Packed with savory Korean grilled meat, eggs, vegetables & nori, this ultimate Bulgogi Onigirazu makes for a perfect summer lunch or picnic!
If you are aware or have heard of Onigirazu (おにぎらず) – a type of Japanese rice ball, then you’re pretty current with the latest of Japanese food trends!
Onigirazu was in fact one of the most influential food trend in Japan last year (2015) and today I’m making Onigirazu with Bulgogi, Korean grilled beef!
Watch How To Make Bulgogi Onigirazu ブルゴギおにぎらずの作り方
Delicious Bulgogi Onigirazu with amazing Korean marinated beef, eggs, bean sprout, carrot, spinach, and shiitake mushroom wrapped with rice and nori.
What does Onigirazu mean?
The name Onigirazu comes from Japanese rice ball – Onigiri (おにぎり) or sometimes called Omusubi (おむすび).
Onigiri is a great healthy choice for lunch or snack. It is made of the rice formed into the traditional triangle, round, or cylinder shape with hands. Usually the rice ball is filled with pickled plum (umemboshi), soy sauce seasoned bonito flakes (okaka), or other kinds of fillings, and then wrapped with nori seaweed.
The word “Onigiri” comes from “Nigiru“, which means to squeeze or hold tightly in Japanese. When you do NOT squeeze tightly, we say “Nigiranai” or “Nigirazu“.
So Onigirazu is the rice ball (Onigiri) that is NOT squeezed tightly into the traditional shape (Nigirazu).
The Onigirazu History
Although Onigirazu became a huge trend last year, it had been introduced 25 years ago by a manga artist Tochi Ueyama in his manga (Japanese comic books) “Cooking Papa“.
In his food manga, the main character, a dad and salary-man, likes to cook for his family. Ueyama named this dish “Onigirazu”and introduced it in his comic books when he saw his wife making a new style of Onigiri.
In fall 2014, the most popular Japanese recipe sharing site, Cookpad, had a feature on Onigirazu recipes. Since then, this recipe was revived and it became a popular search word, especially among housewives who make their husband and children’s lunches.
What’s So Special About Onigirazu?
It has 3 big appealing features that caught everyone’s attention and stayed popular.
1. More fillings; make it into a meal!
It can be stuffed with much more fillings than Onigiri.
Onigiri tends to include one kind of filing, but Onigirazu usually has more than 2-3 kinds of fillings! With a main dish filling like Bulgogi and Tonkatsu, you can get carb (rice), protein (meat), and veggies (lettuce) in one bite!
2. No more mess; easy to assemble!
When you make this delicious dish, you wrap the rice with nori sheet. Therefore, you don’t have to wet your hands and form rice into a rice ball. While Onigiri takes practice and some skill to make, Onigirazu is very simple to assemble, just like a sandwich!
3. Endless creative fillings!
Most people stick with traditional filling when it comes to Onigiri because of limited filling space. However, people are very creative and put unconventional fillings in Onigirazu like ham, cheese, egg, fried chicken, and grilled meat.
Onigirazu also use various condiments like ketchup, Tonkatsu sauce, mayonnaise for spreads which is not common for Onigiri.
5 Tips To Make Perfect Onigirazu
1. Spread the rice into square shape
Place a nori sheet with a corner pointing up. Try to evenly spread the rice into a square shape in the center of nori. Don’t forget to leave some space around the rice for easy wrapping.
2. Put the rice and fillings in thin layer
Make sure to place the fillings in single/thin layers and stack them on top of previous one, avoid empty spaces. When you place ingredients, think about the cross-section view after you cut in half. Work with small amount of fillings so that it’s easier to wrap.
3. Mark which side you would cut in half
If your fillings are placed in a single layer on top of another, you don’t need to worry about this tip (like lettuce, cheese, ham etc).
If you place multiple ingredients, it’s important to remember which side you’d need to cut in half before you finish wrapping with nori (and can’t see inside!).
In above diagram, we need to cut along the pink line so that all the fillings with different colors will be visible from cross-section. A trick to remember? Mark the cutting line with a piece of ingredient (I used a stick of carrot).
4. Flip and rest for 5 minutes
Fold each corner of nori sheet tightly around the layers of rice and fillings at the center. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and flip over, seam side down. The steam from the rice will moisten nori sheet and bind all the ingredients well together.
5. Wet your sharp knife
Use a sharp knife to cut it in half. If you run water on your knife before cutting in half, the rice and nori won’t stick to your knife and cross-section will be clean.
Delicious Bulgogi Recipe
My family loves this Bulgogi recipe that I had been cooking… but I had been using Japanese soy sauce. It tastes great, but I had never imagined it could taste even better with Korean soy sauce!
