By Bryan Washington
Updated Oct. 11, 2023
- Total Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- 4(1,146)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Doria is a warm blanket in a ramekin, an embrace in a casserole dish. This Japanese dish sits firmly in the canon of yōshoku, Western-inspired meals, and while the final product is reminiscent of a gratin, the meal is simmered with a base sauce prepared beforehand. Doria fillings run the gamut of your preferences — myriad proteins work exceedingly well here — while also serving as a keen means of utilizing extra vegetables. In this instance, diced chicken is folded into onions, mushrooms, carrots and spinach. That sauce overlays the rice in its entirety. Doria is a filling, comforting meal, perfect for taking care of yourself and those you hold dear.
Featured in: The Comforting, Cheesy Charm of Chicken Doria
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Ingredients
Yield:4 servings
- 1pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
- Salt and pepper
- 1tablespoon olive oil
- ½onion, diced
- 4fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded, caps diced
- 1carrot, diced
- 2garlic cloves, grated
- 3tablespoons sake
- 2½cups dashi
- 3tablespoons tonkatsu sauce
- 1teaspoon prepared karashi (Japanese hot mustard)
- 1tablespoon unsalted butter, plus more for the dish
- 2(10-ounce) packages chopped frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
- 5cups cooked Japanese short-grain rice, warmed if necessary, see Tip
- ½cup grated Parmesan
- ½cup grated mozzarella
- 2tablespoons panko
- Parsley, chopped, for garnish
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
1295 calories; 22 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 209 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 3 grams sugars; 57 grams protein; 1787 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
Step
1
Sprinkle the chicken thighs with 1 teaspoon salt, then set aside. Meanwhile, in a wide pan or skillet, heat the oil over medium. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and carrot and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4 to 6 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 20 seconds.
Step
2
Add the chicken and then the sake. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is no longer pink on the outside, about 5 minutes.
Step
3
Pour in the dashi; it should just cover the ingredients. Stir in the tonkotsu sauce and karashi and bring the liquid to a boil. Bring the heat back down to maintain a lively simmer, then stir in the butter and cook until the sauce’s liquid is slightly thickened , 30 to 35 minutes.
Step
4
Meanwhile, butter one 2-quart broiler-safe casserole dish or several ramekins. Heat the broiler with the rack 6 inches from the heat source.
Step
5
Stir the spinach into the pan. Taste the mixture and season with salt and pepper accordingly. Add the cooked rice to the prepared casserole and spread in an even layer. Spoon the chicken mixture evenly on top of the rice, then top with the Parmesan, mozzarella and panko.
Step
6
Broil the dish on high for at least 3 minutes, until cheese has melted and turned the shade of your preference. (But watch it to make sure it doesn’t burn.) Garnish with chopped parsley and serve immediately.
Tip
- 1⅔ cups raw short-grain rice will yield about 5 cups cooked. You can follow this recipe, using 1⅔ cups rice and 1⅔ cups water.
Ratings
4
out of 5
1,146
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Erin the Terrible
The 5 Best Substitutes for Dashi 1 – Shiitake Mushrooms and Dried Seaweed. 2 – Soy Sauce. 3 – Instant Dashi Powder. 4 – Chicken Broth. 5 – Powdered or Cubed Broth.Alternately, you can probably find dashi online. Hope this helps :)
Orb Casty
Re: Blech. Your experience sounds more like a cooking problem than a problem with the recipe. If the mozzarella was like bubble gum, you need to use a better cheese. If the spinach was wet, you didn't squeeze out enough liquid. The broiler didn't char the panko, you did. We loved this dish, but we're stoners who love comfort food.
Tracy L
I keep a little jar of Hondashi bonito soup powder in the fridge. It's truly great when you don't have time to make your own dashi or just need a small amount of dashi. It's 1 tsp per cup of hot water and voila, your dish will have that signature, wonderful, slightly smoky flavor of dashi. It's not hard to find.
Blech
This was disgusting. I had every ingredient so no pieces were missing from this puzzlingly bland, soulless, gloppy attempt at stoner comfort food. Basically it's fish-flavored chicken Florentine. The broiler charred the panko, the mozzarella was like bubble gum, and the spinach a wet blob.
Maia
This is DELICIOUS and I'm trying to understand why the ratings are low. My husband needed comfort food, and I was in a hurry so I swung by the local Asian supermarket which had everything I needed (even if some things required slight substitutions). I grabbed Chinese white cooking wine in place of sake, and an Asian hot mustard powder that wasn't specifically karashi. I found prepped dashi broth in a bag so I didn't have to make it myself, and diced up some korean fried chicken pre-cooked.
Angeleque
Just made and we like it a lot. Instead of tonkasu (sp?) used Worcestershire sauce and the rest of some homemade barbecue sauce. Everyone, every time I start a recipe, I read comments. We find them so helpful. Thank you!
Ben
It sounds like you may have accidentally used dashi concentrate instead of dashi - another contender here did that, and yeah, the results would be inedible. Broiling time is always variable; the power of the heating element, and the distance to the food, make it impossible to give an exact time. As the recipe tried to tell you, use your eyes, not just the timer.
Adrienne
Or maybe even chicken broth, if you don’t want any fish taste?
