Unagi Chazuke (Hitsumabushi) is a popular rice bowl from Nagoya which features broiled eel on top of the steamed rice. Piping hot broth is poured on the rice to enjoy. It’s perfect comfort food on a busy weeknight!
Unagi Chazuke (鰻茶漬け) is one of Mr. JOC’s favorite dishes. Before we were married, the only unagi dish he knew was Unagi Don (Unadon/Broiled Eel over Rice). After I introduced Unagi Chazuke to him, he loved it so much that he only requests this dish whenever we buy unagi. It’s a light and comforting dish that can be prepared easily on a busy weeknight!
The rice bowl is very alike to Hitsumabushi (櫃まぶし), a specialty dish from Nagoya prefecture. I will talk about the differences between the two in today’s post.
What is Unagi Chazuke?
As most of you already know, unagi (うなぎ or 鰻) is a freshwater eel in Japanese. Chazuke or ochazuke (お茶漬け) is a dish where green tea or dashi broth is poured over steamed rice. I have a classic Ochazuke recipe on the website if you’re interested.
So Unagi Chazuke is simply grilled or broiled unagi placed over steamed rice (which is called Unadon) and served with hot broth.
You can use either dashi or green tea for the hot broth. For today’s recipe, I used both dashi and konbucha (昆布茶), which is powdered kombu tea. The saltiness and umami from konbucha make a very delicious soup broth.
Is Unagi Chazuke Similar to Hitsumabushi?
If you have been to Nagoya, Japan, you probably had a chance to try the popular Hitsumabushi (櫃まぶし) that looks rather similar to Unagi Chazuke. There are popular Hitsumabushi restaurants everywhere in Nagoya, and some big chains have branches in the Tokyo area as well.
Let’s take a look at the differences between the two dishes.
Unagi Chazuke
- Served in a donburi (a large bowl).
- Unagi is served without cutting into smaller pieces.
- The soup broth can be green tea or dashi or sometimes a combination.
Hitsumabushi
- Originated in Nagoya.
- Served in Ohitsu (a round, wooden container to keep cooked rice).
- Unagi is cut into smaller pieces (1 cm).
- The soup broth is dashi.
- Enjoy the dish in 3 steps (Step 1 – eat only unagi and rice. Step 2 – eat with toppings and condiments (green onion, wasabi, and nori seaweed). Step 3 – pour the side broth (ochazuke) over rice and enjoy!
Quick and Easy Weeknight Meal!
This recipe was from my mother’s where she learned it from a friend. As my parents love unagi, I grew up eating Unagi Chazuke when my mom was too busy to cook.
This recipe was my very first recipe on Just One Cookbook and originally published on January 3rd, 2011, the third day after I started blogging. I remember we had many Western-style meals over the holidays, so it was nice to have a comforting Japanese dish again.
If you like Unadon, I hope you give this unagi dish a try next time!
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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Unagi Chazuke is a popular rice bowl featuring grilled/broiled eel and a hot broth is poured over to enjoy. A perfect meal for busy weeknights!
- 1 fillet unagi (eel) (precooked; 160 g or 5.6 oz)
- 2-3 tablespoon unagi sauce (recipe)
- 2 serving cooked Japanese short-grain rice
- 1 green onion/scallion (optional for garnish)
- 1 bunch Mitsuba (Japanese parsley) (optional for garnish)
- 1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds (for garnish)
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Gather all the ingredients.
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In a small saucepan, combine dashi and konbucha.
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Heat the broth over medium heat and whisk well. Taste the broth and adjust with more konbucha or salt if necessary.
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Cut unagi in half (or maybe third) to fit inside your serving bowls.
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Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Place unagi on top. WITHOUT preheating, put the baking sheet in the middle rack of your oven, and broil on high for 7 minutes (no need to flip).
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After 7 minutes or so, take it out and brush the Unagi Sauce over the fillet. Broil for another 30 to 60 seconds until you see bubbles on top of Unagi.
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Cut the mitsuba and green onion into small pieces.
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Serve steamed rice in bowls and brush Unagi Sauce on the rice. Place unagi on top. You can cut Unagi into 1-inch pieces (easier to eat with chopsticks). Pour/brush more Unagi Sauce, if you like.
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Right before you serve, pour the broth over the Unagi and garnish with green onions, mitsuba and sesame seeds. Enjoy!
Homemade unagi sauce recipe, click here.
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.
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on January 3, 2011. The images have been updated in January 2020.
