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    Home » Recipes » Japanese (Traditional)

    Updated: Apr 24, 2023 by Marc · Leave a Comment

    Chicken Soboro Bento

    The portable version of Soboro Don, this Soboro Bento, is packed with savory Chicken Soboro, vibrant Egg Soboro, nutty sesame green beans, and a tangy carrot salad. Delicious, balanced, and satisfying; this easy bento box lunch comes together from ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.
    Recipe Video Pin
    With a rainbow of chicken, eggs, and veggies over rice, this easy delicious Soboro Bento comes together for under $3 per serving from ingedients you probably have in your kitchen.
    What is Soboro?

    The term Soboro (そぼろ) is used to describe foods that have been crumbled. It's usually seasoned with a combination of soy sauce, salt, sugar, and sake and served over rice as a donburi, which is known as Soboro Don (そぼろ丼)

    Because of its low moisture content as well as the potential to make it in many different colors, Soboro is also commonly used in bento boxes to make Soboro Bento (そぼろ弁当)

    What are some variations of Soboro?

    Soboro is more a description of the crumbled texture of the food than a particular dish, so it can be made from almost anything that can be broken up into small crumbs such as ground meat, fish, tofu, egg, or vegetables.

    Some examples include: Chicken (鶏そぼろ - Tori Soboro), Pork (豚そぼろ - Buta Soboro), Beef (牛そぼろ - Gyu Soboro), Shrimp (海老そぼろ - Ebi Soboro), Tofu (豆腐そぼろ - Tofu Soboro), Mackeral (鯖そぼろ - Saba Soboro), Salmon (鮭そぼろ - Sake Soboro), Cod Roe (たらこそぼろ - Tarako Soboro), Carrot (にんじんそぼろ - Ninjin Soboro). Soboro bento packed two different ways, in a donburi, as well as a mage-wappa wooden bento box.

    How do I pack a bento box?

    The only hard and fast rules of packing a Bento box are to make it colorful and pack it tight. A colorful bento is not only fun to eat, but it's also one way you can gauge the diversity of nutrients you've packed since different color foods tend to contain different nutrients. 

    As for packing it tightly, traditional Japanese bento boxes are compact and only offer one compartment. By packing it tightly, you not only ensure you have enough to eat, but you can also prevent the food from shifting around and making a jumbled mess. 

    I'm showing just two ways to pack these ingredients, but if you think of the bed of rice as a blank canvas, the different colored soboro can be arranged any way you like to make an infinite number of patterns. Soboro Don Bento is a rainbow of colors tastes and textures in a portable bento box lunch.This colorful soboro donburi bento is an explosion of colors, tastes and textures in a portable lunch box.

    Is Soboro Bento Vegan?

    This recipe is not vegan; however, it can be easily be converted to a plant-based recipe by substituting your favorite ground plant-based meat (such as TVP, chopped mushrooms, or frozen tofu) in place of the ground chicken. The egg can be replaced with silken tofu that's been seasoned with salt and sugar and scrambled in a frying pan with a little bit of oil.

    Can I serve this in a Donburi?

    I have a separate recipe for a more standard Chicken Soboro Don, but if you don't need to take it anywhere, you can easily serve this in a donburi bowl, in which can you can call it Yonshoku Soboro Don (四色そぼろ丼 - four-color soboro bowl). 

    What is the $3 Bento Challenge?

    I'm a firm believer that one of the best ways to save money and eat better is to pack and bring a bento lunch from home. In this series, I recruit fellow YouTubers and food bloggers to create delicious balanced bento box lunches for under $3 a serving. The ingredients for this Soboro bento came to a grand total of $5.85 divided by two servings, that's $2.93 per bento. The thing is, there's really enough toppings here to make three bentos, so the actual cost per bento is probably closer to $2.

    If you'd like to take a stab at the challenge, pack a bento lunch, snap a photo of it, and post it to Instagram with the hashtag #3DollarBento.

