June 8, 2020

Nikumaki Onigiri Recipe (Japanese Meat Wrapped Rice Balls)

I lived in Japan for 4 years, and hadn’t heard of nikumaki onigiri until my wife recently introduced them to me. Evidently, there are special restaurants that specialize in nikumaki onigiri and they have recently become famous. At home, parent sometimes make nikumaki onigiri to enhance the flavor of the onigiri and make them easier for children to eat. Japanese meat wrapped rice balls are delicious. If you’ve never had one, I recommend that you try cooking them with this meat wrapped rice ball recipe.

Niku means “meat” and maki means “wrap”. You can see where the name comes from!

Type of Rice for Onigiri

You will need the same type of rice for both nikumaki onigiri and temari sushi. In fact, most Japanese recipes require this type of rice. In order for the balls to have the right consistency, rice with a higher moisture content is needed. The higher moisture content helps the rice remain sticky.

We often buy Kagayaki select short grain rice. Among our Japanese friends living in the USA, they recommended Kagayaki select short grain rice as the best substitution for Japanese made rice. Kagayaki select is made in California, but can be found all over the USA at Asian super markets, or purchased online.

Other types of rice can be substituted for Japanese short grain rice, such as Korean short-grain rice, or even Italian short-grain rice. However, long-grain rice such as Jasmine or basmati rice will not go well for the temari sushi. Long-grain rice is too dry and causes the rice to fall apart as opposed to sticking together.

Tips for this Nikumaki Onigiri Recipe (Japanese Meat Wrapped Rice Balls)

The sauce for the meat is boldly flavored. If you taste the sauce, you might think it is too strong. However, you will wrap the meat around a rice ball. The strongly flavored meat help balance out the weakly flavored rice when eating the onigiri.
The meat adds some width to the rice balls. When you are first making the onigiri (rice ball) in your hands, I recommend making them smaller than you think is needed. This is especially true if you are making them for children.
Nikumaki onigiri (Meat wrapped rice balls) are generally made with pork. You may find thinly sliced pork in Asian markets. However, in this recipe, I used thinly sliced beef. Regular Western supermarkets generally have thinly sliced beef readily available for purchase. Even with beef, the nikumaki onigiri was delicious.
You may find it difficult to wrap the rice balls due to the small size of the thinly sliced beef. However, after wrapping the rice balls, and applying the corn starch as recommend in this recipe, the meat will stick and maintain it’s shape around the rice ball. It may be easier to make nikumaki onigiri with thinly sliced pork found in Asian markets, but I was also able to make them with thinly sliced beef found in general super markets.

Nikumaki Onigiri (Meat wrapped rice balls)

Nikumaki Onigiri Recipe (Japanese Meat Wrapped Rice Balls)

Nikumaki onigiri (Japanese meat wrapped rice balls) are delicious, small balls wrapped around white rice. They are great for a quick bite or a packed lunch. The meat wrap is strongly flavored and balances well with the white rice.

5 from 1 vote

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Total Time 40

Course Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine Japanese

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Meat Wrapped Rice Ball

2 cups cooked rice (500 grams)
0.5 tsp salt
0.75 lbs thinly sliced beef (350 grams)
4 tbsp cornstarch

Cooking Sauce

2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp cooking alcohol
1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce

Optional

Sesame seeds (We use these for a garnish)

Instructions

Meat Wrapped Rice Ball Preparation

Cook short-grained rice (sticky rice) using your preferred method
Place 2 cups of cooked rice into a mixing bowl and add 0.5 tsp of salt
Moisten your hands with water and form small rice balls with a diameter of about 2-3 cm
Wrap the rice balls with thinly sliced beef ~16 rice balls
Add corn starch to the outside of the meat ball and firmly press together

Cooking the Nikumaki Onigiri

Add 2 tbsp of sesame oil to a pan
Add the nikumaki onigiri to the pan and sear the surfaces on medium heat. Roll the balls as necessary to heat all surfaces.
After the surfaces are cooked, add 2 tbsp of cooking alcohol, 1 tbsp of mirin, 1 tbsp of sugar and 2 tbsp of soy sauce into the pan
Let the flavor soak into the beef over low heat. Roll the balls as needed to evenly soak all surfaces.
(Optional) – add sesame seeds on top as a garnish