open one side of Aburaage so you can put mochi in it. Use a toothpick or kombu to tie the aburaage so the mochi won't fall out during the cooking process.
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Put everything except for Nerimono and mochi bag in the donabe and cook covered over low heat for 2-3 hours minimum. Skim off the scum and fat along the way.
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Add Nerimono and mochi bag and cook for 30 minutes (or longer) over low heat.
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Cover and reheat when you are ready to serve. I usually let them soak for overnight (after cool down, keep in the fridge) and eat the next day. Oden is often served with Karashi (hot mustard).
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 and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
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I read many recipes online for oden, and this one is by far my favorite! My bf wanted to make this for the holidays, and while he insisted on sticking to his mother’s recipe, we did include some extras such as the mochi in aburaage from your recipe. Also, he slices the konnyaku into strips, puts a slit down the middle, and twists it inside out – I believe its just for presentation because it looks very pretty. We were curious if you know what the name of this technique is (if it has a name).
Happy New Year!
Hi Bribri! Thank you for your compliment. 🙂 The Konnyaku you are talking about is called Tazuna Konnyaku (https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to/cutting-techniques/tazuna-konnyaku/).
Happy New Year!
Hi Nami,
I have a pot of oden bubbling on the stove right now and can’t wait to dive in and eat! It smells amazing.
It’s beyond the point now, but for future reference, I want to ask you about the 2-3 hours of simmering that happens to everything but the fish cakes. Is that covered, or uncovered? I decided to partially cover, since I wasn’t too sure =)
Wish I could have made this last night and let it sit in the fridge overnight, but I imagine it just means that leftovers will be especially delicious.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Janice! I just updated my recipe with cook “covered”. Partially covered is fine too. That way, the cooking water will not overflow. 🙂 Hope you enjoyed the oden, and yes, next day is even better!
Thanks Nami! My husband and I enjoyed your recipe so much that I decided to make it for my parents when I visited them yesterday. They had never eaten oden before and as it was cooking, my dad kept popping into the kitchen to look into the pot and comment how good it smelled while asking lots of questions about the “interesting” things in there. They both were excited to try something new and each ate generous portions with lots of hot mustard. It really made my night to see how happy they were and how much they loved the oden =) Thank you again!
Hi Janice! So happy to hear your parents enjoyed this. 🙂 It’s one of our favorite meal in winter (I serve with onigiri). 🙂 One of enjoyment to cook for others is that feeling you received. Seeing how much people enjoy your food… it’s such a great feeling. (and I’m thankful for you to share such joy with me!)
What is the difference in cooking it in a clay pot, as opposed to a regular pot?
Hi Joanne! You can use regular pot. Like cast iron pot, claypot will keep the food much longer than regular pot and food will nicely cook with remaining heat while the heat is off. So if you eat at the table with portable cook top, it’s nice to turn off the heat but the food stays warm for a long time. 🙂
Hi Nami I’d like to try making the oden. But can I check how much water do I need to start off with in the claypot? Thanks in advance!
Hi Mox! Thank you so much for noticing the error. It’s 8 cups of water. I updated the recipe. Thanks once again! Hope you enjoy this recipe! 🙂
Hi Nami, thanks so much. Just wanted to say I’ve made a few dishes using your recipes posted and my hubby really loved them. Looking forward to more inspiration from you 🙂
Hi Mox! Aww thank you so much for letting me know! I hope you enjoy cooking dishes from my site. xo 🙂
I love Oden, I got hooked on it in Japanese convini while visiting friends in Okinawa. Its the perfect thing to eat after free-diving all day.
Hi Rebecca! Oh yes it’s nice and warm after diving! 🙂
Why don’t you use potatos?
OMG, that’s right!! That’s my dad’s favorite and I forgot to add in!
What size donabe bowl are you using ? Where can we purchase a donable bowl ? Is it best to have one bowl per person? Please answer my question using my email.
Thank You for your help.
Hi Alexandria! I purchased in Nijiya – a local Japanese grocery store, but you can purchase it on Amazon, too! I have 3 donabe sizes, 5-6, 3-4, and 1 serving. It depends on how many people you want to feed. If you are making for 1-2, then individual small donabe is good size. 🙂 Otherwise, it’s a lot of work to heat individual donabe. 🙂
Thank you for this oden recipe ^o^
You’re welcome, Rin! Hope you enjoy!
Hi Rin! Hope you enjoy! 🙂
What size Donabe would be best for making this recipe? Mine is a bit over 10 inches in diameter, and about 5.5 inches deep.
Hi Mike! I just went to measure… The one I use is 9.8 inches/25 cm (I measured the lid, good for 3-4), and the other one I have is 11 inches/28 cm (good for family of 4-5). Hope this helps!
Thank you so much Nami! I will try making this this weekend!
Hi Mike! Hope you enjoy(ed) this recipe! 🙂
I haven’t had oden in years, so I’m excited to try your recipe. However, I am not a fan of tako or konnyaku. Can I add chicken or fish instead of the tako? Is there any other flavor substitute for konnyaku or can I just omit it? Thanks!
Hi Diane! Tako and konnyaku are not necessary, so you can definitely skip. Both chicken and fish are a bit weird in oden (at least for Japanese). Konnyaku doesn’t have much flavor, so you don’t have to worry about it. Tako adds more flavor, however, I don’t always include it in my regular oden. You can skip both and you won’t be missing out much. 🙂
I just got an instant pot. Is it possible to make this in one?
