A favorite at Izakaya restaurants, Yaki Onigiri are Japanese grilled rice balls covered in savory soy sauce. With a crispy crust on the outside and soft sticky rice on the inside, these rice balls are simply irresistible and easy to make at home!
Today I’m going to share Yaki Onigiri (焼きおにぎり) recipe. Yaki means “grilled” in Japanese (you probably heard enough from my blog – Teriyaki, Yakisoba, Yakiniku, Yakitori, etc), and onigiri means “rice ball.”
Onigiri (recipe here) is made of white rice formed into triangular or oval shapes. Inside these rice balls, you can find fillings such as Japanese pickled plum (umeboshi), salted salmon, katsuobushi (or sometimes called okaka), simmered kombu, or spicy cod roe (mentaiko). On the outside, they are often wrapped in the dried and crispy nori seaweed.
Today’s onigiri is grilled, typically on a frying pan or over a barbecue grill.
Making Yaki Onigiri at Home
Traditionally, Yaki Onigiri is grilled over charcoal, which lends the rice balls a hint of woodsy, smoky flavor that is truly hard to resist. To make Yaki Onigiri at home, I use a cast iron pan to grill the rice balls instead. This helps to create similar crispiness to how it would taste when cooked over the BBQ grill. But if you don’t mind setting up a charcoal grill, go ahead!
These grilled rice balls can be made with or without fillings, but it is more often prepared with plain rice. Because it’s all about simplicity, you want to start with quality Japanese short-grain rice. Forming the onigiri is not something too challenging. I’ve shared step-by-step pictures and tips on how to form the rice balls in the recipe section below, so you will master it in no time. Once your onigiri is formed and placed on the grill, brushed with the sauce and left to crisp up.
Savory Sauce for Yaki Onigiri
Although most Yaki Onigiri is commonly glazed with soy sauce or miso (I have Miso Yaki Onigiri recipe), I actually love using my Homemade Unagi Sauce. The unagi sauce is a sweet caramelized soy sauce and the savory aroma of the sauce blends perfectly with white rice. You can also purchase Unagi Sauce from Japanese/Asian grocery stores.
When onigiri are grilled until crisp up with a toasty delicious crust, and the rice in the center is still tender and sticky, you know it’s time to savor these perfect treats. They are such a wonderful snack for children and adults.
If you live near a Japanese supermarket, you can probably find conveniently packaged pre-made Yaki Onigiri in the freezer section. But, really, Yaki Onigiri is so easy to make from scratch that I hope you will give it a try. Especially it’s barbecue season now, this can be a unique addition to your Asian-style barbecue menus. Enjoy!
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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A favorite at Izakaya restaurants, Yaki Onigiri are Japanese grilled rice balls covered in savory soy sauce. With a crispy crust on the outside and soft sticky rice on the inside, these rice balls are simply irresistible and easy to make at home!
- 2 rice cooker cups uncooked Japanese short-grain rice (360ml; 1 rice cooker cup (180ml) of uncooked rice will make 3 rice balls.)
- Water
- kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Use half for table salt)
- neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc)
- soy sauce (I used Homemade Unagi Sauce, see Notes for recipe)
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Gather all the ingredients. Cook the rice in the rice cooker, pot over the stove top or pressure cooker.
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Let the cooked rice cool a little bit until you can hold rice without burning your hands. Do not let the rice completely cool down.
- Make Onigiri into triangle shapes. First wet both of your hands with water so rice won't stick.
- Then put some salt in your hands and rub to spread all around.
- Scoop about a half cup of rice onto your palm.
- Cover the rice with the other hand and gently form the rice into a triangle.
- Make sure covering hand (my right hand) should be forming a triangle shape. When forming the onigiri shape, your hands should be just firm enough so the onigiri doesn't fall apart. You don't want to squeeze the rice too tight.
- I use three fingers (thumb, index finger, middle finger) to cover the area to make a nice triangle shape. Then rotate onigiri to make a perfect triangle.
- While you squeeze onigiri firmly with both hands, one of your hand (my left hand) has to press onigiri to keep a nice form. Left photo is before squeezing and right photo is after.
- Gently squeeze the center of triangle on both sides so there is a slight indentation (for grilling onigiri). Now onigiri is ready! You can tell I’m not a good onigiri maker – no matter how many years I have been practicing.
- Lightly oil a cast iron skillet and put it on medium heat.
- Grill onigiri until all sides are crispy and lightly browned. Don't turn it around. Just work on one side at a time and avoid turning over frequently.
- Lower heat to medium low and brush all sides with soy sauce (unagi sauce). Rotate to make sure all sides become crispy. Be careful not to burn onigiri after you brush it with the sauce.
