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Baked chicken rolls with cheese cap

Baked Chicken Rolls Under a Cheese Cap

Interesting in flavor, filling, and loaded with topping! Once baked, these chicken rolls under their cheese cap can be drizzled with a thick unagi or teriyaki sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds. They're best enjoyed warm.

Pirko Rita

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Round rice

Water

Rice vinegar

1.5

Sugar

0.75

Salt

0.4

Nori (1 sheet)

2.8

Cream cheese

Chicken fillet

Shiitake

Spinach

Hard cheese

Mayonnaise

Vegetable oil

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 20 % 8 g

Fats 41 % 17 g

Carbohydrates 39 % 16 g

236 kcal

GI: 6 / 88 / 6

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make baked rolls? Start with the sushi rice. Use short-grain Japanese (sushi) rice — it has the stickiness the rolls need. With any other kind, the rolls will likely fall apart. Put the rice in a bowl and rinse it about 4 times, until the water runs clear. Transfer the rice to a saucepan and add water in a 1:1 ratio. Cover with a lid and set it over the heat.
Step 2:

Bring the water to a boil (keep the lid on the whole time). Once it boils, turn the heat down to its lowest setting and let the rice cook for 15 minutes — by then all the water will have absorbed. Turn off the heat and let the rice rest, still covered, for another 10 minutes to finish steaming to the right texture. Cooked rice roughly doubles in volume.
Step 3:

Now, in a separate small saucepan, combine the rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. Set it over low heat and stir until the sugar and salt dissolve into the vinegar — but don't let it come to a boil.
Step 4:

Take a wooden bowl and wipe it down with a damp paper towel so the rice won't stick. Transfer the cooked rice into it. Pour the vinegar mixture over the back of a wooden spoon, drizzling it in a thin stream evenly over the rice. With a wooden paddle, gently fold the seasoning through the rice. Then let the rice cool completely, covered with a damp towel.
Step 5:

Wrap your bamboo rolling mat in plastic wrap. This keeps things hygienic and makes the mat easy to work with — nothing sticks and the mat stays clean. It also extends the mat's life, keeping rice and filling from working into the bamboo slats and meaning you have to dampen it less often.
Step 6:

In a small bowl, mix up some hand-dipping water (tezu) — rice vinegar and water in a 1:3 ratio. Wetting your hands with it makes the rice easy to handle, and you can dip your knife in it when slicing the rolls. Take a sheet of nori and lay it on the mat shiny side down. Spread rice over it, smoothing it across the surface but leaving about 2/3 of the sheet bare.
Step 7:

Cut the chicken into medium strips and fry it in vegetable oil. Lay the filling across the middle of the rice — cream cheese in the center, with chicken and spinach leaves on either side.
Step 8:

Holding the filling in place, gently roll it away from you. To seal the roll well, dampen the bare strip of nori (the part with no rice) with a little water. Set the rolled log at the edge of the mat and tuck in each end. You should end up with an even, round roll.
Step 9:

Slice the roll with a sharp knife into 8 equal pieces. Arrange the cut rolls, filling side up, on a foil-lined baking sheet.
Step 10:

Make the mixture for the rolls' "caps." Finely chop the shiitake and lightly sauté in a pan with a little vegetable oil. Grate the hard cheese into fine crumbs. In a bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, cheese, and mushrooms. Using a teaspoon, mound a "cap" of the mixture onto each roll.
Step 11:

Put the rolls under the broiler and cook for about 5 minutes, until the caps turn golden and bubbly. Watch them closely and gauge the exact time by your own oven.
Step 12:

Take the finished rolls out of the oven and arrange them on a platter.
Step 13:

Serve them with soy sauce, wasabi, and pickled ginger.

Keep in mind that every oven is different. Your temperature and timing may vary from what's in the recipe. For any baked dish to come out well, it helps to know your own oven's quirks.
To make sure the oven is up to temperature, turn it on ahead of time (about 10–20 minutes before you start).
Use an oil with a high smoke point for frying. Any oil is good only up to a certain temperature — the smoke point — beyond which it starts to burn and form harmful compounds, including carcinogens. Unrefined oils, with few exceptions, have a low smoke point; they're full of unfiltered organic particles that quickly start to burn. Refined oils hold up better to heat and have a higher smoke point. If you're cooking in the oven, in a pan, or on the grill, make sure you're using a high-smoke-point oil. The most common choices are refined sunflower, olive, and grapeseed oil.