Make savory hen rice with the push of a button utilizing my recipe for Rice Cooker Japanese Ketchup Rice. It‘s a super-convenient and simple strategy to prepare dinner this comforting dish, which is a favourite amongst Japanese kids and adults alike!
The one kitchen equipment that I can not stay with out is my electrical rice cooker. It’s an unimaginable time-saving instrument that helps me get scrumptious meals on the desk each evening. I put it to work making dishes like Japanese ketchup rice (ケチャップライス), one in every of my childhood favorites!
Whereas I typically prepare dinner hen rice in a pan for omurice, it’s tremendous handy and hassle-free to make use of a rice cooker. Let me present you the way with my Rice Cooker Japanese Ketchup Rice recipe so you may make this nostalgic and comforting dish at house with the push of a button.
What’s Ketchup Rice?
Ketchup rice (ケチャップライス) or hen rice (チキンライス) is a Western-style Japanese dish made from short-grain white rice, diced hen, and ketchup seasoning. The British launched hen pilaf within the Eighteen Eighties, and native cooks finally tailored the recipe to make use of tomatoes and water as a substitute of saffron and soup inventory. Rooster rice exploded in recognition within the early Showa period (1926–1989) as Kagome ketchup grew to become widespread in Japanese households.
Many Japanese have fond recollections of having fun with the selfmade ketchup rice that our mothers cooked for us. We really feel nostalgic for the ketchup rice we ate in kids’s (okosama) lunch meals at division retailer cafeterias and household eating places. At the same time as adults, consuming omurice crammed with hen rice immediately transports us to these heat and blissful occasions.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Use a handy electrical rice cooker to make scrumptious hen rice:
- Simple — Add the components to the internal pot, push the Begin button, and let the rice cooker do the remaining.
- Saves time — You’ll be able to simply make different dishes whereas the rice cooks.
- Prep forward — Make it earlier within the day at your comfort.
- Prepare dinner when you’re away — Program your cooker to make it whenever you’re at work, working errands, and even sleeping in a single day.
- Household-friendly — Children and adults alike love the tangy and comforting style.
- Economical and filling — The components for this satisfying dish are easy and simple to seek out.
Components for Japanese Ketchup Rice
Listed below are some fundamental components you’ll want for this dish:
- Japanese short-grain white rice – Supplies the precise texture and stickiness to form for omurice.
- Water
- Onion
- Rooster thigh – Thighs keep juicier and extra flavorful than hen breast.
- Inexperienced peas – The contemporary inexperienced colour from peas add a pleasant distinction with the red-tinged rice.
- Tomato ketchup – I extremely advocate Kagome model Japanese ketchup for an genuine taste.
- Worcestershire sauce – Provides umami and complexity; you possibly can substitute tonkatsu sauce or soy sauce.
- Butter – Provides a wealthy taste and creamy texture to steadiness the tangy ketchup.
- Dried bay leaf
- Salt and black pepper
Substitution Suggestions and Variations
It’s straightforward to customise this dish together with your favourite components or what you might have available.
- Swap out the protein. As a substitute of hen, you possibly can attempt bacon, ham, shrimp, Chinese language sausage, chashu pork, baked or fried tofu, or edamame — or skip all of it collectively.
- Strive totally different greens. Chopped inexperienced beans, cubed carrots, edamame, corn kernels, and even frozen blended veggies will work effectively.
- Use tonkatsu sauce or soy sauce if you happen to don’t have Worcestershire sauce.
- Change the seasonings. Whereas ketchup is the basic seasoning, you might taste it any approach you want. Strive salt and black pepper, soy sauce, curry powder, or garlic. For those who use a dry seasoning as a substitute of ketchup, you might want to extend the water quantity within the recipe.
- Use hen inventory as a substitute of water.
- No rice cooker? Strive utilizing a pot over the range or donabe.