When I did this last collaboration video with Seonkyoung, she gave me a bottle of Korean soy sauce. I should have bought a bottle of Korean soy sauce years ago for Korean dishes! Korean dishes taste FANTASTIC with Korean soy sauce (duh?!). Keep your Japanese soy sauce for Japanese recipes, and I highly recommend using Korean soy sauce for this recipe!
To add more colors to this Bulgogi Onigirazu, I added vegetable side dishes that I use for my Bibimbap recipe. It definitely requires a bit of extra work, so you can totally skip these veggies. However, cross-section looks pretty when green and red colors pop out, and not to mention yellow fried egg!
The gochujang sauce in the recipe is optional too, but we love this spicy and sweet savory sauce for my Bibimbap recipe…so again I use this sauce for this recipe. Bulgogi Onigirazu tastes perfect without the gochujang sauce.
Variations: Tonkatsu Onigirazu
For today’s recipe, I collaborated with my YouTuber friends, Shinichi and Satoshi from Tabi Eats ! Check out their super delicious recipe and don’t forget to subscribe to their YouTube channel!
I hope you will enjoy making this Bulgogi Onigirazu recipe! If you try it, don’t forget to share your picture on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter with #JustOneCookbook. Thank you so much for reading, and till next time!
Don’t want to miss a recipe? Sign up for the FREE Just One Cookbook newsletter delivered to your inbox! And stay in touch onFacebook,Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram for all the latest updates. Thank you so much for reading, and till next time!
Similar Dish
Bulgogi Onigirazu
Video
Ingredients
For Bulgogi
- ½ onion
- ½ carrot
- 3 green onions/scallions
- 1 lb beef (tenderloin, ribeye, or top sirloin)
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted) (for cooking the meat)
- 1 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds (for topping)
For Bulgogi Marinade
- 2 Tbsp Korean soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted)
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ Asian pear (2 Tbsp grated pear)
- 4 cloves garlic (2 tsp minced)
For Bean Sprouts
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted)
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt)
- 1 tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt) (for blanching)
- 6 oz bean sprouts (½ package)
- 1 green onion/scallion
For Spinach
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted)
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt)
- ½ bunch spinach
For Carrot
- ½ large carrot
- 1 tsp sesame oil (roasted)
- ⅛ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt)
For Shiitake Mushrooms
- 6 shiitake mushrooms
- 1 tsp sesame oil (roasted)
- ⅛ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt)
For Eggs
- 1 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, rice bran, canola, etc)
- 4 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell)
For Making Onigirazu
- 4 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice (2 rice-cooker-cups (180 ml x 2 = 360 ml) yields roughly 4 servings (3 ½ US cups); see how to cook short-grain rice with a rice cooker, a pot over the stove, an instant pot, or a donabe)
- 4 sheets nori (seaweed)
- kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt) (for sprinkling on rice)
For Gochujang Sauce
- 2 Tbsp gochujang (Korean chili paste)
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted)
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
- 1-2 Tbsp water (to dilute to your desired consistency)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
Bulgogi Marinade
- In a large bowl, combine the ingredients for Bulgogi marinade (1 Tbsp sesame oil, 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, and freshly ground black pepper). Grate ¼ of Asian pear (2 Tbsp after grated), crush (or mince) 4 cloves garlic (2 tsp minced garlic), and mix all together.
- Cut the onion into thin slices. Cut the carrot to 2” (5 cm) pieces, then cut into julienned pieces.
- Cut the scallions into 2” (5cm) long pieces and cut the beef into thin 2” (5 cm) long strips slices. I put the meat in the freezer for 2 hours (depending on the size and thickness) prior to cutting the meat into thin slices (see my tutorial on how I slice my meat).
- Toss the vegetables and meat together and coat with the marinade. Set aside for at least 20 minutes.
Bean Sprouts & Spinach (optional)
- Prepare 2 medium bowls; in each bowl combine 1 Tbsp sesame oil, ½ tsp of minced garlic (1 clove garlic), and a pinch of kosher salt and mix well.
- Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and add 1 tsp salt. Add the bean sprouts and cook for about 1 minute. We will need to reserve the boiling water for spinach, so scoop up the bean sprouts with a sieve or spider strainer. Run in cold water in the sink to stop cooking further with remaining heat and drain well. Set aside.
- In the same boiling water, blanch the spinach for 30 seconds. Prepare iced water in a large bowl and transfer the spinach to the iced water to stop cooking.
- Squeeze out water from spinach as much as you can and add to one of the bowls with seasonings. Toss well with the sauce.
