Yaki Onigiri

Yaki Onigiri (焼きおにぎり)

Yaki Onigiri (焼きおにぎり) is a traditional Japanese snack made by grilling rice balls over charcoal until they start to brown and crisp. Then, they're brushed with either miso or soy sauce and roasted until the seasoning forms a toasty caramelized glaze on the outside. The flavor that the charcoal grill imparts is undeniably good, but the texture usually ends up somewhere between crunchy and chewy, and not in a good way.

These days, most people don't have a grill at home in Japan, so they are commonly made in a frying pan, but the oil can cause them to fall apart more readily, and it's challenging to get enough glaze onto them to season them properly.

For my version, I've changed a few steps to create a grilled rice ball that's flavorful inside and has an exterior that's as crisp as a cracker.

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• Yaki Onigiri (焼きおにぎり)
• Why This Recipe Works?
• Ingredients for Yaki Onigiri
• How to Make Yaki Onigiri
• FAQ
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Why This Recipe Works?

• Using Japanese short-grain white rice ensures that the Yaki Onigiri will stick together during frying.
• By pan-frying it rather than grilling, it's possible to get a crisp, evenly browned rice layer.
• A thin coating of potato starch helps make the onigiri crispy and binds the rice on the onigiri's surface together so it doesn't fall apart when it hits the oil.
• Mixing the soy sauce directly into the rice rather than brushing it on top ensures the onigiri is evenly seasoned to the core.
• Melted butter adds a wonderful complimentary flavor to the grilled rice balls, but the milk solids in butter burn easily. That's why it's essential to add it at the very end.

Ingredients for Yaki Onigiri

• Rice - To make onigiri, it is imperative that you use Asian short-grain rice (Sativa Japonica, a.k.a. "sushi rice"). These cultivars have a higher ratio of amylopectin to amylose, which gives them a stickier texture. This enables the cooked rice to bind together into a ball of rice. If you try this with other varieties, like jasmine rice, your onigiri will likely fall apart.
• Soy sauce - I used Japanese soy sauce to season my onigiri, but this will work with any savory sauce that contains salt, such as miso (you may need to thin it out a bit first with a little water), ketchup, oyster sauce, teriyaki sauce, etc.
• Potato starch - Oil lubricates the grains, which can make your rice ball fall apart, but a thin coating of potato starch creates a crispy crust that binds the surface of the onigiri together. It also helps make it extra crispy.
• Vegetable oil - It takes a while to get the surface of the rice ball browned and crisp. If you start with butter, the milk solids burn and become bitter, which is why I fry my onigiri with vegetable oil first.
• Butter - Butter and soy sauce is a classic combo that is incredibly delicious on everything from pasta to stir-fries. It's also really tasty on yaki onigiri. The melted butter sinks into the craggy surface creating a synergy of flavor. I like using cultured butter (a.k.a. European butter) because the fermentation of the cream creates more diacetyl, which is the compound responsible for giving butter its flavor. Another option is to brush them with toasted sesame oil for a nutty flavor.

How to Make Yaki Onigiri

Cook the rice

The first thing you need to do is cook a batch of short-grain rice. This recipe is written for one rice cooker cup of rice (about ¾ US cup), which will make 3 Japanese rice balls. If you need more, just increase the amount of each ingredient proportionally (though you won't need to increase the amount of oil as much).

Season the rice

When the rice is cooked, drizzle the soy sauce or sauce mixture evenly over the hot rice and then use a wet spatula or rice paddle to distribute the soy sauce evenly. You want to use a folding and cutting motion to coat each grain with the soy sauce, but use a light touch so you don't mash the grains.

Once the seasoned rice is uniform in color, flatten off the top and then divide it into thirds with the spatula (if you double the recipe, you'll need to divide it into sixths).

Shape the onigiri

Wet your hands with water and form triangular shape rice balls from each segment of rice. Click this link for instructions on shaping them by hand. Or you can wet a triangular shape onigiri mold in a bowl of water and use that. Unlike regular onigiri, you want to compact it well for Yaki Onigiri, so it holds its shape in the pan.

Place the formed onigiri onto a prepared baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or plastic wrap) and repeat until you've used all of the seasoned rice.

Put the potato starch in a tea strainer or other fine-mesh sieve, and then give the two large faces of the onigiri a light dusting of starch. This step ensures that the onigiri will form a crispy crust and won't fall apart in the oil. It should look like your rice balls got hit with a light frost, not a heavy snowfall. Also, try to limit the amount of starch that gets onto the sides of the onigiri.

Fry

Heat a frying pan over medium-low heat until it's moderately hot, and then drizzle in about half of the oil. Add the onigiri to the pan and then move them around to ensure each one has some oil on it. Be careful not to allow them to touch each other or they will stick together.

Let these fry until they're crisp and golden brown. This will take 7-10 minutes, but cooking times will vary depending on your stove. The surface of the rice ball has to lose moisture before it can start to brown. The idea is to brown them slowly so you get a nice thick crust of crispy rice, not just a layer of browning.

Once they've crisped on one side, flip them over. Add a bit more oil to the pan and move the Yaki Onigiri around to make sure you have some oil between the rice and the pan. You may not need all of the oil.

When the second side has browned, melt some butter on top of each ball of rice and then flip them over and melt some more butter on the second side (you may not need it all).

To finish them off, flip the grilled rice balls up on their sides and roll them around on each side for 1-2 minutes to cook any stray starch that may have gotten onto the sides (white powder).

Serve the onigiri while hot, wrapped in perilla leaves (shiso or kkaennip) or nori seaweed. Yaki onigiri make a satisfying snack or serve them with a bowl of miso soup, dashimaki tamago, and some Japanese pickles for a complete meal.

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