MichelleMunches

Y’all wanna learn how to make these beauties? Keep on reading, it’s simpler than you think!

My favorite fillings for onigiri’s is a “salad” of some sort: today I did kani (crabstick) salad and chicken salad! I also like to do tuna salad, but I didn’t have any tuna today.

Ingredients:

• Rice
• Optional for aesthetics (recommended): seaweed and furikake
• Optional: onigiri mold (not necessary, but definitely makes it easier)

Kani Salad

• Crabstick
• Mayo
• Optional: avocado

Chicken Salad

• Canned chicken breast (you could also shred rotisserie or even baked your own chicken breast, whatever works!)
• Mayo
• 1/2 of a shallot
• Black pepper 
• Worcestershire sauce

First things first, I unwrapped about half the package of crabstick and cut it into thirds and broke them apart.

I drained the canned chicken and added 1/2 of the shallot diced.

Next, I seasoned the chicken with about 2-3 tbsp of mayo, black pepper and Worcestershire sauce (about 2 tsp) to taste!

I also added about 2-3 tbsp of mayo to the crabstick! I was going to add chunks of avocado, but then realized my avocado had gone bad (very sad).

Thankfully, my mom works at a Japanese sushi restaurant and they gave us leftover sushi rice. So, I just reheated that and used that. However, if you don’t have that, you can use sushi rice or regular white rice and season with rice vinegar and sugar (I would recommend Google for a recipe because I usually just eyeball it). That is also the onigiri mold I have that I got at Daiso during my trip to Japan! However, I have seen it sold at local Asian markets, so you can probably find it there, if not, definitely on Amazon.

Now for the fun part! Fill the mold with a thin layer of rice, next a scoop of mixture (try to keep it in the middle or else the onigiri will not hold together). After that, top it with more rice to cover and use the lid to make your onigiri! If you don’t have this mold, don’t fret! I’ve also made them by hand before. Use saran or plastic wrap and put the rice in a triangle form, some mixture in the middle, more rice on top and then wrap it up and mold it that way!

Now, this is option, however, I highly recommend it. I use these seaweed snacks to wrap on the bottom of the onigiri. It makes it easier to hold onto and not the sticky rice, so easier to eat!

This step again is optional, but adds nice flavor to the onigiri! I use furikake from Trader Joe’s and I dip the edges in it to make it look more aesthetically pleasing.

And voila! Now you have delicious, aesthetically pleasing onigiri! Or maybe you stopped a few steps back and are already munching on your creation. Either way, this is one of my favorite recipes and really satisfying. Definitely try this out and if you do, tag me on Instagram or Facebook @michellemunches!