- Thinly cut the green onions. Add the bean sprouts and green onion in the other bowl and toss well with the sauce.
Carrot & Shiitake Mushrooms (optional)
- Cut the carrot in half widthwise, about 2” (5 cm) length. Cut each piece into thin slices, and julienne the carrots. Cut the shiitake mushrooms into thin slices.
- Heat 1 tsp sesame oil in a large frying pan and add the carrot. Season with a pinch of salt and sauté till tender. If your pan is big enough to add shiitake mushrooms, move the carrot to one side when it’s cooked halfway. Add 1 tsp sesame oil in the open space and add shiitake mushrooms. Season with a pinch of salt and sauté till tender. If your frying pan is small, cook one ingredient at a time; transfer the carrot to a plate and cook shiitake mushrooms after. When carrot and shiitake mushrooms are both tender (but not overcooked), transfer to a plate and set aside.
Eggs (optional)
- Heat 1 Tbsp cooking oil in the large frying pan and make fried eggs. I cook the eggs “over hard” so egg yolk won’t be runny and messy when onigirazu is cut in half.
Grill the Meat
- In a large skillet (I use a griddle pan so I can grill the meat in a single layer), heat 1 Tbsp sesame oil over medium-high heat and sauté the marinated beef until cooked, about 5 minutes. Transfer the meat to the plate and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Gochujang Sauce (optional)
- Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and mix them all together. Add 1-2 Tbsp water until you achieve the consistency you like.
Assemble Onigirazu
- Place a plastic wrap on a working surface and put a sheet of nori seaweed on top (shiny side facing down), with a corner pointing up. Evenly spread the steamed rice in a thin layer and form into a square shape in the center of the nori sheet. If you make onigirazu with different ingredients that have more mild taste, sprinkling salt at this step is very important, especially if you planning on eating it at room temperature.
- Place Bulgogi on top of the rice in a thin layer. Then put spinach, bean sprouts, carrot, and shiitake in a thin layer on top of the meat.
- Add the fried egg and then steamed rice on top. Try to keep the square shape as you spread the rice evenly in a thin layer.
- Bring left and right corners of nori sheet towards the center. Fold gently but tightly to wrap around the layers at the center.
- Then bring bottom and top corners towards the center. Continue to fold gently but tightly around the layers. Make sure the rice is tucked in nicely. If you like the onigirazu to showcase the ingredients after cutting in half, mark with a piece of carrot perpendicular to the ingredients (see video). Flip over and shape the onigirazu gently. Wrap with plastic wrap tightly and set aside for 5 minutes.
- Cut the onigirazu with a sharp knife (following your “carrot” mark). Run your knife in cold water before cutting so that the cross-section will be clean.
To Store
- If you plan to make it ahead of time, wrap the onigirazu with a kitchen towel and keep in the refrigerator overnight. The towel will prevent the rice from getting harder from cold air.
Is there any substitute for spinach?
Hi Jeanjel,
Any of your failover green leafy vegetables should work for this recipe.
Bok Choy, Swiss Chard, Kale, Arugula, etc., or Asparagus!
Hi Nami,
I have been following your blog for a few years and have accumulated a lot your recipes and I noticed that some when printed take up 3 pages ex: bulgogi onigirazu. I prefer reading my recipes to assemble my ingredients instead of watching video (and saving trees). I also like to plan my meals for the week and shop for all the ingredients at one time. So in this recipe I need to look at 3 separate pages to make sure I have all the ingredients. In the future, would it be possible to have an option just to print only the list of ingredients and to print it on 1 page. Thanks.
Hi D wong! I think in late 2018 we changed the look of the recipe card for printing. It used to be ingredients on top of the step-by-step instructions. We made changes because some people suggested that they prefer to see the ingredients side by side to save “empty white space” next to the ingredients to save trees from printing more pages.
Currently, for the long ingredient recipe like this one, the ingredients spread out into 3 pages long (on the left side column). I understand your concern about saving trees. Unfortunately, the recipe plugin doesn’t allow users to choose how you want to print out, so we can’t make both customers happy.
We feel, it makes sense to have side by side, so that ingredient lists in single layer won’t be so long when we make a list on top of the instructions. If we do this way, whole recipe card can be 6 pages for this recipe. :/ I have never seen a recipe plugin that allows you to print only recipe ingredient. If you have seen it, please let us know, so we can ask/suggest this option to the recipe plugin engineer. He may add it if it’s something everyone wants to do. 🙂
Made some but instead of carrots and bean sprout namul, I used some kimchee that I made a few days prior. It is sooo good. Thanks for the idea.
