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Golden crispy shrimp and vegetable tempura served over steamed rice and drizzled with tentsuyu dipping sauce, this Tendon or Tempura Donburi (Rice Bowl) recipe makes a special weekend dinner for your loved ones! Enjoy them piping hot with a bowl of miso soup and refreshing salad.
Tendon (天丼) is a short name for Tempura Donburi (天ぷら丼ぶり) or Tempura Rice Bowl. If you are in Japan and see Tendon on the menu, don’t worry, it’s not “connective tissue” that’s being served. 🙂
Like many of you, my family dips tempura in Tsuyu (dipping sauce) or sprinkle sea salt to enjoy. Today I want to introduce you to another way to enjoy tempura, which is tempura served over steamed rice in a donburi bowl.
How to Make Tendon (Tempura Rice Bowl)
1. Make Tempura
Tendon (Tempura Rice Bowl) consists of assorted tempura served on top of a bed of steamed rice in a large donburi bowl. The type of tempura can be anything, but I recommend serving both Shrimp Tempura and Vegetable Tempura.
2. Make Ten Tsuyu or “Tare”
When tempura is served over the rice bowl, the tempura dipping sauce is usually saltier and thicker since it’s enjoyed with plain rice. You can reduce the regular tempura dipping sauce by letting the moisture evaporate, which thickens the sauce. You can also add a bit of mirin or/and sugar to make it slightly sweeter.
3. Assemble Tempura to Make Donburi (Rice Bowl)
Unlike regular tempura, we don’t dip the tempura in a dipping sauce. Instead, tempura sauce or Tsuyu is drizzled over the rice generously. Then serve hot tempura over the rice in a circular shape so that it looks more organized and appetizing. Drizzle the sauce over the tempura and ready to serve!
Make Donburi (Rice Bowl) for a Quick Dinner
I usually make a donburi dish when my children have lots of activities because donburi does not take much time to prepare. I would make miso soup, salad, and a donburi dish. Here are my go-to Donburi recipes.
- Gyudon
- Oyakodon
- Unadon (Unagi Don)
- Chicken Katsu Don
- Tekka Don (Tuna Bowl)
- Salmon & Salmon Roe Don
- Soboro Don
A typical donburi dish requires 30 minutes or less to prepare.
Crispy crunchy tempura on rice is simply delicious. If you are eating leftover tempura on the following day, make sure to re-heat tempura in a toaster oven or oven. DO NOT use a microwave to heat up because it will make them soggy. Enjoy!
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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Golden crispy shrimp and vegetable tempura served over steamed rice and drizzled with tentsuyu, this Tendon or Tempura Donburi (Rice Bowl) recipe makes a special weekend dinner for your loved ones! Enjoy them piping hot with a bowl of miso soup and refreshing salad.
- 1 serving cooked Japanese short-grain rice
- 1 serving Shrimp Tempura (Click here for the recipe)
- 1 serving Vegetable Tempura (Click here for the recipe)
- 1 tempura sauce (the sauce recipe can be found in both tempura recipes)
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This recipe is to guide you through assembling Tendon. Therefore, the recipe does not include the prep and cook time for your tempura, tempura sauce, or steamed rice. Please look at my tempura recipes for more details because prep/cook time varies depends on serving size and ingredients of your choice.
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If you use leftover tempura from the previous day, re-heat tempura in the oven or oven toaster. Do not microwave as the tempura batter gets too soft.
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Follow tempura dipping sauce recipe in my shrimp tempura or vegetable tempura recipes. Let the sauce simmer and reduce until the sauce starts to thicken. You can also add sugar and/or mirin to sweeten a little (optional) as it's tastier when served with steamed rice.
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Whether you make shrimp tempura or/and vegetable tempura, or gluten-free tempura, adjust the ingredients based on the number of tempura bowls you plan to make.
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Assemble tendon. Put steamed rice in a donburi bowl, drizzle tempura sauce on the rice, and place tempura pieces on top. Drizzle generous tempura sauce on top of the tempura. Alternatively, instead of drizzling the sauce on top, you can quickly dip the tempura in the sauce before placing it on top of a bed of steamed rice.
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.
Oh, how I wish this bowl was in front of me right now! =) Piping-hot shrimp tempura on a bed of rice is absolute bliss. Thanks for sharing the simple recipe with us.
Thank you Kimmi! Yeah piping hot tempura sounds good right now… and still 9:30! 😀
Hi Nami-san!
Your Tendon looks so…so…GORGEOUS!
Tenkomori!! 🙂
I love ‘don’ dish, especially Tendon.
This Tendon got everything I love on it!
You even got a Renkon and Shiso leaf!!
Wow…another amazing dish.
Thanks!
Hi Ayako-san! Thank you! I love renkon and all the root vegetables for tempura. They are my favorite, more than shrimp tempura! And shiso leaf… yeah we need some green color in there! 😉 Thank you for your comment!
I like japanese food because i cook japanese food if i joining japanese officers on board i am ship cook!!!!
Hi Lando! Wow that’s really cool! Japanese officers must be happy to have you as a chef! 🙂
Hi Nami!
Love all your recipes and your site is my go to when i wanna recreate Japanese food ive had in Japan after living there for 8 years.
This one is next on my list! I just have one question. When i was there, the tempura in tendon is usually served with a sweeter and thicker teriyaki-like sauce and not the usual tempura dipping sauce as featured in this recipe. Would you happen to have a recipe for that sauce?
Hi Carmela! Thank you for your kind words and I’m happy to hear you enjoy my site. 🙂
What you had is a thicker (and usually sweeter) version of tempura dipping sauce. Some use thin sauce while others make it sweeter and thicken the sauce with either reducing it or/and adding starch. We don’t call this sauce “Teriyaki sauce” but as you probably know, the ingredients for making teriyaki sauce is same, just the different ratio…
今日、天丼を作りました。今、天丼は私の好きな丼ぶり! 天丼は、さつまいも、にんじん、牛蒡、れんこん、チキン、とエビがありました。全部大好きでした! I followed the directions for the tempura batter and it stuck perfectly to the ingredients. I should also mention that the tempura sauce was AMAZING. If you have not tried this recipe, I strongly recommend it.
ナミさん、ありがとうございます!
こんにちは、Jarrett!優しいコメントありがとう!美味しそうに作ってもらえて、私も嬉しいです。天丼大好き!ちょっと面倒だけど、揚げたての天ぷらは美味しいですね。天つゆも気に入ってもらえてよかったです。どうもありがとう!!