This Chawanmushi recipe is always a success and super easy to make. I remember the first time I tried Chawanmushi (Japanese Steamed Egg) – I was in Japan for the very first time, dining at a Michelin star restaurant....

This Chawanmushi recipe is always a success and super easy to make. I remember the first time I tried Chawanmushi (Japanese Steamed Egg) – I was in Japan for the very first time, dining at a Michelin star restaurant. It was served in a very small cup with various fillings/toppings. It looked so simple, yet the dish itself looked so fancy and elegant. Fast forward almost 9 years on our latest trip to Japan, we decided to go on a journey to find these Chawanmushi cups and make it ourselves at home.

What is Chawanmushi?

Chawanmushi is a Japanese egg custard dish that is steamed in a small cup and typically eaten as an appetizer. The steamed custard is super silky and savoury, made with eggs, dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and salt. You can easily buy pre-made dashi stock packets (they come in a pouch like a tea bag) at your local Japanese specialty store or even at certain Chinese grocery stores. If you’re feeling really adventurous, you can make dashi stock at home yourself – just refer to our Miso Soup recipe!

If you do not have dashi readily available at home, you can easily substitute with chicken stock and it will still taste just as good (though we highly recommend you stick with traditional dashi). You can top and fill the custard with almost any ingredients as you please. While you can use any fillings/toppings as you wish, here are the ones most commonly used:

Shrimp/chicken Fish cake Mushrooms (e.g. Shimeji, shiitake) Carrots

We purchased our chawanmushi cups in Japan but it’s possible they may sell these at your local Japanese specialty store. If you don’t have one, you can easily use any other small vessel at your disposal such as ramekins or other small teacups.

How to Make Chawanmushi

This chawanmushi recipe only requires a few key ingredients. You can get creative with whichever filling/toppings you’d like

Prepare steam bath – In a large pot or vessel, fill with about 2 inches of water and place a steam rack on top. Turn the heat to medium high or until the water starts to simmer. Mix together custard ingredients – In a large mixing bowl, gently whisk your eggs until it is combined, careful not to introduce too many air bubbles. In a separate bowl, combine dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and salt. Slowly whisk the dashi mixture into the egg mixture until fully combined. Strain the custard mixture into a Pyrex (glass) measuring cup – This is the most important step for a silky smooth custard – strain the custard mixture into a Pyrex measuring cup to make it easy to pour the egg custard mixture into your cups and to remove any impurities in your custard (e.g. excess egg white) Add half your fillings to the cup – Add half of your fillings of choice into your cups and top with the egg custard mixture until it is 2/3 full. You will add the rest layer so that the fillings can peek through the top to make it more visually appealing. Steam and top with rest of fillings – Steam your custards with their lids on (if no lid, cover the cups with tin foil) for 5 minutes, and then add the remainder of your fillings before the custard fully sets. Steam for another 5 minutes or until the custard is set.

Tips for Success

Use room temperature ingredients – By having your eggs the same temperature as your dashi, this ensures your custard mixture will cook faster and more evenly. Strain your egg mixture – We cannot stress this enough – if you want that silky texture, you must strain your egg mixture before pouring it into your cups to steam. When we strained our mixture, we were left with a lot of excess egg whites that could not be fully incorporated into the egg mixture. Throw this out as this will ultimately ruin the texture of your final dish and leave unsightly white streaks as it cooks. Easily adjust this chawanmushi recipe using the 3:1 ratio as a guide – You may not have medium eggs as our recipe calls for on hand. You may want to scale down or scale up the recipe depending on how many people you’re making this for. The good news is that this recipe is easily scalable as the dashi to egg ratio is 3:1. In other words, if you have 100g of eggs, you will need 300g of dashi. You can then adjust the seasoning (e.g. soy sauce, mirin, salt) accordingly to taste.

Did you enjoy this Chawanmushi recipe? If so, check out these other ones you might like as well:

Miso Soup Nobu’s Miso Black Cod Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken)

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