🍳 BREAKFAST
Tamago Kake Gohan
Hot rice topped with a raw egg and a splash of soy, Japan's fastest, most comforting breakfast.
Japanese · easy · serves 1
prep 3 min · cook 1 min
~347 cal · 12g protein · 61g carbs · 6g fat · 1g fiber · 0g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Tamago kake gohan, 'egg on rice,' known as TKG, is the ultimate simple Japanese breakfast: a raw egg cracked over a bowl of steaming hot rice with a splash of soy sauce, stirred until glossy and creamy. Minimal yet deeply satisfying, it relies on the freshness and quality of the egg.
The heat of the just-cooked rice lightly warms the egg into a silky, custardy coating, the soy adding savory depth. It is about as elemental as food gets, valued for its simplicity and the pure taste of good rice and egg.
Eaten in homes across Japan as a quick breakfast or anytime meal, TKG is about as simple as cooking gets.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and dairy-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 1
- 1 bowl hot cooked short-grain rice
- 1 very fresh egg
- 1-2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sliced scallion (optional)
Instructions
- 1Serve the rice hot in a bowl, straight from the cooker.
- 2Crack the egg (or add the tofu) into the center.
- 3Add the soy sauce (or tamari).
- 4Beat everything together quickly with chopsticks until the rice turns creamy.
- 5Top with scallion and eat immediately, while hot.
Japanese home breakfast.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Osaka (Kansai). Takoyaki has a date and an inventor. Endo Tomekichi was selling radioyaki, a beef-and-konjac batter ball named after the new technology of radio broadcasting, when a customer remarked that Akashi put octopus in theirs. He tried it in 1935, called the result takoyaki, and his shop Aizuya still sells it plain, without the sauce and mayonnaise that only became standard after the war.
🗺️
Japan. Dashi does the quiet work in a Japanese kitchen. Kelp carries one savoury compound and dried, smoked skipjack carries another, and combining the two multiplies the effect well beyond either alone. The taste was named umami in 1908 by Ikeda Kikunae of Tokyo Imperial University, who went looking for it after eating tofu simmered with kelp.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Japan
Osaka-Style OkonomiyakiA crisp-edged cabbage pancake griddled with pork belly, painted with sweet-savory sauce and mayo.
Goya ChampuruOkinawa’s signature stir-fry of bitter melon, firm tofu, pork, and egg, humble food from the island of long life.
Sapporo Miso RamenSnow-country ramen: a rich miso broth with wok-seared vegetables, springy noodles, and butter melting on top.
Browse all Japan recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Japan meal
AmazakeDrink
DorayakiDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
AbloBenin
KatilapamBrunei
Kiribati Coconut RiceKiribati
Kanda Poha (Maharashtrian Onion Flattened Rice)India
Mofo GasyMadagascar
Chukuchuk (Coconut Rice Balls)Marshall Islands
Cuisine
Diet
Vegetarian Recipes from Around the World
Dairy-Free Recipes from Around the World
Nut-Free Recipes from Around the World
Pork-Free Recipes from Around the World
Dairy-Free Japanese Recipes
Vegetarian Breakfasts from Around the World
Dairy-Free Breakfasts from Around the World
Nut-Free Breakfasts from Around the World
Frequently asked questions
What is Tamago Kake Gohan?
Hot rice topped with a raw egg and a splash of soy, Japan's fastest, most comforting breakfast.
Where does Tamago Kake Gohan come from?
Tamago Kake Gohan is a Japanese dish from Osaka (Kansai), Japan.
Can Tamago Kake Gohan be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tamago Kake Gohan recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Tamago Kake Gohan safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Tamago Kake Gohan take to make?
About 4 minutes total (3 minutes prep, 1 minutes cooking), serving 1.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.