Hi Joan! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
Hello Nami! I am new to your site and I want to try this recipe. I was wondering however, I try to avoid buying/using saran wrap. I use beeswax wrap instead. Do you think this would hold up if I wrapped it in the beeswax wrap and after like, 15 mins or something to give it time to meld, I unwrapped it, cut it in half, and then re-wrapped it again? What do you think? Thanks!
Hi Leah! There are two parts for the plastic wrap purpose. The first one is the wrapping part where you really need to pull the wrap tightly to secure the food. And the second part is the eating part as it can get messy without something holding up the shape while you bite into it. I think the eating part is do-able without wrap, especially after being wrapped for some time. It will probably hold everything. However, the wrapping part… whatever you wrap with has to be flexible enough and you have to make sure that it’s wrapped tightly and not loosely. The plastic wrap makes it a lot easier to hold things together but I understand, I also try to use less plastic these days. Hope it’ll work!
Just made a big batch of 8 of these tonight— wonderful!! About 3 years ago I learned how to make sushi from your website and I am the hero of my friends. They ask for it all the time! I was so excited to see you had another fantastic recipe for something I had never tried before. It was so easy to follow along and the assembly pictures were perfect. It tastes so good and used up all kinds of veggies from my fridge. Thank you so much, I love your blog and recipes!!
Hi Jenny! Awww I’m so happy to hear that you and your friends enjoyed the homemade sushi you made! 🙂 And thanks for trying out this recipe too! 😀
These look amazing! How long can they last, if I were to make them earlier in the week for packed lunches? Thanks! 🙂
Hi A! So… rice gets really hard when you place in the fridge (which is why we put in freezer to store: https://www.justonecookbook.com/how_to/how-to-freeze-rice/) or use that hard rice to make fried rice.
So onigiri or onigirazu, we don’t plan on making ahead in Japan. We know it’s something we have to eat in half day… If you really don’t have time the morning of, then I recommend making it at night time BUT wrap the onigirazu around with thick kitchen towel so onigirazu doesn’t get too cold but safe cool place. Chilled air in the fridge will definitely harden rice.
Hello!
How long is this good for and how should it be stored? If I wanted someone to eat this for lunch one day would I need to make it that morning or would it be okay to make it the night before?
Hi Diana! You should enjoy it within 24 hours. If I was eating, I’d make it in the morning of – you just have to prepare every ingredients ahead of time.
Then in the morning, make fresh steamed rice (or reheat the frozen rice in the microwave – https://www.justonecookbook.com/how_to/how-to-freeze-rice/). Reheat all the ingredients and make Onigirazu. You can’t make Onigirazu with cold ingredients as Nori has to become wilted to wrap properly. Hope that helps?
How long do you marinate the beef?
Hi Natalia! At least 20 mins. 🙂
Tried this recipie yesterday, didn’t have all the ingredients though, but it still turned out great! Thanks!
Hi Erika! I’m so glad to hear that. Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
I found this recipe after deciding I wanted beef and korean BBQ. I saw it was a bulgogi marinade and immediately cam to your site, hoping you’d have a good recipe, which you did! I didn’t make it the same way though. For the bulgogi, I let it marinate with the Korean BBQ, scallions, soy sauce, and rice vinegar overnight. I cooked the carrots in sesame oil and garlic. As I assembled it, I also added a few things slices of avocado with salt and pepper. The hardest part was assembling it but, that might be because I added too much rice. I enjoyed any way. Thank you!
Hi Yelissa! I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe and marinated overnight. Extra yum! You’ll get used to wrapping onigirazu. And yes, start from small amount of rice for easy wrapping. 🙂
This is insanely good! I’ve been following your blog and making your recipes for a while now, but I think this is my first time to comment. I absolutely LOVE this recipe. I have to admit, in the cooking storm I whipped up (preparing agedashi tofu alongside this) I forgot to fry some eggs to put in, but no matter, it was still delicious and I stuffed it so full I would have struggled to close the pouches if I had added an egg.
I made a couple minor departures from your recipe. I didn’t use the shiitakes, and because I can’t eat very spicy foods, I substituted the chili paste in the gochujang sauce recipe with hoisin sauce just to help give it some thickness, and I added just a touch of sriracha to give it just a little spiciness. The result was a much sweeter and less spicier sauce than intended, and may not be the most authentic addition to these predominantly korean flavors, but it tasted great and worked for me!
