Home at 5, dinner by 5:30 ritual. After a long work day, you deserve the best!
Alice Sun (@alicecsun) shares a unique view into her life through the ways she uses food to nurture wellness, cross cultural divides, and bring people together, all through the medium of storytelling.
Alice Sun•
May 5, 2026
A long work day shouldn’t stop you from treating yourself 🙂↕️
Some of my favorite meals come together in under thirty minutes, not because I’m trying to get it done under a time limit, but because I’ve learned from years of watching my immigrant family cooking, that a good meal doesn’t have to be complicated to feel like it was worth making.
Oyakodon is one of those dishes! It’s Japanese comfort food at its simplest, where chicken gets simmered in a sweet soy broth, soft egg streamed in at the end, spooned over a bowl of rice. The kind of thing that feels like a hug after a long day, saucy, warm, comforting.
After an especially long work day, I’ll use frozen chicken karaage instead of cooking chicken from scratch. It’s already seasoned, already crispy, and it soaks up the broth beautifully without turning soggy. Twenty minutes start to finish, one pan, almost no mess. The bowl tastes like it took much longer than it did. That’s the whole point!
Whisk together your dashi (½ cup), soy sauce (2 Tbsp), mirin (2 Tbsp), and sugar (1 Tbsp) in a bowl, set to the side.
Heat a pan over medium heat, dropping in the onions (½) to cook until they just start to get a little color.
Pour in the sauce, bringing it to a simmer, then letting it cook for around 5 mins.
Once it’s reduced just a little bit, turn the heat off and drop in half of the lightly beaten eggs (4).
Turn the heat back on to low, letting things come to a light simmer.
Add your karaage, then pour in the other half of the eggs, avoiding the chicken.
Let everything cook until your desired doneness of eggs
Spoon it over rice, top with scallions and sesame seeds, eat immediately!
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