Momof3
I was excited to try this because I have a Japanese grocery nearby. Lucky me, I thought. But I didn’t read carefully & I used dashi base instead of dashi. It was a concentrate. No need to discuss what happened. I think it would taste really good if it were made correctly—my kids tried to salvage some chicken and rice and my mood and it was all ok.
TKG
Really delicious! Used short-grain brown rice instead of white, and as there were no shiitakes to be had I subbed chestnut mushrooms. I also didn't have karashi, so used Coleman's English mustard. This dish is a very good reason to make an abundant supply of rice one night and turn it into something very comforting and satisfying the next. Take note, I followed the amounts quite closely but had far too much to fit in my 2 quart dish - a standard 9x13 inch was required.
Tom
If the Wegmans in Binghamton carries Dashi, it's not that hard to track down [it's in the broth and soup aisle, not the general Asian ingredient aisle].
Miko
There are a lot of familiar Japanese flavors; the cheese and panko gave it some interest. This definitely takes more time than 1 hr 15, closer to two hours. Note that the amount of dashi/stock in step 3 is "enough to cover the chicken and veggies" about 1.25 cups. I recommend using more mushrooms and panko. I might make it again; maybe quicker the 2nd time.
veew
I made a few close substitutions: sauteed kale for the frozen spinach and clam shell alba mushrooms for the fresh shiitakes. I didn't have the karashi mustard so I used some nice wasabi salt from Rintaro I had. Also, I didn't have the tonkatsu sauce so I used a recipe from Just One Cookbook website to make a substitute using: Worcestershire sauce, sugar, ketchup and oyster sauce--it tasted just like tonkatsu sauce. It tasted great--my tween loved it.
veew
Also, to defend a little the person complaining about the panko burning, my panko topping browned (almost burned) more quickly than the mozzarella melted and so yes, rubbery cheese and burnt panko is a real risk. And I was using a nicer quality mozzarella, not di bufala,but at least not that rubbery pizzeria cheese. So I would suggest putting the casserole in the oven at 400 for five minutes or so to get the cheese to melt a little first before turning up the broiler.
Valentine
We found this to be a perfectly edible food ensemble but not worth the preparatory effort. Won’t be making again.
Melissa
I'm really surprised this doesn't have higher ratings. For as comforting and delicious as it is, it's reasonably healthy as well. The only modifications I made were to use white wine instead of sake, and water instead of dashi (I had neither on hand). I also made my own Bulldog sauce because I didn't have it and you can make a reasonable copy with stuff you probably have at home already (Google it!)
mimi
Also want to thank Bryan Washington for this recipe. It brought back my childhood memories in probably early 90s in Korea when Pizza Hut (a semi-fancy, exotic restaurant at that time and place) introduced doria on their menu and my sister and I loved it! We were all wondering the origin of the dish as it didn’t seem anything close to American. Now I know. This recipe doesn’t really taste like what I remember (the version we had had white sauce, I believe) but this was still fun to make and eat
mimi
For tonkatsu sauce, I halved Eric Kim’s recipe in his Korean American book for the curry chicken katsu - 1 tbsp each of ketchup and Worcestershire sauce plus 1/2 tbsp dark brown sugar. Used about 1/2 tsp of Coleman mustard powder for the mustard. Used 1 lb frozen spinach and I’m glad I didn’t use more. Granted, I used extra chopped cremini w shiitake. Used reheated leftover rice. Hubby was skeptical when I said “Japanese style rice casserole” but he’s loving it as well as I am!
Adam P
I found a nice dashi concentrate and used a 1 to 12 dilution. I used sushi rice made in a rice cooker for the rice base. Doubled the panko and parm. It browned VERY quickly under the broiler. Recommend cooking 20-30 mins at 300F if you let the rice cool down before assembly to warm the whole thing back up. Leftovers reheated quite nicely. Really a very good dinner!
CLC
This was delicious. I used one packet of instant dashi in 20 oz water to make the dashi. I may have allowed the sauce to reduce a little bit further than the author intended while I was busy bumbling with the rice and squeezing the spinach… such that after I stirred the squeezed spinach into the chicken mixture, there really was no loose moisture left. My spouse informs me that, according to anime, this can also be made with succubus larvae and bicorn brains in place of the chicken. Bon appetit!
John
This recipe seems to me, in my humble opinion, to be one of those ‘what have I got on hand’ framework type. A rice base with chicken and veg in a sauce with crumbs and cheese on top. This has Japanese flavors. Soy sauce and rice wine with garlic and ginger to take it a Chinese direction, white wine, chicken broth, mustard mushrooms for a continental version. Any number of compatible broths, wines, aromatics could take it in a number of directions for good comfort food.
Kate
Came out perfectly and gave me a twist on a weeknight chicken dish. I simmered the chicken a little to long, and the sauce became thick and creamy which was great.
Rupal
Needed white pepper to bring out all the flavors and umami. With that addition it was delicious.
zachary
4.6, really comforting, any season. Fry fresh spinach
Smufty
2 lbs of spinach overwhelms this dish. Overall, I give it a "meh". Wish I had a bad case of the munchies when I ate this...
Susan T
It wasn't a huge hit in our house. Maybe more panko would have given it more crunch?
Mark McMenamin
Use a 9 x 12 baking dish, which provides plenty of surface area for the crispy topping. Don't make the bottom rice layer too thick.
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