I LOVE Onigirazu! Thank you for introducing them to me! I have to say I have always been rather picky about bread and sandwiches, but this seems like an awesome and healthy way to make them, and with so many more possible ingredients since I think many things (like cooked veggies) taste good on rice than they would on bread. I can understand why these would become a food craze in Japan. They’re simple, pretty, and delicious, and easily put into a bento. I think I have found a new staple food for my ever-evolving diet. I tried hitomebore rice for the first time (on this very recipe) and it is wonderful!
Hi Lion! Thank you so much for reading my blog and trying out my recipes! I appreciate that you took time to leave a kind feedback here. Thank you!!
I’m happy to hear you liked this recipe. I love this Bulgogi recipe. It’s the one I’ve been using for some time now. I’m glad you adapted the recipe and it worked out well.
My kids love Onigirazu too, so I often make it for my family. I love that I don’t have to worry about how I pack enough vegetables and ingredients in their lunch as Onigirazu can fit so many fillings inside.
Thank you again for your kind comment! xo
Hi,
How do you store extra Onigirazu? Would you put it in the fridge or leave them out on the counter?
Thanks!
Jen
Hi Jennifer! It’s up to where you live. If you live in a relatively cool/cold place, you can leave it out overnight for you to enjoy after overnight. But if you live in a warm place, I definitely recommend to put in the refrigerator. It also depends on the filling too. It might requires refrigeration, then keep in the fridge to be safe.
If you put in the fridge directly, your onigirazu will be harder because rice gets hard in the fridge (even wrapped with plastic wrap). So my recommendation is to wrap around with kitchen towel to create a cooler environment for Onigirazu, not cold environment. That way, food is safe, and rice won’t be too hard. Hope this helps! 🙂
Thank you! This helps out a lot!
Hi, Nami! I just found your bulgogi onigarazu recipe and am excited to try it. I had a question. I want to make this for my husband’s lunch and I was wondering if the assembled onigarazu’s rice would remain nice and fluffy from one day to the next in the fridge. I had some not so great day old California rolls a while ago, and the rice just wasn’t the same. Is this something that must be made and eaten the same day or can it be enjoyed the next day? Thanks so much!
Hi Audrey! Nothing beats than freshly made (or in this case, a couple of hours at least). But I think it’s okay with me. I’m not sure how particular you are about the rice condition, but if you uses Japanese rice (type of rice matters) and cooked properly, it should be okay. I always recommend to cover the rice balls and Onigirazu with kitchen towel when you store in the fridge so that they don’t become hard from cold air. Kitchen towel will keep the rice balls or onigirazu cool enough for food safety but not harden. So make sure to control that. Some people mentioned about nori. Nori will be wilted when you get onigirazu (because you have to “wrap” the rice sandwich). Some nori might be too chewy when it’s wilted. If you only like crispy nori, that’s one thing you might consider. I recommend get good quality nori which shouldn’t be too bad. Hope I answered your question. 🙂
What if I want it for lunch time the next day?
Hi Neva! Do you mean you cook it on previous day? You can make ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator. However rice tends to get hard, so my recommendation is to wrap it around with kitchen towel so that onigirazu won’t get too cold (=too hard). 🙂 Hope this help!
Hi! I am so excited to have found your website! I adore Japanese cuisine and you do such a wonderful job of explaining how to do things!
I have a few questions about this recipe. I am not a huge fan of most Nori, what I get here in the states is very “fishy” tasting (that’s the only way I know how to describe it, I’m sorry). Would this recipe work if I were to use one of the pink soy wrappers(like for sushi)? If the soy wrapper will not work is there a specific nori I should look for that may have a more mild taste? I am so excited to try this as bulgogi is a huge fan favorite in our household!
Thank you so much!
Hi Rhea! Welcome to my site! I’ve never had a chance to try soy wrappers so I can’t say for sure, but I am hoping it would work. Since it’s used for sushi, I assume it’s easy to cut and hold the rice together… I would say why not? Unfortunately, nori we can get in the US is such a low quality that it’s gummy and tastes is below average quality we can buy in Japan. I don’t know why… so if you really want to give it a try, I recommend getting the most expensive nori in the Japanese market and see if you like it. It should taste better than what you have tried, I think. 🙂
I did it!
And it turned out beutiful and deliciouss!
Definetly doing it again!!
Thank u!
Really easy steps!
Hi Diana! I’m so happy to hear you liked this recipe! Thank you for writing your kind feedback! 🙂
Hello Namiko-san!
This is our version of your wonderful recipe:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xlf1/v/t1.0-9/13177535_1195085157168512_485871152145051700_n.jpg?oh=5c00332809acf433929a16e32704bfc8&oe=57E85A43&__gda__=1470208060_75540c343923889beff46bf6ea997720
There’s no words how awesome was it. 🙂
Thank you for your help with these super tasty foods.
