With sweet-savory ground chicken, scrambled eggs, and green vegetables on top of fluffy steamed rice, Soboro Don (Ground Chicken Bowl) is a Japanese comfort meal for kids and adults and is effortlessly easy to pull together!
Soboro Don (そぼろ丼) is an easy and delicious Japanese rice bowl with seasoned ground chicken and scrambled eggs. It’s easily one of my favorite bento lunch menus growing up!
The sweet-savory flavor of tender chicken and eggs that get mixed in with steamed rice score big on the comfort level. And what’s not to love when you can put a meal together in just 30 minutes? That’s the virtue of rice bowls! Simple, fast, and well-thought-out, you can never go wrong with it.
Table of Contents
What Does Soboro Mean?
The Japanese word Soboro (そぼろ) refers to ground meat, fish, or eggs that are cooked into fine, crumbled pieces.
Often served over steamed rice and eaten together, you’ll find soboro donburi (そぼろ丼ぶり, or don for short, meaning rice bowl dish) and soboro bento (そぼろ弁当) on the menu in Japan.
Ground chicken is the most commonly used protein for this dish, so we call it tori soboro (鶏そぼろ), literally “chicken ground.”
If you happen to dine at a yakitori restaurant where they serve grilled skewers of different parts of the chicken, try their soboro don. It always tastes the best as yakitori restaurants usually have the freshest and high-quality chicken.
How to Make Soboro Don
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Ground chicken
- Eggs
- Seasonings: sugar, salt, mirin, sake, and soy sauce
- Steamed rice
- Blanched green vegetables – I used green peas, but you can also use spinach, green beans, okra, or snow peas.
Overview: Quick Steps
- Cook ground chicken and all the seasonings in a saucepan or frying pan.
- Cook scrambled eggs in a saucepan or frying pan.
- Serve the steamed rice in the bowl, then put seasoned ground chicken, eggs, and green vegetable over the rice.
4 Important Cooking Tips to Remember
1. Use a Saucepan Instead of a Frying Pan
I used to use a non-stick frying pan to make this dish (Some of you may remember from my original recipe). A while ago, I accidentally used a saucepan and I was shocked at how effective it was to cook in smaller cookware! You can stir the chopsticks a bit more vigorously, which allows the eggs or ground chicken to break into even smaller bits.
2. Use Multiple Chopsticks
Have you tried scrambling your eggs using chopsticks? That’s how we make soboro in Japan! Hold at least 3 pairs of long chopsticks and move them vigorously to jostle the eggs into fine scrambles.
Do the same for the ground chicken!
3. No Cooking Oils Needed
To make soboro, we do not use cooking oil for both eggs and ground meat. Just place the ingredients directly into the saucepan and start cooking!
Yukihira nabe (above) is a bit difficult to wash the residual egg attached to the saucepan. If you have another kind of saucepan, it should be easier to clean. But do soak it with water right after cooking!
4. Cook on Medium-Low Heat
We always cook the eggs or ground chicken over medium-low heat. Slowly and gently cook while you stir vigorously with chopsticks. This is how you make fine scrambled eggs and ground chicken.
FAQs
Why do you sweeten eggs and chicken?
In Japanese cooking, you’ll find that it’s a common practice to season the eggs and meat with some sugar. The reason we do that is to bring out the flavors of the ingredients, especially when we prepare food that we enjoy at room temperature. The use of sugar also helps to balance the savory seasoning, so you’d achieve full umami for the meal.
Since soboro is served with bland steamed rice, the flavor of the dish would come from the well-seasoned eggs and meat.
You can choose to leave out the sugar or reduce the amount to suit your taste. But if you plan on packing soboro don into a lunch box, don’t skimp on the seasonings. Foods served at room temperature require stronger seasonings to attain the flavors.
How about other protein choices besides chicken?
You can definitely use ground pork or beef (or ground turkey). For creative variations, you can finely chop shrimp or crumble firm tofu, too!
If you’re stumped on what to make for dinner tonight, you can count on soboro don for a quicker-than-take-out option. It packs beautifully for your bento lunch box too!
