Unadon
鰻丼
Glazed grilled eel over hot rice with sweet soy tare. The honest home method: store-bought kabayaki eel, steamed with sake and re-glazed under a hot grill.
Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen. Native name preserved: 鰻丼.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Rest
- 20 min
- Total
- 1 hr
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Spice
- No chilli
- Cost
- Treat yourself$28+ USD · indicative, not a store price
About
Unadon is grilled eel glazed with a sweet soy tare, laid over a bowl of hot rice with more tare poured over. In a specialist shop the eel is split alive, skewered and grilled over charcoal, steamed if it is Tokyo, then grilled again while being dipped in a tare that may have been topped up for decades. At home the honest method is to buy vacuum-packed kabayaki eel, already grilled and glazed, and do the last stage properly: steam it briefly with sake so it softens, make a fresh tare, and glaze it under a hot grill until it bubbles and blisters. A pinch of sansho pepper goes on at the table.
What you'll need
9 ingredients. Tap each one once it's out on the bench.
- Eel
- Tare
- Rice
- To serve
Ingredients
Eel
- Unagi kabayaki, vacuum-packed kabayaki fillets, thawed2
- Sake, for steaming30 ml
To serve
- Sichuan pepper, ground fine, standing in for Japanese sansho (optional)2½ ml
Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.
Steps
Step 1
Rinse the rice until the water runs nearly clear, soak it 20 minutes, then cook it with the 360 ml water in a rice cooker, or in a covered saucepan: bring to the boil, then 12 minutes on low and 10 minutes off the heat with the lid on.
35 min
Step 2
Simmer the soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar in a small saucepan for 8 to 10 minutes, until reduced by about a third and it coats a spoon. Stir in any sauce sachet that came with the eel. It thickens more as it cools.
10 min
Step 3
Cut each eel fillet in half. Rinse the factory glaze off briefly under hot water and pat dry. Lay the pieces skin down in a frying pan, pour the sake over, cover and heat over medium for 2 to 3 minutes until hot through and soft.
5 min
Tip: This short steam is what turns a firm packet eel back into something tender.
Step 4
Heat the oven grill to high. Move the eel skin down onto a lined baking tray, brush with tare and grill for 1 to 2 minutes. Brush again and grill another minute, until the glaze bubbles and the edges blister.
4 min
Watch: The sugar burns in seconds. Stay by the oven.
Step 5
Fill two bowls with hot rice and spoon a tablespoon of tare over each. Lay the eel on top, spoon over a little more tare and serve with sansho or the pepper stand-in at the table.
2 min
Nutrition
Per serving · estimate
- Calories
- 818 kcal
- Protein
- 45.7 g
- Carbs
- 67.7 g
- Fat
- 35.5 g
- Saturated fat
- 8.9 g
- Fibre
- 1.4 g
- Sugar
- 18.8 g
- Sodium
- 3059 mg
Calculated from canonical ingredient data (USDA FoodData Central averages and equivalent published tables). Estimates only.
Allergens
Informational only. Not a medical guarantee. Cross-contamination happens in real kitchens.
- Fish
- Soy
- Wheat
- Pescatarian
- Dairy-free
- Nut-free
Adapt this recipe
The original recipe stays as it is. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are simple maths.
Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 12 November.
Substitutions
Unagi → Anago (sea eel) or salmon fillet, glazed the same way
Anago is softer and lighter. Salmon is not unadon, but it takes the tare well and uses a fish under less pressure.
Tips
- Specialist shops add grilled eel heads and bones to their tare. If your fillets come with the tail ends, simmer them in the tare.
- Leftover tare keeps in the fridge for weeks and is good on grilled chicken.
History & culture
Eel is summer stamina food. On the midsummer Day of the Ox, doyo no ushi no hi in late July, queues form outside unagi shops and supermarkets stack up kabayaki packs. The rest of the year it is a special-occasion lunch, served in a lacquered box as unaju when the restaurant wants to charge more.
Grilled eel was street food in Edo by the 18th century, and the rice bowl version is said to date from the early 1800s. The summer eel habit is often credited to the scholar Hiraga Gennai; the story goes that an eel seller asked him how to sell more in the hot months, and he wrote a sign for the shop.
Modern adaptation — Unagi shops split live eels and grill them over binchotan charcoal: Kanto shops grill, steam and grill again, Kansai shops grill straight through. None of that is practical at home, and most Japanese home cooks buy kabayaki fillets too. Japanese eel is listed as endangered and European eel as critically endangered, so read the pack for species and origin and treat this as an occasional dish.
Provenance: Editorial adaptation.
Questions about this recipe
Answers taken from this dish's times, amounts, swaps and tips.
How long does Unadon take?
1 hr all in — 15 min prep, 25 min cook, 20 min rest. Cook and rest follow the method. Leftover storage and optional extra waits are not included.
How many does it serve?
The recipe is written for 2 bowls. Scale the ingredient list on the page if you are cooking for a different number.
How hard is it?
Easy.
How spicy is it?
No chilli.
What allergens should I watch?
This recipe is labelled for Fish, Soy, Wheat. Labels are informational — check the packets in your kitchen. This is not medical advice.
Does it fit a diet?
The published recipe is labelled Pescatarian, Dairy-free, Nut-free.
11 more questionsFewer questions
What does it cost to cook?
Treat yourself — about $28+ USD, as a grocery budget for this recipe, not a restaurant price.
What equipment do I need?
Rice cooker, Saucepan, Frying pan, Oven, Baking tray.
How much salt do I put in?
This recipe does not list salt as its own ingredient. Saltiness comes from Soy sauce — 60 ml. Taste at the end rather than adding a number we did not write.
How much soy sauce?
60 ml of Soy sauce.
How much mirin?
60 ml of Mirin.
How much sugar?
25 g of Sugar.
What can I use instead?
Unagi → Anago (sea eel) or salmon fillet, glazed the same way. Anago is softer and lighter. Salmon is not unadon, but it takes the tare well and uses a fish under less pressure.
What should I watch for?
The sugar burns in seconds. Stay by the oven.
Any tips from this recipe?
Specialist shops add grilled eel heads and bones to their tare. If your fillets come with the tail ends, simmer them in the tare. Leftover tare keeps in the fridge for weeks and is good on grilled chicken.
Can I prepare this ahead?
Leftover tare keeps in the fridge for weeks and is good on grilled chicken.
Can I use an air fryer?
This method is not written for an air fryer. The core technique on the page still applies.
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