We love Japanese culture and kitchen as well. Glad to find your page.
Arigatou gosaimasu!
Greetings from Hungary:
Judy and Patrick
Hi Judy and Patrick! Thank you so much for sharing the picture with me! Wow looks so delicious! Thanks so much for trying the onigirazu recipe! Arigato for trying out my recipes! SO happy to know I have awesome readers in Hungary! xoxo
I just watched this video and it made my mouth watered! Your videos are invaluable because you not only teach us how to make it but you also show us how to cut the ingredients! I also love these fusion Korean-Japanese recipes! Keep up the great work, Nami!
Hi Ker-Yng! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy my videos and thanks for your kind feedback! 🙂 And thank you for your support all the time! xo
I made this for the first time and my entire family loved it!
Hi Kayla! I’m so happy to hear your family enjoyed it! Thanks so much for your kind feedback! 🙂
Hi do you need to wait for the rice and ingredients to cool down before wrapping?
Hi Cheng! No, for Onigirazu, it’s key to use hot ingredients (at least rice) so that nori will get wilted easily and wrap the filling tightly. 🙂
Can you make it the night before for lunch the next day or is it better to make that morning? My family would love these. I just don’t want the rice to get to hard and the nori to get soggy like it does with leftover sushi.
Hi Angela! Sure you can! The rice gets hard, so my tip is to wrap the onigirazu with kitchen towel so the onigirazu won’t get too cold. Nori is “supposed to” be soft and wrap around the rice for onigirazu. To be able to wrap nicely, we use hot rice and naturally nori will be wilted from the steam, similar to sushi roll.
I gave this a try today and it tasted fantastic! My results didn’t look nearly as pretty as yours but that’s all on me there… I don’t have any skill when it comes to making food look pretty. Thank you for posting this!
Hi Katie! Awesome! So happy to hear that you liked it! I pay extra attention to food presentation when it comes to photographing my recipes… but I don’t always spend the same amount of time plating or making for my daily food preparation. I need to convince my readers the recipe is “delicious”. Haha. 😉
Will the nori become soggy from the moisture in the rice?
For Onigirazu, the nori is supposed to be moistened from the warm/hot rice that you put on. If it’s too crispy, nori won’t be able to wrap around the rice and ingredients nicely. So it’s purposely softened. Some Onigiri uses crisp nori (which is my favorite) while other Onigiri might be wrapped with nori right after squeezed into a ball shape. There are different kinds for Onigir when it comes to nori, but for Onigirazu, always soften. It won’t be “soggy”, but it sticks to the rice and bind everything together. Hope this makes sense. 🙂
Dear Nami,
Thank you very much for your reply. I will surely try making it for my son who loves onigiri.
Can this be kept overnight? I want to pack it for my lunch but do not have time in the morning.
Hi Yuu! Sure, you can! I recommend keeping in the fridge, but the rice will get harden in the cold fridge. So what I do is to wrap/cover the Onigirazu with kitchen towel, so that Onigirazu doesn’t get too cold (but cool enough for food safety). Hope this helps! 🙂
Thanks for the advice. Just wanted to check if i can microwave it. Not too keen on eating cold bulgogi.
Hi Yuu! Sure you can! 🙂
What a good idea!
I was looking for healthy sandwich because in France we only have sandwiches with “french baguette”, ham, butter or tuna with mayonnaise …
I tried it with rice, egg, miso negi, miso nasu … very nice !
Thanks a lot Namiko
HI Aurelie! I love French baguette so I’d totally enjoy the French sandwich anytime… 🙂 Thank you for trying this recipe! Negi Your combination sounds FANTASTIC!!! I wish I could have a bite. 🙂 Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
Perfect! I was wondering what to make for a trip to North Carolina next month on a 7hr flight via Southwest Airlines (no plane change & no food service). Hubby is tiring of Spam musubi. I think it would be yummy w/ spicy pork bulgolgi too, so I wouldn’t need to pour on the gochujang sauce.
Hi Suzy! Hope you two enjoy Onigirazu on the flight! It’s a great compact meal on the go. 😀
I love how Nami-san explains the dish (name, original etc.) 😀 Thank you! Love your blog! Greetings from Brazil! o/
Hi Akemi! I’m so happy to hear you read my explanations. Sometimes I wonder if I spend too much writing about the dish before sharing the recipe… 😀 Thank you for your kind words!
Yummy. Looks like an rice burger. I will try it this weekend. Hope my family will love it.
Hi Agatha! Hope your family enjoy! 🙂
Hi Nami,
This looks so delicious and I’m sure kids will surely love them.