Learn how to Make Japanese Ketchup Rice
Make rice cooker ketchup rice in the identical method as takikomi gohan, a standard Japanese blended rice with all types of seasonal proteins and greens.
- Mince the onions and minimize the hen thigh into bite-size items.
- Wash the short-grain rice and drain effectively.
- Soak the rice. Add the rice to the rice cooker pot. Pour within the seasonings and water, then stir along with the rice. Let the rice soak for 10–quarter-hour.
- Prepare dinner the rice. Scatter the minced onion and hen items on high of the rice. Don’t combine. Then, add the butter and dried bay leaf. Choose the Common setting and press Begin. As soon as it turns off, let the rice steam for 10 minutes.
- Open the lid. Add the inexperienced peas, then fluff to combine within the peas and hen.
Recipe Suggestions and Strategies
- Wash and rinse the rice till the water runs clear. Don’t skip this step! It helps take away the pure prevalence of arsenic and impurities.
- Soak the rice for 10–quarter-hour earlier than cooking (in case your rice cooker doesn’t embrace this time). Japanese short-grain rice will get dry because it sits within the bag and desires moisture to revive the feel. Give it time to soak up the water so it will get plump and fluffy after cooking.
- Don’t combine within the hen and onion. The rice won’t prepare dinner evenly if blended with different components. Merely layer the onion and hen on high of the raw rice, then prepare dinner. As soon as it’s finished, you possibly can gently incorporate them with a rice paddle.
- Steam the rice for 10 minutes after the cooker turns off. Steaming is a vital a part of cooking the rice. Some rice cookers have already got steaming time added to the cooking program, so please verify your rice cooker’s handbook.
- Use the facet of a small bowl and a spatula to form the hen rice into the long-lasting oval or soccer form to serve in omurice (see the picture in my Omurice recipe).
Favor to prepare dinner this dish in a frying pan? Try my Japanese Rooster Rice. It’s a copycat recipe for a Rooster Fried Rice episode on Netflix’s Midnight Diner Season 2.
Learn how to Retailer
- To Freeze or Refrigerate: You’ll be able to maintain the leftovers in an hermetic container and retailer within the fridge for as much as 3 days or within the freezer for a month. Japanese folks at all times freeze leftover rice to maintain it from getting laborious within the fridge.
- To Reheat: Reheat the ketchup rice within the microwave.
What to Serve with Japanese Ketchup Rice
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Rice Cooker Japanese Ketchup Rice
Make savory hen rice with the push of a button utilizing my recipe for Rice Cooker Japanese Ketchup Rice. It‘s a super-convenient and simple strategy to prepare dinner this comforting dish that is a favourite amongst Japanese kids and adults alike!
Components
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Directions
To Put together the Components
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Mince ½ onion finely (known as mijingiri in Japanese). Lay it flat facet down on the reducing board. With the knife edge towards the foundation finish, make ⅛-inch horizontal slices to inside ½ inch of the foundation finish, retaining the foundation finish intact. With the knife tip pointing towards the foundation finish, make ⅛-inch vertical slices, once more retaining the foundation intact.
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Make perpendicular cuts down by means of the vertical slices you made. To cut the onions finer, run your knife by means of them utilizing a rocking movement. Maintain down the tip of the knife; in any other case, the onions will go flying across the room.
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Subsequent, trim the fats from 6 oz boneless, skinless hen thigh. Then, angle your knife again and diagonally (so it‘s practically parallel to the reducing board) and minimize the hen in opposition to the grain into skinny strips. This Japanese reducing approach is named sogigiri.
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Reduce the hen strips into ½-inch (1.5-cm) items, once more utilizing the sogigiri approach.
To Retailer
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You’ll be able to maintain the leftovers in an hermetic container and retailer within the fridge for as much as 3 days or within the freezer for a month. Japanese folks at all times freeze leftover rice to maintain it from getting laborious within the fridge. Reheat the ketchup rice within the microwave till heat.
