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1
Pack steamed short-grain rice firmly into each donburi bowl. Set aside. Have all components measured and ready before any pan is placed over heat — the final egg stage moves too quickly for interruption.
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2
Combine dashi, soy sauce, and mirin in a small jug in the ratio 1:1:1. For each portion, work in the oyakodon pan individually. Place the 18 cm straight-sided carbon steel or copper pan over medium heat. Add the measured sauce and the thinly sliced onion. Simmer until the onion is fully translucent, sweet-smelling, and the sauce has visibly thickened in the pan.
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3
Lay one pre-fried tonkatsu cutlet — room temperature or warm, never cold — into the simmering sauce over the onion. Allow the breading to absorb the sauce for one to two minutes, turning once. The cutlet is ready to receive the egg when the sauce clings to its surface and the breading has darkened to a sauced, soft exterior.
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4
This is where the dish lives or dies. Pour half the lightly beaten egg (streaks of white and yolk intact; mitsuba folded in if using) evenly over the cutlet and onion. Cover the pan and allow the egg to set for 20 seconds over medium heat. Remove the lid and pour the remaining egg over the surface. Immediately remove the pan from heat. The egg must be 70% set and 30% liquid at the moment of service: set and opaque at the edges and top surface, creamy and liquid at the centre. Residual heat completes the setting as the topping is slid over the rice. Do not stir.
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5
In a single motion, slide the entire contents of the pan — cutlet, onion, egg — over the packed rice in the donburi bowl. The topping should cover the rice completely. A pool of sauce should be visible around the edges of the bowl. Serve immediately.