Chuka don is one of the most popular don foods in Japan. We use special ingredients like cloud ear mushroom, bamboo shoot and boiled Quail egg for this. Of course, you can buy them in Asian markets, but if you don’t have them, you can still cook Chuka don.
So what ingredients are important for this?
Pork is important for umami, but you can do without it if you have some personal reasons for not eating pork or meat in general. Maybe you use a fatty piece of chicken instead, or a vegan alternative like well seasoned tofu.
I think carrot, some type of mushrooms and pak choi or Chinese cabbage are important. They are for the taste, texture and the color. I recommend to use red, orange and green ingredients. I used red paprika, carrot and Chinese cabbage for this dish. I think, for green color, spring onion, broccoli or brussels sprout works well also. What other vegetable would be nice for the green color?
Chukadon, Japanese Don with Pork and Vege


- rice 200 mL
- water (follow this instraction) 240 mL
- pork (slice) 200 g
- red paprika 50 g
- carrot 50 g
- pak choi 100 g
- Chinese cabbage 100 g
- mushroom (please check note for vegetables) 50 g
- garlic (1 clove) 5 g
- sesameoil 1 teaspoon
- soy sauce 2 teaspoon
- Chinese soup stock powder 2 teaspoon
- potato starch 1 tablespoon
- water 100 mL
- Cook rice as following the instruction
- Chop garlic. Slice carrot thin and cut the other ingredients to 1cm thick stripes. It’s good to cut all to the same length, approximately 3-5cm.
- Put sesame oil and garlic in the pan and heat with strong middle heat.
- Put pork when pan is warm.
- Fry one side, then turn over. Then let’s add vegetables, put carrot first, then red paprika and mushrooms. Don’t mix between adding vegetables. Then cover with pak choi and Chinese cabbage. Cover with lid.
- Heat it for a while and add 1t of soy sauce and 1t of Chinese soup stock powder, then mix well.
- Mix water, potato starch, 1t of soy sauce and 1t of Chinese soup stock powder in a cup.
- Pour the liquid to the pan and mix quickly and well, then stop heating.
- Put rice in a bowl and add a nice amount of Starchy Pork with Vegetables on it. It’s ready!

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