In this video, I am showing how to make Onigirazu, similar to Onigiri, but is made instead of squeezing, only having layer of rice with filling, wrapped in Nori. A new creation suitable for Bento lunch box. Here I am showing a version with Teriyaki chicken.
In my Channel, I show step by step of alternative but authentic Japanese home cooking, which can be made with the ingredients that are easily available outside of Japan.
Ingredients for Onigirazu with Teriyaki chicken: Rice (Japanese sticky rice) 1 Cup Water 1,2 Cup Teriyaki chicken: - Chicken 100-150 g - Soy sauce 2 Tbsp - Sugar 1 Tbsp - Frying oil 1 Tbsp Mayonnaise 1 Tbsp Lettuce Nori seaweed
Welcome to Daijutsu Kitchen.
Today, I'm going to show you how to make onigirazu.
So I hope you know onigiri.
Those are rice balls with different fillings inside.
So this onigirazu is kind of a variation of onigiri,
but instead of making it through squeezing,
it's kind of like a sandwich with rice.
So you have a layer of rice, then you have the filling,
then another layer of rice, and wrapped in nori sheet.
The name onigirazu came from kind of like
the negation of onigiri.
The word nigiri means to squeeze or pack tightly.
That's why this type of sushi is called nigiri sushi,
because it's made through squeezing the rice
and the fish together.
And this dish, onigirazu, is kind of fairly new.
I think it kind of came out like
in the last 10, 15 years or so.
Some people just kind of started making sandwich with rice.
And today, I'm going to show you one variation
with teriyaki chicken, a very typical filling,
but also you can put in different filling
like tonkatsu or like shogayaki,
ginger pork stir fry, or like hamburg, or like tempura.
So you can be very creative with this.
And this is also very perfect for a bento.
Because I got a lot of requests for the bento recipes,
I wasn't planning on making that video
because you can put in just like different things inside,
but instead I made a playlist
including all different kinds of recipes
that are suitable for a bento.
So I hope you check those out as well.
Then, let's get started.
Here are the ingredients for onigirazu with teriyaki chicken.
For the rice, I have just regular Japanese sticky rice.
And today I'll be using chicken thigh.
If you want to make it lean, you can also use chicken breast,
but I think chicken thigh tastes the best.
Or also if you're vegetarian,
you can substitute this with tofu.
Then you have a vegetarian vegan onigirazu
with teriyaki tofu.
And also I'm going to put in a little bit of lettuce to it,
and shirinori seaweed.
And for the seasoning, I have soy sauce and sugar,
and Kewpie mayonnaise.
If you don't have this Kewpie mayonnaise,
of course it's okay.
You can use just regular mayonnaise.
This Kewpie mayonnaise has a little more depth to the flavor.
To my opinion, this matches also the teriyaki sauce better.
So try to get this.
If not, that's also okay.
Then let's start cooking.
So the first thing is preparing the rice.
I'm just going to use the rice as usual.
I'm going to leave it like this for a minute or so.
And let the water drain.
So after a minute, I'm going to throw away this water.
And then here I'm going to add in 1.2 cups of water.
There's about one and one fifth.
And then I'm going to let this sit for at least an hour or so
and let the rice grains soak in the water.
Now, while we're waiting on the rice,
let's prepare the rest of the ingredients.
So the lettuce has been washed
and it's just the chicken meat to prepare.
So if you're cutting any kind of meat or fish
on a wooden cutting board,
you want to wet it first.
Otherwise the blood and the juice
is going to sink into the cutting board
and whatever you cut afterwards
is going to smell like meat or fish.
So I'm going to do that first.
And here I have prepared chicken thigh.
And as you can see, it's not flat
and it'll be a little bit difficult to work with.
Put it in as a filling for the onigirazu.
I'm just going to make a couple of slits to make it flat.
Just like that.
And this is ready for marinade.
Then let's make the marinade for the chicken.
So here I'm going to make it just a regular teriyaki sauce.
Sugar and soy sauce with one to two ratio.
One tablespoon of sugar, two tablespoons of soy sauce.
And I'm just going to mix it thoroughly.
And it's okay if the sugar doesn't dissolve immediately.
After 10 minutes or so, they'll dissolve anyway.
And then here I'm going to put in the chicken meat.
Just around like this.
Then I'm going to let this sit
and let it marinate for at least an hour or so
and let the meat soak in the sauce.
So an hour has passed.
As you can see, the rice has soaked in the water.
Now we're ready to cook.
So I'm going to first cook the rice.
