Four-Color Rice Bowl a.k.a. Yonshoku-Don! High-Protein & Delish Weeknight Dinners

Hello food lovers!

Welcome back to the blog, where we bring authentic Japanese recipes to your kitchen. Today, we’re making one of my favorite home-cooked meals: Yonshoku-don (四色丼), or the 4-Color Rice Bowl.

This dish isn’t just beautiful to look at; it’s a nutritional powerhouse, packing an incredible 70g of protein into a single serving! It features four delicious toppings, each with its own unique flavor, creating a perfect harmony in one bowl. It’s the ultimate meal for a post-workout refuel or a healthy, satisfying lunch.

Let’s get cooking!

Ingredients (Serves 1)

Bowl Base:

• Cooked Japanese Rice: 200g (7 oz)

1. Savory Ground Chicken (Tori Soboro)

• Ground Chicken (or beef/pork): 130g (4.5 oz)

• Vegetable Oil: 1 tsp

• ★ Sauce:

  • Soy Sauce: 1.5 Tbsp

  • Sake: 1 Tbsp

  • Mirin: 1 Tbsp

  • Sugar: 2 tsp

  • Grated Ginger: 1 tsp

  • MSG (optional): a pinch

2. Sweet Scrambled Egg (Iri Tamago)

• Large Eggs: 2

• Sugar: 1/2 tsp

• Vegetable Oil: 1 tsp

3. Sautéed Greens

• Komatsuna (or spinach): 50g (1.8 oz)

• Vegetable Oil: 1/2 tsp

• Salt & Pepper: to taste

4. Honey-Soy Salmon Flakes (Sake Flakes)

• Salmon Fillet: 100g (3.5 oz)

• ☆ Glaze:

  • Soy Sauce: 1 tsp

  • Honey: 1/2 tsp

  • Butter: 1/2 tsp

Instructions

To make things simple, we’ll prepare each of the four colorful toppings first, then assemble our bowl.

1. Prepare the Sauces: In a small bowl, mix all the ★ Sauce ingredients for the chicken. In a separate bowl, combine the ☆ Glaze ingredients for the salmon. This will make the cooking process much smoother!

2. Cook the Ground Chicken: Heat 1 tsp of oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the ground chicken and cook, breaking it apart with a spatula, until it’s no longer pink. Pour in the prepared ★ Sauce and simmer until the liquid has almost completely evaporated. Set aside.

3. Make the Scrambled Eggs: In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a clean pan over medium heat. Pour in the egg mixture and stir constantly with chopsticks or a spatula to create fine, fluffy scrambles. Set aside.

4. Sauté the Greens: Chop the komatsuna (or spinach) into small pieces. Heat 1/2 tsp of oil in the pan and sauté the greens until they are wilted and tender. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside.

5. Prepare the Salmon Flakes: Pat the salmon fillet dry and place it skin-side down in a pan over medium-low heat. Cook for about 4 minutes on each side until cooked through. Remove it from the pan. Once it’s cool enough to handle, remove the skin and bones. Place the salmon meat into the bowl with the ☆ Glaze and use a fork to flake it while mixing it evenly with the glaze.

6. Assemble Your Yonshoku-don: Scoop the hot cooked rice into a large bowl. Carefully arrange the four toppings—ground chicken, scrambled egg, sautéed greens, and salmon flakes—in separate sections on top of the rice.

And that’s it! Your delicious, high-protein 4-Color Rice Bowl is ready to be enjoyed.

I hope you love this recipe. It’s a fantastic way to enjoy a balanced and incredibly tasty Japanese meal. Don’t forget to watch the full video on my YouTube channel for a visual guide, and please subscribe for more recipes!

Happy cooking!