Hi Wilda! Yeah, I’ve been using it, too! I think slow cooker tastes better, but I haven’t tried side-by-side comparison yet. With slow cooker, you can put more until Max line, but with pressure cooker, you cannot put more than 2/3 of the pot. 🙂
Hi Nami san! I would also like to try this oden recipe in my instant pot. How long should it cook for in slow cooker/pressure cooker mode, & can I put all ingredients in at once after prep work? Thank you!
Hi Marina! After trying a few times, I feel slow cook works better for oden (more time to absorb flavors), although cooking in a short time is always tempting. I usually pressure cook for 10-15 minutes, depending on what you put in though.
Which ingredients are the nerimono? They are not identified except for the mochi bag.
Hi Eileen! Nerimono = all fish cake stuff shown in the two packages below ingredient list. 🙂
The water after cooking daikon, do we use them for stock or throw?
Hi Denise! We usually throw. 🙂
Would be too different to make this in a normal pot?
Hi Parastoo! Don’t worry you can make it in a regular pot. 🙂 Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Your recipe is amazing! I had to purchase the kindle version of your cookbook right away because I enjoyed it so much.
I have a question and I am hoping you will be able to help me. In Taiwan, whenever I buy oden from 7-11, I always grab a few packets of “oden sauce”. It taste so good as dipping sauce for fish cakes in oden.
Do you happen to know how to make the oden dipping sauce? It seemed like it is miso based with sweetness to it.
Thank you so much!
Hi Tiffany! Thank you for your kind words and thanks for purchasing my e-book! I was going to say that it might be a Taiwanese thing (I go to Taiwan once a year but never purchased oden in 7-11 there), as Taiwanese love sauces, BUT I found out that different parts of Japan eats oden differently. I thought we only eat with Karashi mustard (Note: majority of Japan use karashi).
I think southern part of Japan has similar taste to Taiwan (according to my experience) than Tokyo area, for example. I found this article in Japanese, but you can translate to English in Google chrome. It’s interesting how different parts of Japan use different dipping sauce!
I think the miso you’re talking about is similar to Miso Dengaku (https://www.justonecookbook.com/miso-dengaku/). If you can’t get Hatcho Miso you can use red miso, but lacks bold flavor. Hope this helps!
I only have low sodium Kikkoman soy sauce. Is the lighter colored soy sauce purely for aesthetics? I don’t mind a dark oden if it still tastes right.
Hi Heather! Yes, it is for the light color broth so that some dishes look pretty in lighter color broth – not dark and can’t see what’s in there.
In your case (in my case too for home use!), you can use low sodium soy sauce. 🙂
If making this in slow cooker, would 3 hour in low setting be good enough? Also probably I could dump the oden fishcake the next day when I’m about to eat them? So the fishcake won’t be get too mushy? Any thoughts?
Hi Jos! I have a slow cook Oden recipe here:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/oxtail-oden/
Hope that is helpful. 🙂
hii
do I need the usukichi? I have regular maggi soy sauce lol but we have mirin/sake/..
thank you!
Hello Angela! No, you don’t have to. Japanese people are used to the light-color oden broth. It’s the mixture of dashi and Usukuchi (light color soy sauce) and it is light brown color so you can see the ingredients of oden. If you use regular soy sauce, the broth is darker. I highly recommend using Japanese soy sauce at least (if you don’t want to get Usukuchi soy sauce). 🙂
Delicious! Thanks for teaching us how to make tasty Japanese food. Made this already 2-3 times, but wish there were some short cuts, as it involves many separate boiling steps.
Hi Vee! Yeah… IF you are bothered by the factory oil on fish cakes (in general), you can cook straight. In Japan, we try to remove the excess oil from factory deep-frying process. So that’s why we blanch them first. 🙂
Dear Nami!
Planning to cook it in 2 days and deadly stressed, because oden sets are super pricy in my area and it took me like 3 weeks to collect everything with no damage to budget.
I have never eat any of those fishcakes, besides chikuwa.
My questions are:
1. How to add soft ingredients, like hanpen? Won’t it fall apart, when stored in liquid? I got extra pack of hanpen and shrimp balls (just to get familiar with taste).
2. For how long can it be stored in fridge, if it tastes better next day? I usually cook dinners for 2 days.
(My previous situation with non spicy doubajan resolved: our store had heart to refill shelves. There is only 1 manufacturer, can you imagine? Probably, they got short on beans this year)
Thank you very much for wonderful opportunity to learn!
Hi Asa! I apologize for my late response. I’m currently very behind in responding to comments. 🙁
1) Hanpen and soft ingredients won’t break apart. After absorbing more moisture, it will likely to break if you pick up with chopsticks etc.
2) Oh yes, it tastes better the next day. Maybe keep for 3-4 days? It lasts for several days.
I’m so glad you can still buy Doubanjiang! Yay!!!
Will it taste well if dashi soup is made with Kombu dashi only? Can the Katsuobushi be Omitted or substitute with other ingredients?maybe dashi powder?🤔
Hi NJ! To me, I like the katsuobushi taste in the oden and kombu alone is a bit too weak (because of fish cakes). I may sprinkle a little bit of dashi powder if I were you. 🙂
I’m planning on making this with beef tendon (bravely without a pressure cooker) instead of octopus since it wasn’t available at my regular grocery stores. Would a cast iron pot work the same?
Hi Tin! Yes, that works great! Hope you enjoy the recipe!! P.S. Octopus is just one of the ingredients, so don’t worry if you can’t get it. I don’t always include it. 🙂
Hey Nami! Yes, it was really good, and it even lasted us 3 days (during a rainy spell) and it was better each time we had it again especially with the tendon. Will try it with brisket next time, perhaps when it’s colder again 🙂
Hi Tin! I’m so glad to hear that. Thank you for trying the recipe! Mr JOC would LOVE the tendon in his oden. 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback. xo