Kakitama Jiru - Japanese Egg Drop Soup

Kakitama Jiru (かきたま汁) is Japanese egg drop soup. It resembles Chinese egg drop soup, but the taste is different since the Japanese version uses dashi (bonito fish stock).

Like most egg drop soup, Japanese egg drop soup is easy to prepare. I love making this soup since the soup only needs about 15-20 minutes to prepare and cook.

Ingredients for Kakitama Jiru (Japanese egg drop soup)

• eggs
• dashi (bonito fish stock)
• ginger juice
• soy sauce
• salt
• cornstarch
• scallions

Dashi (bonito fish stock)

Dashi is Japanese stock, typically made with dried bonito fish and kombu seaweed.

It is easy to make dashi from scratch at home, and you can follow my dashi recipe if you want. Alternatively, use instant dashi if you don’t want to spend time making homemade dashi.

Ginger juice

Use a Microplane or a Japanese ceramic grater to grate fresh ginger, then squeeze the grated ginger to get the ginger juice.

About 2 inches of fresh ginger should yield a tablespoon of ginger juice.

Soy sauce

Japanese soup usually uses Usukuchi soy sauce (薄口醤油) for soup. Usukuchi soy sauce gives a lighter color soup compared to regular soy sauce, but feel free to use the more readily available less-sodium Kikkoman soy sauce.

Cornstarch

I use cornstarch to thicken my soup, but in Japanese cuisine, it is more common to use potato starch (katakuriko/片栗粉) to thicken soup or sauce.

How to cook Kakitama Jiru (Japanese egg drop soup)

1. Boil dashi, salt, and soy sauce in a soup pot over medium heat.
2. Add cornstarch slurry and stir for about 2 minutes, or until the soup is thick.
3. Pour the beaten eggs in a thin stream while stirring the soup gently in one direction to create the egg drop effect.
4. Add ginger juice and thinly sliced scallions.
5. Turn off the heat and serve the soup immediately.

Other egg drop soup recipes

If you love egg drop soup, you will love these other versions as well:

• smashed tofu egg drop soup
• corn and egg drop soup
• crab, corn, and asparagus egg drop soup
• seaweed and egg drop soup
• Dan Hua Tang (egg drop soup with shrimp, tofu, and shiitake)

For other Japanese soups, why not try these recipes:

• spinach and egg miso soup
• enoki miso soup
• Ozoni - Japanese new year soup with rice cakes
• Kenchin Jiru
• Tonjiru
• classic seaweed and tofu miso soup