Omurice (オムライス)

What Is Omurice

Omurice, or Omuraisu as it’s pronounced in Japan, is a portmanteau of “Omelette” and “Rice.” It’s unclear where the dish originated, but in Japan, Omurice is considered yōshoku(western food), and it was probably created around the turn of the last century when western-style cafes became popular. There are even some restaurants that specialize exclusively in omurice, but it’s also a favorite in home cooking.

Although everyone makes it a little differently, the omelette is usually stuffed with chicken rice, which is fried rice that’s made with chicken and seasoned with ketchup. This gives it a vibrant red color and savory sweet taste, that’s the trademark flavor of this dish.

As for the egg, classic styles of omurice were made into an oval shape and wrapped in a thin layer of egg, but these days, many people ditch the thin papery egg for a luscious blanket of soft scrambled eggs on top.

Omurice Components

Omurice is comprised of two main components, and can also be sauced. Here’s what’s inside each of them.

Chicken Rice

Although it’s called “chicken rice,” the predominant flavor here is ketchup, which makes it the perfect sweet and tangy contrast to the creamy egg on top. For my omurice, I like using a homemade ketchup because the spices make for a more interesting flavor profile, and it’s a little less sweet than the store-bought stuff. That being said, if you’re looking for that classic taste, the bottled stuff is the way to go. On the flipside if ketchup isn’t your cup of tea, don’t worry, you can make omurice using any kind of fried rice.

Although I almost always advocate using chicken thighs over breast meat, this is one of the rare exceptions where I feel like breast meat works better. Just be careful not overcook it, or it will get tough.

Other than that, I like to brown some onions to get a little more flavor into the rice. I also add some oyster sauce as a more flavorful alternative to soy sauce; this helps balance out the sweetness of the ketchup with plenty of umami. Some people also like to add other vegetables to their chicken rice like carrots and peas, which is fine, but I think they’re unnecessary unless you’re trying to get your kids to eat more vegetables. I usually serve this with a side salad.

Omelette

The omelette is more about the cooking technique than the ingredients, but I do like to use eggs with very vivid yolks so that the omelette turns out nice and golden. I also add a bit of cream, which ups the richness to balance out the acidity of the rice. If you’re really looking for something over the top, try adding some grated cheese to the eggs.

Sauce

Although omurice is usually just sauced with ketchup, it’s sometimes also served with a more flavorful sauce such as the sauce from Hayashi Rice (Omuhayashi – オムハヤシ) or Japanese Curry (Omukarei – オムカレー), or Meat Sauce (Omumeato – オムミート). For the last one, you could even do away with the rice and add spaghetti, which turns it into Omusupa (オムスパ). As you can see, there’s a lot of opportunities to get creative here.

How to Make Omurice

Making chicken rice is pretty straight forward. I start by marinating the chicken in a bit of soy sauce to ensure it’s well seasoned. Then I brown some onions before throwing the chicken in and stir-frying it. The trick to not having chewy chicken in your omurice is to add the rice before the chicken is fully cooked through. I usually go in with the rice as soon as I can’t see any raw sides on the chicken. This gives you plenty of time to get the rice nice and caramelized without turning the chicken into boot leather. Once the rice is heated through I, add the ketchup and oyster sauce and stir-fry until the sauces start caramelizing around the rice. Then you can load the rice into a mold and invert it onto a plate. I usually leave the mold on the plate until my eggs are done, to help keep the rice warm.

The trickier part is the omelette, but using this technique, anyone should be able to get an awesome creamy blanket of egg with big fluffy curds that are just barely held together. The first thing is to use a non-stick pan; this is a must to get the egg out of the pan cleanly.

Once you’ve melted the butter in the pan, add the egg and give them a few seconds to set up at the bottom. Then you just gently scramble them while shaking the pan, which redistributes the uncooked egg as you break up the curds. I usually take the omelette off the heat once there are no big pools of egg left, as carryover cooking will thicken the remaining egg into a rich, creamy sauce. But before you take the pan off the stove, blast it with heat for a few seconds which will vaporize any liquid between the egg and the pan, making the egg slide easily out of the pan.

Decorating Omurice

Although the soft scrambled eggs aren’t quite as smooth of a canvas to paint on, you can still do fun shapes such as stripes, hearts, stars, or faces using ketchup in a squeeze bottle.

Fried Rice Recipes

• Yakimeshi (Japanese Fried Rice)
• Kimchi Fried Rice (Kimchi Bokkeumbap)
• Sinangag (Filipino Garlic Fried Rice)
• Avocado Crab Fried Rice

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