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Chashu don — sliced Japanese pork loin chashu over rice with a fried egg and chopped green onion, on a blue and white plate

Chashu Don (Air Fryer Japanese Pork Rice Bowl)

A pork loin block marinated overnight in soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar, then cooked in an air fryer - browned hard at 190C until the center reaches 75C, then held at 75C for an hour so the lean meat stays juicy. Sliced over hot rice with a fried egg, green onion, and the marinade boiled down into a glossy tare.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Servings: 3 bowls
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 300 g pork loin block about 10 oz; untied
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp sake cooking sake is fine
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp garlic paste the tube kind
  • 1/2 tsp ginger paste the tube kind
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2-3 bowls hot cooked rice Japanese short-grain
  • 1 egg per bowl fried, yolk soft
  • 2-3 stalks green onion finely chopped
  • 1 pinch shredded nori per bowl optional

Method
 

  1. Put the soy sauce, sake, mirin, sugar, garlic paste, ginger paste and salt in a freezer bag and squash it around until the sugar dissolves. A bag works better than a bowl here: there is very little liquid, and pressed flat it touches every surface of the meat.
  2. Add the pork, push the air out, seal the bag and refrigerate overnight (8 hours or more), turning it once if you can. Keep the marinade when you take the pork out - it becomes the sauce.
  3. Take the pork out of the fridge about 30 minutes before cooking. Lift it out of the bag and let the excess marinade drip off.
  4. Preheat the air fryer and cook the pork at 190C / 375F for about 13 minutes to brown it (13 minutes for a 300 g block; a thicker piece needs a few minutes more). The marinade is sugary and burns easily, so check at 7 to 10 minutes and tent a piece of aluminum foil over the top if it is already dark.
  5. As soon as the high-heat stage finishes, push a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the block. It must read 75C / 167F in the center. If it reads low, give it a few more minutes at 190C with foil on top and check again.
  6. Switch to the dehydrate or dry setting and hold at 75C / 167F for 60 minutes. Do not open the drawer. The pork stays safely at temperature without cooking further, which is what keeps a lean loin juicy. Rest the block on a board for 10 minutes.
  7. Pour the leftover marinade into a small pan and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes until it thickens slightly. It must actually boil - it held raw pork overnight.
  8. Slice the chashu thin across the grain. Build each bowl: hot rice, a pinch of shredded nori, the chashu slices fanned over the rice, a fried egg with a soft yolk, a heap of chopped green onion, and the tare spooned over the top.