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Soboro Don (Ground Chicken Bowl)
Video
Ingredients
For the Seasoned Ground Chicken
- 1 tsp ginger (grated; from 1-inch, 2.5-cm knob)
- ½ lb ground chicken (or mince thigh meat with a knife or food processor; you can use a mix of breast and thigh meat, too)
- 1 Tbsp sake
- 1 Tbsp mirin
- 1½ Tbsp sugar (chicken soboro is normally sweet, but you can reduce the sugar by one-third if you prefer a less sweet taste)
- 2½ Tbsp soy sauce
For the Scrambled Eggs
- 3 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell)
- 1 Tbsp sugar (typically, the eggs are sweetened even more; reduce the sugar or skip if you prefer)
- ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
For Serving
- 2 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice (typically 1⅔ cups (250 g) per donburi serving)
- 2 Tbsp green peas (cooked)
- pickled red ginger (beni shoga or kizami beni shoga) (optional)
Instructions
- Before You Start: Gather all the ingredients. Prepare 3 pairs of long cooking chopsticks. For the steamed rice, please note that 1½ cups (300 g, 2 rice cooker cups) of uncooked Japanese short-grain rice yield 4⅓ cups (660 g) of cooked rice, enough for 2 donburi servings (3⅓ cups, 500 g). See how to cook short-grain rice with a rice cooker, pot over the stove, Instant Pot, or donabe.
To Cook the Ground Chicken
- Grate the ginger (I use a ceramic grater). Measure 1 tsp ginger (grated).
- In a medium saucepan, combine all the ingredients for the seasoned ground chicken: The grated ginger, ½ lb ground chicken, 1 Tbsp sake, 1 Tbsp mirin, 1½ Tbsp sugar, and 2½ Tbsp soy sauce.
- Using 3 pairs of long cooking chopsticks, break up the ground meat into smaller bits and mix with the seasoning ingredients.
- Now, bring the saucepan to the stove and set it on medium-low heat. Cook the ground chicken mixture, stirring constantly, until it‘s no longer pink.
- Soon, the chicken will start to release its juices. Continue to cook until the liquid is almost gone. Turn off the heat and set it aside.
To Cook the Scrambled Eggs
- Add 3 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell), 1 Tbsp sugar, and ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt to a medium saucepan. Using 3 clean pairs of long cooking chopsticks (either a different set or the previous set that you washed clean), beat the egg mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved.
- Set the saucepan over medium-low heat and cook the egg mixture. Stir often to release the cooked egg from the bottom or edges of the saucepan and to keep the bright yellow color of the eggs.
- Stir to break up the bigger pieces into smaller bits. Cook the eggs until they are no longer runny and are soft and fluffy. Once the eggs are done (don‘t overcook them!), set them aside.
To Assemble
- Serve 2 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice in individual bowls. Put the ground chicken over half of the steamed rice and the scrambled eggs on the other half. I put 2 Tbsp green peas in the middle. Garnish with pickled red ginger (beni shoga or kizami beni shoga) on top, if you desire.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator for up to 3–4 days and in the freezer for a month.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on April 11, 2011. The pictures and content have been updated and the recipe has been slightly revised on June 21, 2022.
HI i love a lot of your recipes but I think for this one in particular it came out too sweet. perhaps it could be cut in half for the chicken/less mirin instead of sake 🙂
Hi Lisa! When you have soboro don or soboro bento at restaurants or outside, it’s actually very sweet, way sweeter than this recipe. I don’t know why, but it’s a signature of this dish. 🙂 Maybe that’s why a lot of kids love this dish.
Sounds easy and delicious! Just wondering, is it possible to substitute the sake with something else or leave it out completely?
Hi Mapes! Sure, use 1 Tbsp. water instead. 🙂
Great, thanks Nami!
If I were to use beef instead of chicken would it still call soboro donburi ? Is it okay to use beef ?
Hi June! It’s called Gyu (beef) Soboro, like Gyudon (beef donburi). 🙂 Somehow, the beef one is seasoned stronger (more soy sauce and more sugar) as beef has more flavors and need to season more. 🙂
Hi Nami ! Thanks for replying. I see so what would be the seasoning ratio you would suggest if I want to try it wit beef ?
Hi June! You can try this same recipe and see if the adjustment is necessary. I haven’t tried this portion with beef before but if you need to adjust, you can add more soy sauce or mirin or sugar, depending on your preference.
Sometimes when I feel depressed or just simply in need of cheering up I make this dish. It really makes me feel at home and loved. My mom used to make something similar when I was a kid but she typically used beef and it tended to be taco or catsup flavor. She always served it with a bit of sour cream or some mayonnaise on top. It was really comforting back then.
Hi Charise! It’s a comfort dish! Thank you for sharing your story with us! 🙂
I made it tonight for the first time and we liked it! I almost never cook chicken as my husband doesn’t like chicken. But today he bought ground chicken by mistake 🙂
Our preschool daughter ate a lot as it was a sweet taste.
