What is a Bento?
Bento (弁当) is a Japanese word that refers to both a portable meal, as well as the container it’s carried in. With a history stretching back nearly 700 years, it was originally a utilitarian meal meant to be carried to work. The fancy lacquered boxes came later when bento would be eaten for special events such as hanami, or Noh performances. These days bento can be found almost anywhere in Japan, from train stations to convenience stores, and they’ve even started spreading around the world.
Packing a Bento
These days, there are so many styles of bento that there aren’t any hard and fast rules. That being said, here are three guidelines I like to follow to ensure my bentos are practical, balanced, and beautiful:
- Use a small container – While you can get a fancy bento box to pack your bento in, it’s not unnecessary. A small shallow plastic or glass food container will work just as well. The only important thing is that it shouldn’t be too large. This controls the portions you can include, but more importantly it allows you to pack your bento in tight so that the food doesn’t shift around while you’re on the go.
- Use edible partitions – I see a lot of people using disposable paper or plastic partitions or cups in their bentos, and they are almost always unnecessary. By using leafy greens such as lettuce, kale, or cabbage, you can keep your food from mingling, while cramming in more vegetables.
- Make it colorful – For me, a great bento includes most of the colors of the rainbow. This not only makes the lunchbox visually appealing, but it also ensures that you’re getting a good balance of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
How to Make Ginger Chicken Bento
Proteins
I try and limit the protein to about a quarter of the bento, and for this one, I’ve added some Ginger Chicken and Tamagoyaki.
- Ginger Chicken – With tender, juicy chicken glazed in a sweet and savory sauce that’s redolent of ginger, making this easy bento entree is as simple as pan-frying some chicken, and then glazing it with sake, soy sauce, sugar, and ginger.
- Tamagoyaki – Tamagoyaki is a Japanese omelette made by rolling thin sheets of seasoned egg and then slicing the resulting log, exposing the layers of egg. It’s a staple of Japanese breakfasts, and the leftovers are perfect for adding a splash of color and protein to a bento.
Carbs
In a traditional Japanese bento, up to half of the bento is rice, but I like to cut that back to about a quarter of the bento. For this bento, I’m using partially milled rice, which is a perfect middle ground between unmilled brown rice and white rice, which has had the most nutritious parts milled away.
Vegetables and Fruits
- Frill Lettuce – Frill lettuce or curly lettuce works great in bento’s because they can not only partition your container, they also make for good padding.
- Broccoli – Broccoli is a fantastic addition to bentos because the fluffy florets are perfect for padding your bento so that the food inside doesn’t shift around in transit. I usually blanch mine in salt water and use most of it in a salad for dinner the night before, but I’ll set aside a few florets to include in a bento the next day.
- Carrots – Carrots add color and texture to this bento. You can use them raw, but I like to lightly blanch them, which makes their color even more vibrant. Cutting the carrot slices into flowers is optional, but it’s a fun way to bring some life to your bento. You can get flower-shaped cutters on Amazon.
- Strawberries – I almost always like to round out my bentos with either strawberries or cherry tomatoes. Either way, you get a burst of sweetness and a vibrant red color.
$3 Bento Challenge
Some of you may know me as the host of Bento Expo, and one thing I’ve learned while doing the show is that bringing a bento lunch from home is perhaps one of the best ways to save money while eating healthier. Unfortunately, Japanese food is often considered expensive or unapproachable, so I want to try and change this perception. To help, I’ve enlisted some of my favorite Japanese YouTubers, including Just One Cookbook, TabiEats, and Chopstick Chronicles, with a challenge to make a delicious balanced bento for under $3 per serving.
If you’d like to participate, share a photo or video of your $3 bento on Instagram or Facebook, and use the hashtag #3DollarBento.
