Easy Onigiri Recipe (How to Make Japanese Rice Balls)

Simple, quick, and easy– a beginner's guide to making Japanese rice balls "onigiri". Learn step-by-step how to shape them into picture-perfect triangles without a mold.

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Walk into any convenience store in Japan. No doubt, you'll discover an entire section dedicated to those triangular-shaped, packaged bundles of rice wrapped in seaweed.

Onigiri rice balls are standard fare at any konbini or supermarket in Japan. And I never buy them. The only exception is when I go out to eat at a restaurant. When onigiri are served fresh, the rice is still warm. Seasoned with only salt, wrapped in a crisp sheet of nori, mmm— it's the best.

And besides, homemade onigiri are so easy to make at home and taste so much better than store-bought. They're healthier too with no added preservatives. 

Table of Contents

Why you'll love onigiri

Sort of the equivalent to the sandwich, in Japan onigiri are the top choice for eating on the go. No utensils or messy clean-up required. No staining your clean clothes.

Onigiri fit neatly inside bento lunch boxes. Or just carry one or two wrapped inside your purse for a meal or quick snack. Pack them for the office, school lunch, road trips, picnics, or long flights!

Making onigiri is also one of the most convenient and easiest things you can do with leftover cooked rice. Above all, nothing so simple tastes as good as a freshly made warm onigiri, slightly salted, with a bowl of miso soup. 

If you need any help, just leave me a comment below! I personally respond to every message.

❤️ & 🍙 from Japan, Matt

Are onigiri the same as rice balls?

Except for maybe tourists and English textbooks, no one in Japan really calls them "rice balls". Onigiri are onigiri! (おにぎり) Though, you can also call them musubi（むすび）or o-musubi with an honorific o- at the beginning. Rice is an honored, sacred food in Japan.

"Rice balls" is just the most common English translation to describe what onigiri are. Even though they're usually shaped more like triangles.

Recipe at a Glance

Cuisine— Japanese Course— Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or Snack Dietary Info— Vegetarian, Vegan, Paleo, Gluten-free Skill Level— Easy

Ingredients

To make these onigiri, you only need two simple Japanese ingredients, water, and salt.

Scroll down to the recipe card for the full recipe.

• Japanese white rice: Sometimes called "sushi rice" outside of Japan. Below, I'll go into detail about why I use Japanese white rice and my other recommendations.
• Water: When making rice, the quality of water you cook your rice in matters. Use clean, filtered water whenever possible.
• Nori seaweed sheets: Again, quality matters. The best sushi restaurants know this. You can buy full-size sheets and cut them into ⅓-sized strips. Or buy nori seaweed strips that are already the perfect size for wrapping onigiri.
• Salt: I prefer to use sea salt or kosher salt that's fine grain, not coarse salt.

How to Make Onigiri (Simplest Version)

I'm going to teach you the simplest version made with Japanese short-grain white rice and salt. In Japanese, you would call these shio onigiri (塩おにぎり). Shio just means salt.

Before that, I'll go over the three main options for cooking rice. Then, I'll show you how to form them into triangle-shaped balls wrapped in seaweed.

Choose the right rice for making onigiri

Only certain types of rice are used to make onigiri. Making good-tasting onigiri is easy, as long as you use the right kind of rice and cook it correctly.

Expert tips:

1. It's important that you use Japanese rice. The stickiness of Japanese rice holds the rice together to form compact balls. Korean short-grain rice will also work.
2. Other types of medium or long-grain rice, such as jasmine or basmati, would most likely not stick. These types of rice don't contain enough starch, which is the glue that holds onigiri together.
3. Choosing higher quality Japanese rice is the secret to making simple, easy-to-make onigiri that taste amazing. 

The best rice for onigiri

Tamanishiki Super Premium Short Grain Rice is my favorite brand of Japanese rice outside of Japan. After that, I'd recommend trying other popular brands of koshihikari rice. Tamaki Gold and Shirakiku are both koshihikari rice from California.

I highly suspect that the best sushi and Japanese restaurants in the US typically choose either Tamanishiki or Tamaki Gold rice unless they're using imported rice from Japan.

Since rice crops tend to be treated with lots of pesticides in Japan, I buy organic rice whenever I can. Lundberg Family Farms Short-Grain Japanese Rice is organic rice grown in California. I haven't tried it yet.

Onigiri on a budget (outside of Japan):

In Japan, the quality of rice is a lot higher than the standard brands available in the US such as Nishiki, Botan Calrose, and Kokuho Rose. Outside of Japan, the cost of better quality rice is the biggest obstacle to making onigiri that taste wow.

