Easy Onigiri Recipe (How to Make Japanese Rice Balls)
Simple, quick, and easy– how to make Japanese rice balls "onigiri". In Japanese, these are called shio (salt-flavored) onigiri
Ingredients
Rice
- ¾ cup ¾ cup Japanese short-grain rice equal to one "rice cooker cup"
- 200 ml water ⅞ US cup
- ¼ teaspoon salt fine-grained sea salt or kosher salt
Wrap
- 1 sheet dried nori seaweed
Instructions
Preparing Rice
- Transfer freshly cooked rice from your rice cooker or pot to a large bowl or glass baking dish.
- Using a spatula, gently spread out the rice to cover the bottom of your bowl.
- Sprinkle with salt (¼ tsp) and mix into rice by lightly tossing and folding over.
- Cool the rice until you no longer see clouds of steam and the rice has cooled just enough that you can hold it in your bare hands.
Shape Onigiri by Hand
- Fill a bowl with room temperature water and a small dish with salt. Keep these nearby to use as needed.
- Using your spatula, divide the cooked rice into three equal sections in your bowl or pan.
- Dip both of your (immaculately clean) hands into your bowl of water. Shake off the excess water.
- Using your hands or spatula, scoop up enough rice to make one onigiri.
- First, like making a snowball in two hands, gently form the rice into a sphere. Make it a ball shape but not too compact.
- Place the sphere of rice in the palm of your non-dominant hand. Bend your palm to make a v-shaped "valley".
- Bend the fingers of your other hand to make an upside-down v-shape. Cover the rice ball with your V-shaped dominant hand. Your dominant hand makes a "mountain" to cover the rice— think Mt. Fuji.
- Then, gently squeeze the rice ball with your top v-shaped hand to form one corner of a triangle.
- Next, flip the rice ball 90 degrees towards you. The first corner of your triangle should now be resting on the palm of your bottom hand.
- Again, gently squeeze with your top, v-shaped hand to form another corner to make a triangle.
- Repeat this rotate and squeezing process until you've made a neat triangle shape.
Wrap Onigiri with Nori Seaweed
- Cut nori seaweed sheet into strips with a sharp knife or kitchen scissors. I prefer to cut strips ⅓ of a full-size sheet. Trim strips shorter so the nori will cover ⅔s of each side of onigiri.
- Hold the onigiri in one hand. Place the strip of nori under the bottom edge of the rice ball, shiny side out and rough side against the rice.
- Wrap the ends of the nori up along the sides, pressing gently to secure it in place.
- Stand the onigiri vertical on a plate.
- Serving onigiri warm for the best taste. Or, set them aside to let them cool to room temperature.
Notes
The best ratio for Japanese white rice to water is 1 to 1.1 (or 1.2).
If want to make 3 larger onigiri, I recommend using 1 cup of uncooked rice with 260 ml of water.
I use a heat-resistant shallow glass bowl or Pyrex baking dish for the cooked rice. Glass is preferable to a metal one because glass does not retain heat. A wooden salad bowl that isn't seasoned (garlic, etc) is another good option.
You can dip your spatula in the bowl of water so the rice doesn't stick to it.
In Japan, cooks use an uchiwa hand-held fan to cool down freshly cooked rice. You can use something like a piece of cardboard or stack of papers to use as a fan.
Ideally, attach the nori strips right before serving to maintain the crispness of the nori.
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