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Rice gets hard when you refrigerate. You can individually wrap the Yaki Onigiri in plastic wrap and cover them with kitchen towel and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. The towel will prevent the rice from getting too cold and keep the food stay cool but not cold. When you're ready to eat, bring it back to room temperature and reheat in microwave or frying pan.
Unagi Sauce: Homemade recipe, click here.
Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.
Hi Nami! Just to say I made these last night. Unagi sauce is not available in our local Asian store, so I used Kecap Manis instead. It was so easy to make and we all enjoyed it. I was rushing because we were out the whole day so I was not able to take photos because we were all so hungry. Grilling the rice gives it a different depth than the usual. But I will make it again very soon. Thanks again for sharing. 8);
Hi Sonia! I’m glad you enjoyed yaki onigiri! I have Kecap Manis at home too. Crispy rice with Kecap Manis..hmm sounds so good! I should give it a try! 🙂
I just made these four ways (I brushed them with wasabi/soy, Thai peanut sauce, Lingham’s Ginger hot Sauce, and Teriyaki) for a party and they’re perfect snack food! I made them smaller so they could be finger food or picked up easily with hashi. Thanks so much for all the time and energy to put these recipes out here. It was all easy to follow and turned out wonderfully. I had made a test batch earlier this week to make sure I could do it today.
Arigato!
Hi Christophor! Yay! I LOVE your 4 flavors! They all sound so delicious. Love that you used this recipe for a party. I often think Japanese food is hard to serve for a party, but readers like you surprise me with creative and fun ways with Japanese recipes. Thank you for inspiring me! And thanks for your kind words! xo
I’ve never liked rice but I’m trying to like it because Japanese food looks delicious and a lot of them uses rice. I made these for Christmas and everyone loved them and my sister even asked me to make more before I moved out of town to school.
Hi Isabel! Wonderful! I’m happy to hear your guests including your sister enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for trying my recipe!
I just tried this with leftover tuna onigiri and it turned out great!
Hi Marcee! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this reicipe! Thank you so much for trying! It sounds delicious with tuna filling. 😀
Ooh I have never tried grilling Yaki Onigiri on a BBQ. Do you just place them straight on the grill so it gets grill lines or would you need something in between the rice and grill?
Hi Mahalia! I am sorry for my late response. You would need to oil the grid and depending what type of grid, you may want to brush oil on the rice too. 🙂
Always love your recipes Nami. Thank you for sharing. Is it ok to use a pan other than cast iron? My onigiri falls apart when I flip it. Any trick to keep it in it’s shape?
Hi Lucy! Thank you for trying out my recipes! Yes, you can use a frying pan, but make sure it’s non-stick or use a parchment paper method I used in this recipe if your pan is stainless steel (rice will stick!):
https://www.justonecookbook.com/miso-yaki-onigiri/
Regarding your onigiri falling apart. I’m almost 100% sure that your rice is not Japanese rice… if it is, then either you didn’t cook it right or you didn’t press hard enough. If you use non-Japanese rice, the rice fall apart because each kernel is not stick to each other. Japanese rice is stick to each other even though you don’t press it (as natural it is). And when you press to make onigiri, it won’t fall apart by cooking on a pan without touching it. Hope this helps…
Never seen grilled onigiri! Definetly will try them! I’m sure grilled rice is crispy and add something special to traditional recipe.
Hi Loraa! Yeah, the rice gets crispy outside, but when you bite into it, inside is nice and warm moist and plumpy rice. Love it! Have fun making with different fillings and coating outside. 🙂
Is it alright to prep the rice balls a day before ? And cook them on the iron skillet the following day?
Hi Erik! When you store rice in the refrigerator, it becomes really hard. But since you are grilling it, I guess that shouldn’t be a problem as inside should be still nice and fluffy… I would say it should be okay. If I make onigiri ahead of time and keep in the fridge, I usually wrap around with kitchen towel so the rice won’t become too cold (and hard). But for grilling, I think you don’t have to do that… 🙂
Mine totally fell apart in the skillet. I do like the flavor but the form was a disaster.
Hi Joe! Thank you for trying this recipe! I think I know the reason… you didn’t use Japanese short-grain rice. Rice never “fall apart” when you use the Japanese short-grain rice. Each kernel of rice sticks to each other so when you make it into a rice ball, it stays in the ball shape. 🙂
I don’t think that was it. Japanese short-grain rice is known as sushi rice outside of japan. Mine had the same problem. Unless I made them incredibly compact together by forming them over and over, they would rip at some side seam and completely fall apart in the pan.
Delicious, but very messy. Almost feel like just not even forming them into balls and just pouring some delicious unagi sauce and sauteeing it all up in a little oil. Even the ones that did stick together eventually fell apart in my hands as well.