If you only have access to more budget-friendly Japanese rice, I'd recommend going one step further and making seasoned yaki onigiri. Because these are seasoned with soy sauce (or miso) and grilled, they'll still taste pretty good without premium-grade rice. With melted butter on top, they're even better! 

How to Cook Rice for Making Onigiri

It's really important that you cook Japanese rice correctly. Make sure to wash and rinse your rice, let it soak for 20-30 minutes, and carefully measure the ratio of rice to water. The ratio I use for white rice to water is 1 to 1.1.

If you're a beginner, I encourage you to not skim over the directions like I tend to do.

1. Cook rice on your stove

If you don't own a rice cooker, you can still follow these directions for cooking Japanese rice in a pot on a stove.

2. Cook rice in a rice cooker

I suggest following the directions that came with your rice cooker. It's also a good idea to refer to the directions on the back of your bag of rice to compare. 

These directions for cooking Japanese rice in a rice cooker are also useful.

3. Cook rice in a donabe pot

This is the method I use if I'm home in my apartment, especially if I'm cooking for guests. A donabe is an earthenware pot made from clay.

I bought my donabe from "Kimono Mom". You can follow her directions for making rice in a donabe. 

You can also follow these written directions for cooking rice in a donabe.

For perfectly cooked Japanese rice, a donabe is what you need! The only thing is good quality donabe tend to be expensive. 

Onigiri get their name from the verb nigiru. Nigiru is the action of forming rice into a ball using your hands. It's like making a snowball. Onigiri can be spheres, actual rice balls. But I'm going teach you how to make the classic triangle shape, just like you'd find in a Japanese convenience store.

How to Form Onigiri in Your Hands

Step 1: Wet your hands

Dip both your (immaculately clean) hands into a bowl full of water. Shake off the excess water. Next, lightly dip your wet fingers into a small dish of salt. Rub the salt to cover your palms.

Step 2: Make a ball

Let your rice cool just enough so it's not too hot to handle. Scoop up enough rice to make one onigiri. Like making a snowball in two hands, gently form the rice into a sphere.

Step 3: Position hands into v-shape

Hold the ball of rice in the palm of your non-dominant hand. Bend your palm to make a v-shaped "valley". Cover the rice ball with your dominant hand with your forearms making a 90-degree angle. Your dominant hand makes a "mountain" to cover the rice— think Mt. Fuji.

Step 4: Shape rice ball into a triangle

Then, gently squeeze the rice ball with your top hand to form one corner of a triangle. Next, rotate the rice ball towards you 90 degrees. Again, gently squeeze with your top, v-shaped hand to form another corner to make a triangle. Repeat this rotate and gentle squeezing process until you've made a neat triangle shape.

Food Safety Concerns (bare hands):

Before making onigiri with your bare hands, wash your hands very well with soap and warm water. If you have any kind of cuts, sores, or abrasions on your hands, be sure to wear gloves.

If you're still concerned with hygiene, I'd recommend using the plastic wrap or plastic bag method for making onigiri. This is a good idea if you're serving guests or anyone with health risks. Unfortunately, this isn't as environmentally friendly as the traditional way.

Nori strips (the easiest way)

Cut nori seaweed sheet into strips. I prefer to cut strips ⅓ of a full-size sheet. Shorten strips as needed.

Alternatively, you can buy nori sheets that are already cut into the perfect size for onigiri. You should be able to find packages of ⅓ size nori at Japanese supermarkets like Nijiya.

How to Wrap Onigiri with Nori (Seaweed) 🍙

1. Place the nori strip shiny side down on a clean surface.
2. Position the triangle-shaped rice ball with one of its faces on top of the nori strip.
3. Attach the rough side of the nori strip to the face of the rice ball.
4. Wrap the nori strip around the flat bottom of the rice ball.
5. Gently press and rub the nori strip until it is firmly attached to the rice ball.

Onigiri Variations

There are many different kinds of onigiri. There are various shapes and lots of different fillings.

Different Shapes

1. triangular shape: Follow the directions in the recipe card below to make this shape.
2. flattened round shape: These are the easiest shape to form. They are just like triangular-shaped onigiri without the corners.
3. tawara: These are cylinder-shaped onigiri that look like a log wrapped in seaweed.

Different Styles

1. plain: These onigiri are not wrapped with nori seaweed. They are only seasoned with salt.
2. wrapped with nori: There are three different ways to wrap triangular-shaped onigiri with seaweed.
3. sprinkled: It's typical to sprinkle sesame seeds or furikake seasoning on top of a plain rice onigiri.
4. mixed rice: You can find onigiri made with mixed ingredients such as fried rice. A common version is called takikomi gohan, Japanese "mixed rice". Takikomi gohan is made with cooked seasonal vegetables, mushrooms, cooked fish, etc.
5. onigirazu: These are a flat, regular shape with fillings just like a sandwich.

