Food Truck Tuesday - Onigiri, Japanese Rice Balls
Try this Food Truck Tuesday - Onigiri, Japanese rice balls recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Food Truck Tuesday - Onigiri, Japanese rice balls recipe, or contribute your own.
- 3 cups water
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups sushi rice
- optional:
- 6 oz beef thinly sliced (japanese store) or ground
- 2 tbsp sake
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- 6 oz boneless and skinless chicken tighs
- 2 tbsp miso paste
- 1 tsp (japanese) chili pepper
- 3.5 oz tuna
- 1 tbsp (kewpie) mayonnaise
- 2 tsp sriracha sauce or sambal
- furikake (rice seasoning) for garnish
- 1 large nori sheet cut in 10 strips
- Carbohydrate 36.4776026666667 g
- Cholesterol 2.9766999255 mg
- Fat 0.493530464630333 g
- Fiber 1.42986664797465 g
- Protein 5.8022031699835 g
- Saturated Fat 0.121387592752233 g
- Serving Size 1 1 onigiri (166g)
- Sodium 141.332219163038 mg
- Sugar 35.047736018692 g
- Trans Fat 0.0601874331098334 g
- Calories 182 calories
Step-by-step
- Wash the rice under running water until the water runs clear.
- Cook the rice according to the instructions on the box and let it cool slightly once cooked.
- For the sake beef: I used thinly sliced beef from the Japanese supermarket and I cut that in thin strips. You can also use ground beef. Marinate the beef in the sake, ginger powder and salt. Set aside for as long the rice is cooking. As soon as the rice is cooling off, fry the beef in a skillet over medium high heat for about 1-2 minutes until done, without using oil or butter.
- For the miso chicken: cut the chicken thighs in thin strips and then in small cubes, you’ll want to end up with pieces not bigger than 0.4 inches. Marinate the chicken in the miso paste and chili pepper. Set aside for as long the rice is cooking. As soon as the rice is cooling off, fry the chicken in a skillet over medium high heat, for about 2 minutes until done, without using oil or butter.
- For the spicy tuna: Finely chop the raw tuna, like really really fine. Add the mayonnaise and the sriracha and stir until combined. Set aside.
- As soon as the rice is cooled off enough so you can handle it you place a layer of rice in a bowl covered with plastic wrap:
- Place 1 tablespoon of the filling of your choice in the middle.
- Wrap the plastic to the center so that the rice covers the filling. Twist & squeeze until a thight rice ball forms. You can leave it as a ball or squeeze it a little more for a triangle:
- Roll the onigiri in furikake (if using) and use the nori strips as a wrap.
Attempting to shape warm, unrinsed sushi rice is the primary error home cooks commit when making onigiri. Starch clinging to the exterior grains prevents proper cohesion, resulting in a crumbly mass rather than a dense, portable package. Rinsing the raw grains thoroughly under cold running water removes excess surface amylose before cooking, while letting the cooked rice cool until it is merely warm allows handling without scorching hands or breaking down grain integrity.
Chemical interactions between the warm rice and fillings dictate how flavors develop inside the nori wrap. When searing thinly sliced beef marinated in sake and ginger over medium-high heat for one to two minutes, proteins undergo the Maillard reaction rapidly without requiring additional fat. The natural moisture in the meat combines with the umami-rich miso paste on the chicken variants to season the surrounding starch grains naturally by osmosis during assembly.
Lined plastic wrap acts as a mechanical press, transferring pressure uniformly to compact the grains around one tablespoon of protein filling. Squeezing the wrapped mass firmly shapes the sticky exterior into traditional triangles while expelling trapped air pockets that would otherwise cause structural failure. Wrapping a strip of nori around the base just before eating keeps the seaweed crisp against moisture migration from the inner rice layer.