Hi Freja! I’m a bit concerned that this rice is labeled as short grain rice… there is no way rice is not sticking when you form into a ball. It’s nature to stick without any work. You add some gentle presssure and it remains a ball shape (or any shape). It won’t fall apart. So I’m really worried that it’s not the right type of rice and marked as sushi rice. How can we make sushi if rice is not sticky…. impossible…. I’m so sorry about the mess and you had to go through this. It should not be so hard.
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe!
I made the udon from scratch and these yaki onigiri today and I am so very happy with the results. These were a little bit trickier (especially not destroying them in the pan …..) but your instructions were so clear and helpful and the result was amazing! Especially since the recipe seems so simple, but I recommend this to anyone, it’s such a delicious snack, I wish I had made many more. The most work is really just shaping the onigiri, everything else was very easy and it’s super worth the effort.
Thank you so so much and all the best!
Hi Matti! I’m glad to hear both recipes came out well. I hope you try my miso yaki onigiri too. So delicious. I can eat it every day… 😀 Thank you for trying my recipes!! xo
Hi Nami! I love yaki onigiri and order it whenever I see it. Decided to try and make my own today and they came out great! I even made the unagi sauce since I didn’t want to use just shoyu. Thanks again for a great and easy recipe. Will definitely make this again!
Hi Vicky! Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback! I’m so glad you liked the Yaki Onigiri made with the homemade unagi sauce! 🙂
Made this for lunch today! Had Honey smoked salmon and left over bacon wrapped shrimp. I tucked those into the middle. I bought a mold to press the rice. The first one I did not press tight enough and during cooking is tried to come apart the rest I did a better job. The rice took longer to brown than I thought, maybe because of the amount of moisture. I have two left over as they are quite filling, what is the best way to store the left overs? I have them out to cool completely, thought I might wrap them individually in plastic wrap. What do you think?
This was a big hit at our house. Thank you for sharing. Jennifer
Hi Jennifer! Such delicious fillings! They sound delicious! I would wrap them individually in plastic wrap. As the rice hardens when chilled, my recommendation is to wrap rice balls in kitchen towel so they will be cool and safe but not cold in the fridge. That way the rice balls won’t become hard. HOpe this helps! Thank you fo your kind feedback!
The unsgi sauce was just right “umai”. After grilling the onigiri I started to paint it with the unsgi sauce . . . I think I over did it (it tasted do good) the rice ball started to crumble due to the sake and miring . . . penitrating into the onigiri. Next time I’ll be a bit more stingy with the sauce. Again it tasted great other than the miss.
Hi Sadso! Haha! I know what you mean by brushing more sauce. I love the unagi sauce too… but adding liquid makes the rice separated so easily. 🙂
Nami-san, I made these with brown rice and baked them over a charcoal grill. Even my Japanese wife was impressed (and I give her credit for fixing my misshapen onigiri).
Hi Patrick! Hahahahaha! Thanks for sharing your cute story with us! I’m glad you and your wife enjoyed this dish! 🙂
I love grilled origin. I tried to make this last night but the rice fell apart in the pan. Any tips?
Hi Maggie! Usually, there are two possible reasons: 1) You’re not using Japanese short-grain rice. They stick to each other, so it’s hard to “fall apart”. 2) You’re not pressing enough pressure to make rice balls.
Do you think it could be either/both reason? 🙂
HI
Thank you for your feedback. I did use Japanese rice but it was in the fridge from night before, so it was more dry and hard. I used warm salt water to wet my hands. I will try fresh rice and press a bit harder next time! I will do my best!!
Hi Maggie! Thanks so much for letting me know. The refrigerator makes rice cold and dry, so even though you use the leftover the next day, I recommend freezing it. When you reheat, it’s just like freshly made steamed rice! 🙂
https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-freeze-rice/
Thank you for your feedback. I am Chinese and my husband is American and we live in Hong Kong. We eat rice almost everyday since kids are at home from social distancing. Sometimes I make Indian food or Thai food and we use long grain rice. We only cook Japanese short grain rice when I make Japanese dishes (from your blog). I have never thought of freezing rice since we eat it so often. I will try this next time if I make extra short grain rice when we do not finish! thank you!
Hi Maggie! I see! I think you’ll love freezing rice and will never put the rice in fridge once you start freezing. We usually portion out to 2 servings and put in a glass pyrex. It’s always moist and wonderful. Adjust the microwave time according to your Watt. Once you know how long it takes to perfectly reheat the rice, it’s fresh as new! Enjoy! 🙂
Hi Nami, quick question. Is it possible to make these with brown rice? Is there any trick to getting brown rice to adhere to itself in the way that white rice can? Thanks!
Hi Dan! You can use short-grain brown rice and it works the same way as white short-grain rice. 🙂 Make sure to soak brown rice for 6 hours at least before cooking. It’s important! 🙂