Cost Analysis
| Ingredient | Cost |
|---|---|
| chicken thighs | $0.61 |
| soy sauce | $0.04 |
| sake | $0.06 |
| sugar | $0.01 |
| ginger | $0.03 |
| egg | $0.16 |
| salt | less than a cent |
| cooked rice | $0.24 |
| frill lettuce | $0.06 |
| broccoli | $0.13 |
| strawberries | $0.41 |
| carrots | $0.04 |
| TOTAL | $1.80 |
Ingredients
For ginger chicken
- 285 grams chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sake
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
For packing bento
- 1/2 batch
- 220 grams cooked rice
- 16 grams frill lettuce
- 60 grams broccoli (blanched)
- 2 strawberries
- 24 grams carrots (sliced, blanched, and cut into flowers)
Steps
- To make the sauce for the ginger chicken, combine the soy sauce, sake, sugar and grated ginger in a small bowl and stir together until the sugar has dissolved.
- Heat a frying pan over medium heat along with a splash of oil, and add the chicken in a single layer. Fry until it's browned on one side (about 2-3 minutes)
- Flip the chicken over and continue cooking until for another minute.
- Use a paper towel to soak up any excess oil in the pan.
- Add the sauce and caramelize it around the chicken until there's almost no liquid left. Let the chicken cool before packing it into a bento.
- To assemble the bento, add your rice to your bento box first. This provides a base to arrange all your other ingredients.
- Arrange the chicken next to the rice.
- Add some frill lettuce to separate the chicken from the vegetables, and if you have a deeper bento box, you may want to pad the bottom of the box with some lettuce too.
- Add the slices of tamagoyaki using the broccoli to fill the spaces around them.
- Fill the remaining space with the strawberry and slice it in half if necessary.
- Decorate the bento with the flower-shaped carrots.
If my calculations are correct that’s $4.28 per kilo of chicken and $0.16 per egg. At those prices, I’m more than concerned about the welfare of the chicken (the one in the bento and the one that laid the egg).
Hi PekoPeko, yes the chicken was a bargain. I bought it in bulk, on sale at a local grocery store, but the meat was imported from Brazil. To be honest I usually prefer using Japanese products, but it just would not have fit within the budget if I’d used Japanese chicken. As for the eggs, they’re free range from a local farm (I buy it from the farm directly, and they don’t even come in a carton) which is why they are so inexpensive. Obviously if you can afford it I would recommend using higher quality chicken, but the point… Read more »
Thanks for the reply! Glad to hear the eggs are free range, I wish I could get such good quality eggs at that price. As for the chicken, I’m of the opinion that it’s better to eat less meat than to eat cheap meat, but I know it’s my own choice and I can’t force it on everyone. I’m not sure Japanese chicken would always be better just because it’s Japanese, unless you know it’s been raised in decent conditions. From what I gather animal welfare is not a big topic in Japan? I’ve heard of 地鶏 but even then,… Read more »
Agreed, I’m sure the regular broilers are raised in factory style farms, but when I say “Japanese Chicken” I mean Jidori. One of my favorite types is Hinai Jidori from Akita prefecture and I’ve visited the farms and processing plants and they are world class. Because these are a cross breed of Rhode Island Red and Hinai birds, they are delicate birds that have a tendency to scare and stampede, which is why they have to be kept in large open enclosures with only a limited number of birds per enclosure. I don’t actually eat very much meat at home… Read more »
And much healthier than fast food!
For sure!
Hi Marc-san! I prepare 4 Bento-lunch boxes for my sons and me. In my case, paper cups are very useful. I make large amount of Okazu such as Gomaae and Kinpira, and portion them out into paper cups, then stock them in the freezer. I just put them in Bento boxes in the morning and they melt slowly by lunch time. Tamago-Yaki is also suitable for frozen stock. In this way, it is really easy to make Bentos on a busy morning. How is my idea? No Recipes was introduced by my English teacher. Your techniques are wanderful every time,… Read more »
Hi Rie-san, that’s a great tip that makes bento preparation on busy weekday mornings easier. Thanks for sharing! I’m so glad to hear you’ve found my site helpful for everyday meal prep, and I hadn’t really planned for my videos to be a resource for learning English, but I’m glad to hear they’ve been useful for you. Please thank your English teacher for me!
Wow! Thank you so much for your comment! I’m really happy to get your reply. Bento is a wounderful idea for health and saving money, so I hope many people try it and continue.