May I know can I keep the Onigirazu for the next day? Let’s say I make it at night and wish to take to work for the next day. How do I store them? In the fridge?
Thanks!
Alice
Hi Alice! Yes, you can keep Onigirazu for the next day. I recommend storing in the fridge, but keeping in a cold temperature will harden the rice. Therefore, I usually wrap the Onigirazu in a kitchen towel and keep in the fridge so that the rice won’t be too cold (but just enough to keep it safe). Hope this little tip helps. 🙂 Enjoy!
Thank you for your detail recipe. Looking forwards in making it for kid’s school lunch and picnic.
Hi Carol! I hope you enjoy this recipe and your kids will have a fun and delicious lunch and picnic! 🙂
Wow! This is such an awesome upgrade from the onigiri (a genius invention I think) and so much healthier and filling than your typical sandwich!
I want to ask, how do you keep the nori sheet from becoming soggy and maintain its crispness for a few hours? Do you cool the ingredients down or put them in the fridge before wrapping?
Hi Carrie! Yeah total upgrade! 🙂 If you like onigiri, I think this is a great way to include more fillings and enjoy it as a full meal. 🙂
Nori sheet gets soft because you will put the hot/warm rice and you will wrap with plastic wrap so that nori, rice, filling will bind well together. The filling can be hot or room temp but nori won’t be crispy when you eat. If you really want crispy nori, you can eat it right away without wrapping but it’s not recommended to travel as it’s not tightly wrapped. HOpe this helps!
Hi Nami. I’m so excited to see this recipe. I’ve never tried this before. Another good idea for my sons’ obento. I have been running out of ideas of what to make. Thank you Nami !!
Hi Karin! I think this is a good lunch menu as a meal in one dish! And it’s easy to hold and eat.. I’m thinking about doing Onigirazu series. Hope your son will like onigirazu! 🙂
OMG, this looks so good. I have to make this for my girls for their lunches. Thank you for the recipe and demonstration.
Hi Sherrie! Thank you! I hope you and your girls will enjoy this recipe! 🙂
Hi Nami,
This is a great idea for lunch. However, Is it ok if I make this the night before and keep it in the fridge? I’m afraid the nori is gonna be soggy and the rice is gonna be hard.
Thank you,
N.T
Hi Nina! Yes, you can make ahead of time and keep it in the fridge. One tip though. Rice gets harder after you put in the fridge because temp is too cold. You can try avoiding that by wrapping onigirazu with a kitchen towel so the rice doesn’t get too cold… not perfect, but it helps a little. 🙂 Nori will be soft and wilted in all onigirazu recipe. That’s how it’s bind with other ingredients. Nori won’t be crispy and crunchy for Onigirazu. I wouldn’t say “soggy” though. 🙂
Thank you Nami. You just answered my question too. I’d like to make these ahead and put them in my daughter’s school lunch box. I’ll try the paper towel trick 🙂
Hi Natalie! Try to use kitchen towel (for wiping your hands), instead of paper towel (still too thin). 🙂 Hope it’ll work for your delicious onigirazu! 🙂
Great. Thank you for clarifying that 🙂
Hi Nami!
I absolutely love onigiri even though I’ve never made them myself… I’m planning to make onigirazu on the weekend. But before I do I would like to clarify a few things…
1. The rice seems to be just plain rice. The onigiri I had were a bit sweet and sour (I think rice vinergar and sugar or mirin). Kind of like sushi rice. I love this flavor! Can I also make sushi rice for this dish?
2. I have honestly tried to find asian pear, but it’s just nowhere to be found 🙁 Can I substitute/omit it? If yes, with what?
Thanks!
Hi Alina! I hope you will like this recipe! 🙂 Here are my answers to your questions.
1) Onigiri is ALWAYS with steamed rice, not Sushi Rice (with vinegar seasonings). Was the onigiri you had were some kind of sushi-theme or sushi ingredients on top? If you like the flavor, sure you can. 🙂 That’s the good thing about homemade, adjust to your liking!
2) I understand it can be difficult to find. It’s really too bad because I tried this recipe with and without asian pear and even 2 Tbsp. of Asian pear does AMAZING job in the marinade. You can use sweet apple or other types of pear instead. Possible?
Hope that helps!
Hi again, Nami!
so I made them… delicious!!! I just love nori and all kind of seaweed 🙂 Oh and I managed to find nashi pear! 🙂 This is what they turned out like:
http://www.imagebam.com/image/40c285467965508
But I think next time I really will try it out with Sushi RIce (vinegar). Thanks for your help!!
