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.
I’ve made this a dozen times so far. My husband, picky one year old, and five year old all love it 🙂 I double it and pack bentos for my boys for the next day. My son’s Japanese teacher complimented his bento when I packed this for him for a field trip.
Hi Kristen,
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
We are so happy to hear you and your family enjoyed this dish!😊
This is a great recipe! I’m a young man who works out a lot and therefore I often need vast quantities of food to satiate me. I find this meal very satiating and tasty! I love it with ground beef. An awesome meal to eat post-workout!
Hi Mo!
Yay! We are so glad to hear this dish is very satiating and tasty!😊
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made this since trying it out – it’s become our no 1 favourite comfort dish, often making it (usually with minced turkey instead) several days during the week recently – its fabulous
Many thanks for sharing this
Is this a dry flsvoured mince has no sauce? The kids will complain the rice will be dry without sauce?
Pls advice.
Hi El,
As Nami mentioned in this post, this recipe’s name Soboro (そぼろ), refers to ground meat, fish, or eggs cooked into fine, crumbled pieces. Hence it serves on the dry side. Therefore, in Step 6, we cook the ground chicken until the liquid is almost gone.
If you prefer serving this dish with sauce, you may increase the seasoning amount and leave some liquid in step 6.
We hope this is helpful.☺️
Hi Nami,
Thank you for all your recipe. I like to try your easy recipe, I have a busy schedule with kids and works, your recipe help me to serve healty, good, delicious and beautiful meal. Thank you!
Hi Caroline,
You have no idea how much your kind words meant to us! Thank you!
If you haven’t check this post, please check out this one for more easy Japanese recipes!
https://www.justonecookbook.com/15-easy-japanese-recipes/
Happy cooking!
My group of 8 has been playing a feudal Japan themed game and I wanted an easy Japanese recipe to make for one of our game nights. I made this with the Green Tea Cookies and served Matcha tea and it was a big hit. Thank you!
Hi Anita! What a fun game night with a delicious meal!!! With matcha tea and green tea cookies (lots of caffeine), all of you must have a lot of energy to play all night. LOL. Thank you so much for trying my recipes!
Hi JOC
i’ve made this with pork mince and it’s delicious. Wondering if you can also make this with chopped mushrooms and tofu to make it vegetarian please? Thanks for your advice!
Hi Sharon! Yes, you can totally do that! 🙂
That’s an amazing idea!!!! I was looking for new ingredients for soboro dishes and got stuck. Thank you!
I just want to say thank you, so much. I’d review the whole site but couldn’t find a place to do so so I’ll just say it here! Five years ago, my adventure started in college when I started dating this guy from Japan, knowing zero about the language, culture, or cuisine. Very quickly, he became my husband, and I was desperate to cook him something to ease his homesickness and do it on a college budget. Your Soborodon was the first Japanese dish I ever cooked, but I’ve cooked a good portion of your recipes and I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed. Everything has been delicious, and I’ve not only learned about recipes but about ingredients, techniques, and notes about Japanese culture at large. The photos and videos are especially helpful and I’ve gone from zero knowledge to being able to impress my in-laws.
Then I actually moved to Japan, where I’m writing from now! Right from the start I knew the ingredients in the supermarket and exactly how to use them. I save so much money and eat so much healthier because I can use Japanese foods instead of expensive imports! I can cook with my Japanese friends and am practicing lots of obentos for when my son starts yochien in the spring. Life is just a lot easier knowing how to cook and eat like a local, and you’ve been my sole resource for making that happen. It’s not an exaggeration to say you have really changed my life in amazing ways. Again, thank you, so much!
Hi Lindsay! Aww thank you so much for your kind feedback and it really warmed my heart. Feedback like yours brings me joy and inspires me every day to do better at blogging. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Wow, you did a lot of things in the past 5 years, including moving to Japan too! So happy that you can connect with locals and I agree, food plays such an important role in Japanese culture that it definitely helps to feel closer to people around you. You have great food source for cooking Japanese food in Japan that I can’t always get, and I hope it will encourage you to cook some dishes that I can’t share too. Lots of seasonal dishes that I miss… good luck with Yochien and bento making! 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to write to me! xo
I love your blog and it is my go to when I wish to try to make a Japanese fish. I made this for my family today but I had to switch a few things. I had to use minced pork and cucumber instead of peas. I also used dashi for the eggs instead of sugar. My family loved it and loves the presentation…Thank you so much!
Hi Maggie! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! Your version sounds really good! So happy to hear your family enjoyed it!
Do you think it would be ok to feed this to a 1 year old baby? Or would it require any removal of the ingredients?
Hi TK! When my kids were small, I didn’t introduce adult taste until much later on. Always light or almost no seasonings (just natural ingredient taste). Also I grinded/mashed the food, but you know your baby well. 🙂
Another amazing recipe, Nami!! Even my 1-year old liked it. I will cook this again for him but tweak the recipe a bit – less soy sauce & sugar, and add a little chicken stock for easier mixing with rice.
Oh…i have a regular grater so i had a hard time with the ginger. So I used both fresh grated ginger and ginger powder for this. I dont think the dish will still be as good if I only used ginger powder.
Hi Anna! Thank you so much for trying my recipe! I’m so glad your 1-year-old baby liked it! 🙂 If you make Japanese food often, we often use grated ginger and daikon. This is my favorite grater.
https://amzn.to/2zTRYo7
Hi from 2020! With everything going on, I’ve really been trying to use what I have in the house to cook so I don’t have to go out for groceries. I stumbled across this recipe and it seemed easy enough so I figured why not!
Let me say I’m not a cook, haha. What I made probably can’t be called そぼろ丼 anymore. I didn’t have chicken so I subbed silken tofu, didn’t have sake or mirin so tried some substitution suggestions and prayed over the pan while it was cooking (didn’t have any of the substitutes you suggested in your other great article for the sake)…
Anyway, back to the point: this was delicious, and thanks for sharing! It’s going to be my lunch for the next week and I am not the least bit sad about it.
Hi Evvi! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe and thank you for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback! Crumbled tofu is a great idea and it sounds delicious, too. 🙂 Thank you for taking your precious time to write your feedback! xo
Good Afternoon: sorry for the non sequiter but I am looking for a high quality rice cooker. What is your favorite.
Hi Jim! Do you mean an electric rice cooker? I have this one: https://amzn.to/2KoAvW4
For stovetop, I love this donabe rice cooker called Kamadosan (https://amzn.to/2URpTmT). It makes the best rice, and I try to use this more than rice cooker whenever I have more time in the kitchen.
Hope that helps!
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thanksなみ!
どういたしまして Matt! 🙂