    Other Chicken and Rice Recipes

    • Oyakodon
    • Chicken Biryani
    • Arroz con Pollo
    • Omurice

    📖 Recipe

    Soboro Don Bento is a rainbow of colors tastes and textures in a portable bento box lunch.

    Chicken Soboro Bento

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    Prep Time 20 minutes mins
    Cook Time 7 minutes mins
    Total Time 27 minutes mins
    Yield 2 bentos

    Units

    Ingredients 

    Green Bean Goma-ae

    • 120 grams green beans
    • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
    • ½ teaspoon evaporated cane sugar
    • ¼ teaspoon salt

    Carrot Salad

    • 75 grams carrot (1 small carrot, peeled & shredded)
    • 12 grams onion (sliced thinly)
    • ¼ teaspoon salt
    • 2 teaspoon olive oil
    • 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
    • Flat-leaf parsley (minced)

    Chicken Soboro

    • 190 grams ground chicken
    • 2 tablespoons sake
    • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
    • 2 teaspoons evaporated cane sugar
    • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger juice

    Egg Soboro

    • 3 large eggs
    • 1 teaspoon evaporated cane sugar
    • ¼ teaspoon salt

    Bento

    • 2 servings cooked short-grain rice (1 rice cooker cup)
    • 2 cherry tomatoes

    Instructions

    For Green Bean Goma-ae

    • Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil and then add the whole green beans. Return to a boil and cook for 1-2 minutes or until they are your desired texture. Drain the beans and plunge into ice water to set the color.
    • Drain and dry the green beans with paper towels and then trim the stem end off and chop the green beans into small pieces.
      Chopping boiled green beans for Soboro Bento
    • Grind the toasted sesame seeds, sugar, and salt together with a mortar and pestle, or clean spice grinder and toss the green beans with the resulting mixture.
      Green bean goma-ae for Soboro Bento

    For Carrot Salad

    • Put the shredded carrot and onion into a bowl and sprinkle with the salt. Mix to combine and let this sit for 10-15 minutes to allow the excess water to come out of the vegetables.
    • When the carrots are limp, use your hands to squeeze out as much water from them as you can.
      Carrots and onions salted to make carrot salad.
    • Dress the salad with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and parsley.
      Mixing carrot salad with chopsticks.

    For Chicken Soboro

    • In a non-stick frying pan, mix the chicken, sake, soy sauce, sugar and ginger juice, breaking up any clumps of ground chicken as you go.
      Breaking up ground chicken with a spatula for Soboro.
    • Put the pan over medium-high heat and cook the chicken, using a spatula to break up the meat as it cooks into small crumbles.
    • The Chicken Soboro is done when there is no liquid remaining in the pan, and the chicken is well cooked.
      Chicken Soboro in a frying pan.

    For Egg Soboro

    • Beat the eggs, sugar, and salt until the yolks and white are thoroughly combined.
    • Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat until moderately, but not scorching hot.
    • Pour the egg mixture into the pan, and scramble vigorously with chopsticks, or a whisk, breaking the egg up into small curds.
      Scrambling eggs to make Egg Soboro.
    • The Egg Soboro is done when it is crumbly and no longer wet.
      Egg Soboro in frying pan.

    Assemble Soboro Bento

    • Split the size between your two bento boxes and spread the rice in a thin layer, leaving a little space at the edge.
      Rice packed into a wooden bento box.
    • Pack the carrot salad and tomatoes in the gap you left in the rice.
      Rice, cherry tomatoes and carrot salad packed into a bento box.
    • Cover the rice with the chicken, egg, and green beans in whatever pattern you like.
      Chicken Soboro, Egg Soboro, and Green Bean Goma-ae packed into a wooden bento box.
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    Nutrition

    Calories 383kcalCarbohydrates 19gProtein 28gFat 20gSaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 327mgSodium 1558mgPotassium 908mgFiber 3gSugar 12gVitamin A 7118IUVitamin C 14mgCalcium 116mgIron 4mg

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    Hi, I'm Marc Matsumoto, a retired chef living in Tokyo, and I founded No Recipes to empower home cooks of all levels by sharing essential techniques and my kitchen secrets.

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