The Ingredients You Need For Japanese-Style Egg Salad

A classic egg salad is one thing, but Japanese egg salad is even more elevated, flavorful, and delicious. While there are incredibly unique egg salad recipes from all around the world, Japanese-style egg salad is typically eaten on a nice, sweet Japanese milk bread called shokupan, thus making "tamago sando," or a Japanese egg sandwich. It really packs a punch, while being incredibly simple, which is why we asked an expert to share some tips about the best ingredients for a Japanese-style egg salad. Namiko Hirasawa Chen, the creator of Just One Cookbook, has some serious knowledge to share with the class that will help you dream of tamago sando for months to come.

"For Japanese tamago sando, I boil my eggs for 12 minutes over medium heat, then put them in an ice bath to stop the cooking," Hirasawa Chen said. "I season the egg salad with two squirts of Japanese mayo, two pinches each of kosher salt and sugar, one pinch of ground black pepper, and a tiny splash of milk." You're probably thinking, that's it?! What about the pickles or the mustard or the dill? Nope, those simple five ingredients (plus the egg) are all that's required to make a high-quality Japanese-style egg salad that you can eat at any time of day or night. 

Tamago sando is one of the most popular on-the-go snacks in Japan, especially at convenience store 7-Eleven. The simplicity of the Japanese-style egg salad is what makes it really stand out, so don't swap anything out for an alternative option. Be sure to use Kewpie mayo for this recipe because the rich umami flavor and, yes, the MSG, really make a difference! And, surprisingly, the milk or cream used in most Japanese-style egg salad recipes really just blends all the ingredients together to help make each and every bite nice and creamy.

The other big difference between an American-style egg salad and a Japanese-style egg salad is how the actual eggs are prepared. They're all boiled, but instead of mashing both the yolk and the white together as in the U.S., the tamago sando calls for the yolks and the whites to be separated before they're chopped up. The yolks are blended with other ingredients to create the creamy aspect, and the egg whites are roughly chopped to add more texture to the final product. Pair some sweet, bouncy shokupan with this creamy egg concoction, and you may never eat an American-style egg salad sandwich again!