Question: In making this onigirazu, regular onigiri/musubi, or sushi, is it recommended to first toast the nori? I noticed that it wasn’t included in your directions. I was taught to quickly wave the nori over an open flame before use. I can’t say if it makes a difference.
Hi Elaine! I toast (“Aburu” in Japanese) nori when I make sushi rolls. For Onigiri or Onigirazu, we eat much later time, so I think it doesn’t really make much difference. But if you eat right away, the toasted nori is wonderful!! You can smell the toasty nori and delicious and I highly recommend you do that. But if you eat later…. it’s up to you. 🙂
Hi Nami,
Can I use dried shiitake mushrooms that have been soaked in water and drained?
I really like this onigirazu recipe and variations of it because this is a great alternative to a regular sandwich. Thanks. Darlene
Hi Darlene! Sure, you can use dried shiitake mushrooms. Any specific reason? The reason why I asked is that dried shiitake mushrooms are more expensive… Maybe you can’t find fresh ones at the store. 🙂 Hope you enjoy this recipe!
This looks amazing…I assume one eats it room temperature? Is the Gochujang sauce spicy?? (my husband doesn’t like spicy)…
I think I’ll start off with Bulgogi recipe and then graduate to Gochujang Onigirazu..
You do make everything look so effortless…curious…start to finish approximately how long did it take you to make Bulgogi Onigirazu?
Hi Lyn! Yes, onigiri is usually eaten at room temperature (but of course you can serve hot or cold). Gochujang sauce – It’s spicy and sweet at the same time. I used to not consume any spice but I can finally handle this level. You can reduce the amount of gochujang sauce, OR you don’t need the sauce at all because Bulgogi has wonderful flavor already! 🙂
Start to finish, the entire thing (including side dishes and eggs) is about 1 hour. But if you only make Bulgogi, it’s pretty quick. Those side dishes take the longest…. 🙂
Oh my gosh, this is such a good idea! I would have never thought of making a sandwich. Whenever I make onigiri, there’s always an excess of rice, and never enough filling. My favorite onigiri is actually chicken, and the recipe comes from an anime (Shokugeki no soma) XD
Anyways, thanks for sharing this great lunch idea! I never knew how to make bulgogi marinade before either, so I will definitely try out that recipe as well (and the gochujjang sauce!). Time to splurge on asian pear. I also like the photos you included, because I was definitely confused as to how to assemble the sandwich and fold the nori >.<
Hi Theresa! I wish I know more about comics but I don’t know enough. =P Oh you’ll LOVE this bulgogi and gochujang sauce recipes (sorry I’m self promoting my own recipe…). I HIGHLY recommend using Asian pear. I try without it when I can’t find it, but it’s not the same. It gives such a wonderful flavor that I make effort to find one. 🙂 I had too much fun (and spent too much time) making that diagram… xD
Thank you Nami for this awesome recipe and especially for the language background! I love it. I will try to do this onigirazu in a vegetarian version, vill it be maybe tamago onigirazu with egg? Or some vegetarian “meat” replacement such as quorn or soy mince, are there some of those in japanese, what would they be called? I kan imagine any japanese would be scared of idea of processing edamame into veggie chunks? (oh yes, as a vegetarian I think this idea is crazy, too, I don’t use such vegetarian instead-of-meat products very often)
Have a nice week!
Hi Genus! Thank you for checking this recipe! I thought people are curious what “Onigirazu” means… many of my readers study Japanese so I thought why not sharing it. 🙂 With onigirazu, the filling choices are endless! So many variations you can put inside! Veggies, eggs… just like sandwich (but should go with rice, at least). Don’t worry too much about meat substitute because I think vegetables itself is great. For example, you can put stir fried vegetables in the onigirazu and I know it tastes fantastic! 🙂 Have a nice week too~~~ xo
Whoops! I tried to twitt you at @justonecookbook but it doesn’t work as it seem… 🙁
As reply to the recipe of the day, I love yuzu, another ingredient that is very hard to find in Europe, but it seems to come more and more! I hope we can enjoy the hinamatsuri day? and celebrate with some great recipes!!! I’m very intrested in getting to know more about this tradition!
Hi Genus! Oh! Sorry, I don’t think I didn’t receive a tweet from you. Yuzu is so delicious. Hope it’s easily available everywhere in the world. 🙂 Thank you for your kind words!
This looks delicious! My children’s taste buds change constantly. They don’t like sushi anymore but they still love rice. This should be a great meal to try!
Hi Lu! Haha, I know what you mean. It’s okay, keep introducing new foods and they will come back. 🙂 Hope your children enjoy this recipe!