I was surprised how quick and easy it was. And we saved some for tomorrow’s lunch. Thank you!
Hi Olha! So happy to hear you liked this recipe! Thanks so much for trying this recipe. Lots of kids love soboro because of sweet taste. I think restaurants tend to serve much sweeter version, but we can keep it less sweet for homemade version. 🙂
I just fed this recipe to Nana and she liked it. At her age it is hard to make real home cooking. Thanks for the directions and recipes.
Hi Rose! Thank you for trying this recipe! I’m so happy to hear she liked it too. 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback. xo
hi! I only just came across your blog recently! Am keen to try this recipe! just wondering though, are there any alternative vegetables that would go with this donburi? Our family’s not really into peas…
Hi Footai! Welcome to my blog! Of course, any green vegetable is okay. Green beans, snow peas… any green. 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
I know its not green but CORN is delicious!
I made this with leftover roasted chicken thighs, mince very fine. I made lunch for 2 Japanese ladies in their 80s. They had never had soboro made from chicken. Only canned tuna (which is what I grew up with). But they loved it and thought it tasted just like tuna soboro. They were quite impressed along with the other traditional Japanese food I prepared.
Hi Chieko! I’m so happy to hear that! How wonderful that they also enjoyed your meal!!! Thank you for sharing your story! 🙂
how would you prepare the tuna?? i would love to try it with tuna!
Nami,
If I don’t have mirin, will only using the sake and sugar be enough?
Hi Aileen! It’s not the same, but 1 Tbsp. mirin = 1 Tbsp. sake/water/chinese rice wine/dry sherry + 1 tsp. sugar. 🙂
Hi Nami,
Just wanted to say a huge thank you for sharing all your Japanese recipes here. They’re really very simple (especially when you took the trouble to take and post photos of each step of instructions). I cooked this today for our lunch and my two fussy kids just loved it. Only thing I changed was that I opted out of the ginger as they didn’t like it. I also tried your Oyakodon recipe last night and again, it was a success. So, once again, thank you so much for sharing your recipes here.
Btw, hope you don’t mind but I’ve recommended your website/blog to a friend of mine who wanted to try out what I made. Hope you have a great day. Cheers
Hi Jennifer! Aww thank you so much for your sweet and kind feedback. I’m so happy to hear your children enjoyed this dish! It’s a bit sweet dish, so it’s easy for children to enjoy. 🙂
These step by step pictures were taken by myself back then, so it was limited, but now Mr. JOC helps taking step-by-step pictures and we make the videos together so it’s slightly easier to cook without a camera in one hand. 🙂
Thank you for introducing my site to your friend! I hope she/he will enjoy my site! Happy cooking! xo
Hi dear Nami San
Domo domo
It’s looks fantactic
I love to make it I have all the ingredient
I love you recipes and you job!!
Gambate nee!!
Regards
Sirous
Arigato Sirous! I appreciate your support and love! 🙂
I’ve had lots of soboro in Japan, and this recipe is WAAAAAY sweet! Next time I would use much less sugar; the mirin adds quite a bit of sweetness as well.
Other than that, great recipe. Thank you!
Thanks so much for your feedback, Amy! 🙂
Hi Nami,
I was wondering what can I use instead of mirin and sake?
Thank you 🙂
Hi Z! If you can’t consume alcohol, you can avoid both of them, but add more sugar (and water to dilute a bit). 🙂
I would like to make this with ground beef. It would be a cheap and easy meal. 🙂
We have so much ground beef in our house.
Hi Katie! Ground beef works too! Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
I tried this with ground beef today… but my beef produced a lot of grease. There isn’t a leaner version available for sale at the store I shop at, so what do I do? Does ground chicken do this or not? I typically have ground beef on hand, but maybe I’ll buy some chicken too if it makes this dish easier. It’s such an easy and tasty meal.
So the ground chicken produces some water that cooks off with the other liquids. I would cook the ground beef first then drain the grease and continue as normal.
Hi Anita! Thanks for the tip!
April, I’m sorry I missed your comment. Anita’s suggestion is wonderful. Ground chicken is less fatty, so almost no grease comes out. Turkey or chicken is great for this dish. 🙂
This is actually really good with ground turkey, make it the same way. Leaner than beef.
Hi Monty! Thank you for trying this dish with ground turkey! Great alternative.
looks so yummy and easy to make, i know what i’ll pack for nathan’s lunch next week! 🙂
Thanks Wendy! I’m sure Nathan will like this. Don’t forget to pack a spoon!