And then turn the heat to high and bring this to boil.
Now this has come to a boil.
I'm going to turn the heat to simmer.
And then we're going to cook like this
and simmer for 10 minutes.
Now the rice is finished cooking.
I'm going to put this to the side and cook the chicken.
Now let's fry the chicken.
So as you can see,
the chicken has been marinated for an hour as well.
Then I'm going to turn the heat to medium.
Now once the frying pan has been heated,
I'm going to put in about a teaspoon of frying oil.
So if you put the chicken right in the pan like this,
the soy sauce is going to burn.
So what I'm going to do is,
I'm going to put in a paper towel
and take away a little bit of liquid.
I'm going to fry the chicken, the skin side first.
Then I'm going to put the lid on
and cook like this for a minute or so.
So after about a minute or so,
I'm going to turn to the other side
and cook like this for another minute or so.
So after a minute or so,
the bottom side has been really good.
I'm going to flip to the other side
and cook like this for another minute or so.
And now after a minute,
oof, it's a bit burnt.
And with a paper towel,
I'm going to take away the excess oil.
And now I'm going to turn the heat to low.
And in this, I'm going to put in the rest of the sauce.
We're going to thicken the sauce like this in low heat.
I'm going to try to put the marinade sauce
around the chicken.
So as the marinade sauce has thickened
and has coated the chicken like this,
I'm going to turn the heat off.
And then I'm going to put this aside and let it cool off.
So before we're going to assemble,
I'm going to roast the nori sheet.
If you're using a quality nori sheet,
then you don't need to do this,
but the nori I have is not so high quality.
Or also if you have old stale nori,
then you might want to do this
so that the flavor of nori is much stronger.
It's preferable to use an open flame,
but if you have an electric cooker,
it works not as well, but it still works.
What you want to do is you want to put it
to like a medium heat or so.
And then I'm going to kind of put it over like this
and let it roast just slightly.
You just switch around and do this like this several times.
Once it's crispy like this, then this is good.
I'm going to first take out the rice.
Make sure you wet the spatula.
So I'm going to let this sit for a minute or so
and let it cool off.
Otherwise the nori sheet is going to be too soft
and can be easily broken off.
So once the rice is cooled off,
we're ready to assemble everything.
So I'm going to put the nori like this diagonally,
and I'm going to put the rice in the middle as a square,
just half of this.
I'm going to try to make it as square as possible.
And then here I'm going to put in some lettuce.
And here I'm going to put in some Kewpie mayonnaise,
whichever you want.
And then this I'm going to put in the chicken.
I'm going to put the rice to cover this.
I'm going to try to make it also as square as possible.
Then I'm going to try to cover this with the nori sheet.
And what I usually do is just use a couple grains of rice
and put it here so that they'll stick together.
And then now this is wrapped.
So you can put this in a bento box like this.
It's easier if you use a saran wrap like this,
and then put this on top of a saran wrap
and wrap it with a saran wrap like this.
And then I'm going to put this top side
on the bottom like this
so that the other side will also stick together well.
Same thing you would do with maki sushi.
And then we're going to let it sit like this
for a minute or so,
and then let the nori stick together.
Now let's cut this in half and serve.
If you're making this for bento,
you can just take it like this,
then it's already in package.
But if you're eating at home,
then it might be easier to just cut it in half.
Oh, that looks so great.
Then let's eat.
Oh, this looks so amazing.
Let's eat.
Itadakimasu.
Oh, this is really delicious.
So this is meant to be a bento,
so it's cooled off,
but still the flavor is really good.
This combination of teriyaki sauce
and the Kewpie mayonnaise is so amazing.
The teriyaki sauce have this sweet, salty flavor,
and then the mayonnaise have this salty sourness to it.
And to that comes a little hint of this nori, the seaweed.
The combination is just so incredible.
And also this is covered with nori,
so my hands stay clean.
This is a really perfect lunch.
Like my ass.
Oh, this is so tasty, so delicious.
And also the lettuce is adding
a little bit of that bitterness to it,
making this flavor much more complex.
And yet everything is in one harmony.
Oh, that was delicious.
Gochisosamadeshita.
Oh, that was so tasty.
So as you saw, making this onigiri is quite easy,
and it's really a perfect bento lunch.
Depending on what you put inside as a filling,
you can be very creative with this.
So I hope you give this a try.
If you enjoyed what you saw,
I'd love it if you could hit me the like button,
or if you have any feedbacks,
please feel free to write anything in the comments below.
Otherwise, I look forward to see you in the next video.
Bye.