Nami,
The new site and the picture look great! I’m very excited to continue learning from you!
xoxo,
Kimberly
Thanks Kimberly! My site requires a lot of improvement, but I’m working on it one at a time. I still need a few weeks before I make this site public… I appreciate any feedback and suggestion from you! Thanks again. 🙂
This looks delicious! I can’t wait to make it.
Thanks Sarah! It’s very easy and delicious. I hope you like it! Thank you for stopping by!
This looks so tasty! I’ve never had this before but it’s making me hungry!
Thanks Elyse! 🙂
This is so light and healthy! I am going to see if I can find cooked Unagi at my local Japanese grocery store! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Julie! Try to find Unagi from Japan. I tried Unagi from other countries and they weren’t so good. Hope you like it!
Una-jyu is also my only preference, looks like I’m overdue for a make-over!
Hi C&MSP! I hope you enjoy new way of eating Unagi!
Hi Nami:
I am a pretty experienced cook and a very experienced patron of Japanese restaurants. My children simply love unaju and I would love to make it for them. We are blessed with a large number of great Asian groceries in the area, so I am planning on buying fresh fillets (they’ll take them out of the tank and fillet them while you wait). It seems like a pretty simple broiling process, but all the recipes I can find call for frozen eel and bottled sauce. Any hints on broiling and recipes for good home-made sauce.
I love your blog.
Thanks.
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie! Wow the Asian groceries in your area sell “live” eels?? That’s so rare! Okay, I’ve never cooked “live” eels at home, but I did some research and it looks like you can cook it at home. Let me know if a oven broiler works. In Japan we have special fish broiler under the stove, and I couldn’t find any recipe that use an oven for “live” eels.
Here’s directions for uncooked eel fillet:
1) Cut fillet into 3-4 inch pieces (easy to flip).
2) Cook (broil) skin side first. If the direct heat source is from top, skin side should face up.
3) When the skin gets crispy, flip.
4) When you see bubbles on the meat, brush the sauce on both sides of eels and continue to grill. Repeat a couple of times. It will easily burn, so stay around the oven.
Homemade Sauce recipe can be found here: https://www.justonecookbook.com/recipes/unagi-don-unadon/
So glad I found this recipe. I’ve been wanting to make eel at home for so long! It gets too expensive to eat at restaurants.
Hi Nami, is konbucha necessary? I’m not sure where I’ll be able to find it. Unagi is my favorite!
Hi Stephanie! I know konbucha can be really hard to find unless you have a Japanese supermarket near your home. This soup is based on dashi stock and konbucha flavor, so you will be missing half of the great flavor. As I can’t give you any substitution, I guess you will have to skip…. it’s so unfortunate! 🙁
Just in case if you want to get online:
http://www.marukaiestore.com/p-492-gyokuroen-konbu-cha-15oz.aspx
Hmm, I will try the Japanese supermarket first. If not, I will probably buy it offline from your link. Thanks so much for looking into this for me!!
I’ve never tasted eel before in my life, but it sure looks delicious. Will it tastes the same if I used other type of fish? and if so, then what type of fish you recommend? 🙂
Hi Muna! Unagi has unique texture and taste that is not similar to other fish. But if you really want to replace it, I’d suggest something like seabass or halibut type of white fish.
Hope this helps!
Is it a good idea to refrigerate leftover unagi? It’s just me that will be eating this and if I make a lot at once, I’ll take it as a personal challenge to eat it all if I make a batch that’s too much and can’t be refrigerated afterwards.
Hi Flantashia! Yes, you can refrigerate to keep it for the following day. I won’t keep it for more than 2 days though. Since you are most likely defrost unagi to eat it, I won’t recommend to re-freeze it. 🙂
Unagi tastes so strong, when I smelled it first I got scared but I already made that recipe twice in a week now haha
Thanks for this recipe once again !
Hi Jin-chan! So happy to hear that you liked this recipe. It’s easy and comforting… Glad to hear the smell didn’t bother when you eat – I only can recognize “good smell”… LOL. 🙂
Namiii, I just saw SJ Return II in VLive… They ate this dish in Nagoya and I came straight to your website to find the recipe! THANK YOUUU! Looking forward to cook this in the weekend! 🙂
Hi Gita! I’m glad I have the recipe. 🙂 It’s very easy to make, and I hope you enjoy this recipe!
Are all your Eels in Japan all imported from China?
Hi El! It depends. There are ones imported from China (it’s much cheaper) and one raised in Japan (very expensive). 🙂
Good to know. I guess you and most people just go for the cheaper option?!
Hi El! Hmm it’s up to people, I guess. I rather eat good unagi once a year, than eat unagi with rubbery thick skin occasionally. 🙂
Go for good quality sounds good. Totally agree with you!