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.
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.
Ingredients for Ground Chicken Bowl
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.
How to Make the Best Soboro Don
4 Important Cooking Tips to Remember
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!
Hungry for More Easy Rice Bowl Recipes?
Oyakodon (Chicken & Egg Rice Bowl) Gyudon (Beef Bowl) Mapo Tofu
Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram. 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.
