Main Page
National cuisine
Japanese rice balls with cheese

Japanese Rice Balls (Onigiri) with Cheese

Unique, pretty, crispy, and made from simple ingredients! Rice balls are a hearty Japanese snack of cooked rice with all sorts of fillings. This version uses cheese. Adding broth and garlic makes the filling juicy and full of flavor.

Pirko Rita

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Rice

1.5

Salt

Hard cheese

100

Chicken broth

Onion

Garlic

Flour

Breadcrumbs

100

Chicken eggs

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 17 % 9 g

Fats 9 % 5 g

Carbohydrates 74 % 40 g

228 kcal

GI: 3 / 70 / 28

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make Japanese rice balls with cheese? First, cook the rice for the balls. How do you cook the rice? Measure out the rice and rinse it well under running water. Add water in a 1:1 ratio and a little salt. Cook the rice in a saucepan over medium heat, uncovered. It takes 10 minutes after the water comes to a boil — the water should be fully absorbed into the rice. Let it cool. Short-grain rice works best.
Step 2:

Make the cheese filling. How do you make it? Peel and finely chop the onion. Peel the garlic and press it. Put the onion and garlic in a skillet, pour in half the chicken broth, and set over low heat. Cook the vegetables until the liquid evaporates completely. Then pour in the rest of the broth and let it cook down again.
Step 3:

Grate the cheese. Any cheese works, as long as it's good quality, with no milk-fat substitutes, and melts well. Once the broth in the skillet has cooked away, add the grated cheese. Mix the cheese with the onion, take the filling off the heat, and let it cool. The filling is ready.
Step 4:

Set up the breading. Take three dishes — saucers or small bowls. Put wheat flour in one, breadcrumbs in another, and crack an egg into the third. Beat the egg lightly with a fork.
Step 5:

With wet hands, shape rice balls around a center of the cheese, onion, and garlic filling. It's easiest to do this in your palm — lay down a layer of rice, then a spoonful of filling. Closing your hand, wrap the rice around the filling. Roll it into a ball.
Step 6:

Roll each rice ball first in flour, then in beaten egg, then in breadcrumbs. Set it on a plate or cutting board. Use up all the rice and cheese filling this way. Chill the prepared rice balls in the refrigerator for 1.5 hours.
Step 7:

After that, take the balls out of the fridge. Cook them by any of three methods: pan-fry them in butter, deep-fry them in plenty of vegetable oil (then drain on paper towels to remove excess oil), or, as I did, bake them in the oven on a parchment-lined baking sheet at 400°F (200°C) for 25–30 minutes.
Step 8:

Oven-baked, the balls come out lighter. Serve the cheese rice balls hot, with tomato or cream sauce. They also go great with fresh vegetables.

You can actually use any filling you like in the rice balls — vegetable, say, or just cheese (to save time). But chicken broth makes for a more interesting flavor, of course. With vegetable balls, soy sauce suits better than tomato.
Always wash eggs before using them, since even a shell that looks clean can carry harmful bacteria. A food-safe wash and a brush work best.
Important! For rice dishes that come out reliably delicious, read the article on the finer points of choosing rice and the secrets of cooking it.
Use an oil with a high smoke point for frying! Every oil is good only up to a certain temperature — its smoke point, beyond which it starts to burn and form toxic compounds, including carcinogens. Unrefined oils, with rare exceptions, have a low smoke point: they're full of unfiltered organic particles that scorch quickly. Refined oils handle heat better and have a higher smoke point. If you're cooking in the oven, in a pan, or on the grill, make sure you use a high-smoke-point oil. The most common ones: refined sunflower, olive, and grapeseed.