Japanese Ground Chicken Rice

This Japanese ground chicken rice is scrumptious, simple and quick to make, full of Asian flavours, best for hectic days or winter days, lunch or dinner.

Being a typical Chinese family living down under here, we always have rice for dinner. Ellie from AlmostBourdain via twitter once asked if I still keep the tradition of having Chinese dinner with three courses together with a soup. Yes, as long as I have enough cooking time.

Life is so hectic that I can’t keep the tradition as I wish sometimes. But rice will definitely be served on our dinner table as it’s my husband’s most favourite. Or I can say he is a typical Chinese man who can’t live without rice on a single day, whereas my daughter loves tasting different foods in a wide range of variety.

So, the same question repeatedly comes up, whether to have Chinese or western cuisine or other kind of dishes for tonight’s dinner. Being a homecook, I have to find a way to please every different palate in the family, without putting too much pressure on myself. That’s why I continue on the search for simple, easy ways of cooking delicious dishes for my family.

Japanese Ground Chicken Rice Recipe

(Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Yield: 2 to 3 serves

Ingredients:

• 160 gm Japanese rice, about 1 rice cup
• 1 1/4 cups water, for cooking rice (or follow the instructions on the package)
• 120 gm ground chicken meat
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp water
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• scallion, finely chopped, for garnish

Seasonings for chicken::

• 1½ Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp mirin
• ½ Tbsp sake (Japanese cooking wine)
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger

Seasonings for rice:

• 2 Tbsp light soy sauce
• sugar, to taste

Method:

1. Rinse rice and drain well. Put the rice and water in a rice cooker. Cook until the rice is done.
2. Mix ground chicken with marinade. Cook in a frying pan over medium-low heat until cooked through. Stir constantly and separate the lumps if any while cooking. Set aside.
3. Whisk egg with water. Season with salt, pepper. Pour the egg onto the pan and cook into a thin cake. Dish up and shred the egg. Set aside.
4. When the rice is cooked and ready, add the chicken, stir in the seasonings. Divide and transfer to serving bowls. Garnish with the shredded egg, scallion. Serve hot immediately.

Notes:

• The advantage of cooking the chicken before mixing with the rice, you’re pretty sure that the meat is cooked well and get the chicken absorb all the flavours in the seasonings.
• Or you can skip the step of stir frying the chicken, just quickly toss in the marinated chicken onto the surface of rice when it’s nearly cooked, but not cooked through yet. Immediately close the rice cooker cover, let the rice cooker continue to cook through the chicken. Wait until the chicken is done, then stir in seasonings and mix well with the rice.

Other Japanese rice recipes on the internet:

• Japanese Basics: How to make Japanese-style plain rice and sushi rice from Just Hungry
• Omurice (Chicken and Tomato Rice wrapped in Fried Eggs) from Christine's Recipes
• Tori Zosui—Japanese Rice & Chicken Porridge from La Fuji Mama