Different Ways to Wrap Nori Around Onigiri

1. Half-wrap: 🍙 A strip of nori is wrapped around half of the onigiri, making it easy to hold.
2. Kimono Wrap: Imagine an onigiri wearing a kimono. Often, some of the filling is added on top so you can see what's inside.
3. Japanese Convenience Store Style: Using an onigiri plastic wrapper, you can separate the rice and nori to prevent the dried seaweed sheet from getting soggy.
4. Visible Inside: a strip of nori is wrapped around the circumference (sides) to show off the inside.
5. Alternative Wraps: In addition to nori, onigiri can be wrapped with shiso, pickled cabbage, pickled leaves, and tororo kombu seaweed.

Onigiri for Children (Creative, fun shapes!)

1. animal characters (panda, etc.)
2. manga (Doraemon, etc.)
3. cartoon characters

Onigiri Fillings

These are the most common onigiri fillings I see everywhere in Japan. Making onigiri with fillings isn't much more difficult than plain onigiri.

• tuna mayo
• salmon
• pickled plum
• tarako (cod roe)
• mentaiko (spicy cod roe)
• okaka (bonito flakes seasoned with soy sauce)
• konbu (simmered kelp)

This list is just the basics. At an onigiri shop in Japan, you'll find onigiri filled with shrimp tempura, ajitamago seasoned eggs, fried rice, and bulgogi marinated beef. Nowadays with Instagram, the list of creative fillings is always growing.

What's your favorite filling?

What to serve with onigiri

Traditionally onigiri is paired with a bowl of miso soup. When you order onigiri at a restaurant, it usually comes with tsukemono, Japanese-style pickles.

Onigiri also goes well with these savory, umami-ful dishes:

• tamagoyaki with smoked salmon filling
• Korean rolled omelette
• low carb okra with eggs and crispy mozzarella
• bitter melon with eggs
• miso fish with asparagus

Storage and Reheating Tips

Onigiri taste much better fresh! But if you have to keep them for later, follow these guidelines.

• Unless you are going to eat your onigiri immediately, it's important to salt your rice. Adding salt and letting the rice cool is crucial for proper hygiene. The salt helps to delay spoilage.
• Once your onigiri have cooled down to room temperature, wrap them completely in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge. I recommend eating refrigerated onigiri by the following day.
• If you've already wrapped your onigiri with nori, you may want to remove it before refrigerating. Otherwise, the nori will get soggy. Before eating, you can rewrap your onigiri with a new strip of nori.
• Freshly made onigiri can be put in a lunch box in the morning and be eaten as is for lunch. Using a bento box is the most environmentally-friendly way to store onigiri.
• Typically, onigiri are not reheated. You can try putting them in the microwave after removing the plastic wrap for 10-15 sec intervals until warm.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are rice balls and onigiri the same thing?

Yes, onigiri are Japanese rice balls. "Rice balls" is the English translation that's most typically used. Musubi is another word that also means rice balls.

The Korean version of rice balls are pretty similar to onigiri. They're called jumeokbap. The triangular-shaped rice balls sold at convenience stores in Korea are called samgak kimbap.

What kind of rice is used in onigiri?

For best results, use Japanese short-grain rice. Outside of Japan, it's sometimes labeled "sushi rice". At natural food stores in Japan, you'll also find onigiri made with genmai brown rice.

Can you make onigiri with normal rice?

Japanese rice is sticky, which is ideal for making onigiri. If you attempt to make onigiri with the normal rice you'd find at your local supermarket, it may not hold together. To make it worth your effort, I recommend finding the right short-grained rice at an Asian, Japanese, or Korean market or online.

If the rice you want to use is short or medium-grain such as Calrose, it may work for onigiri.

How do you get rice balls to stick?

There's really no trick to getting rice balls to stick. If you use the right type of rice and cook it properly, it will naturally stick together.

Japanese rice is sticky on its own. No additional ingredients are needed to make the rice stick.

Do I need to use an onigiri mold?

No, you don't need a mold to make onigiri. For making homemade onigiri, using an onigiri mold is just a personal preference. The advantage of a mold is being able to make onigiri a consistent size and shape.

If you have food safety concerns about making onigiri with your bare hands, using either the plastic wrap method or an onigiri mold are both good alternatives.

Do you put vinegar on rice for onigiri?

No, you don't add vinegar to rice to make onigiri. Adding vinegar to rice is for making sushi.

Onigiri is easily confused with sushi. Only salt is used to season the rice used to make onigiri.