ALLCAPSCOOKBOOK PRESENTS: Adobonigiri! (Patreon)
Content
Ok, in fairness this one is really an idea more than a recipe. I used standard recipes for all the components, but I'm reasonably mostly sure the concept itself is my own invention. At least the portmanteau is!
And it's fabulous.
I made a batch of onigiri (rice balls stuffed with something wrapped in seaweed, an old comfort food from my years in Japan) in advance of my carpal tunnel surgery, figuring it was an easy food I would not have to do anything with my hands to shove into my face while recovering.
But...then...there was this chicken adobo sitting right there in the fridge that I'd made the night before. And they wanted to be together, guys. They yearned for each other. It wasn't right for me to stand in the way.
I will say that I made a second batch without the full nori wrap (there's two styles of onigiri, one you see above, and one has just a little scotch tape strap of nori and furikake around the edges of the rice--furikake is a standard Japanese seasoning with sesame seeds in) and felt that was a little better than fully enclosing it, but I ate them too fast to photograph and also the other style is fairly difficult to do without molds, which you may not have.
I recommend molds? They're cheap and make the whole process much easier., especially if you're not quite at Michelin-level perfection in terms of making sushi rice. I'm going to simply link to instructions on how to assemble onigiri as I have nothing new to add to that and I'm not great at it myself. The good news is, a ruined onigiri is also known as delicious rice with a nice topping, so there's never any waste.
But this fusion-y taste combo is not to be missed, and chicken adobo is absurdly easy, you should be making it anyway. This is just a regular old adobo recipe, so feel free to just make it on its own!
Here we go to Flavor Prefecture...
Ingredients (this will make A LOT of individual onigiri, feel free to split it in half a
For Onigiri:
1 cup sushi rice, prepared according to instructions below (will require sugar and rice vinegar)
Several sheets of nori (seaweed) paper, number dependent on what style you're making
Onigiri molds (optional)
Furikake seasoning (optional)
For Chicken Adobo:
4-5 chicken thighs
6 garlic cloves, diced
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp white vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 bay leaves
1 yellow onion, chopped
1.5 cups of water
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp whole black peppercorns
1-2 tbsp oil of choice, I used sesame
Let's Roll Up This Katamari!
The most efficient order of operations here is: marinade chicken, make rice, cook chicken, assemble onigiri.
Marinade: combine 3 of the garlic cloves, vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaves, and chicken in a tupperware container, shake well to coat, and stick it in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, but I let it go overnight and that's 100% worth it if you have the time.
Then...let's just start out saying that if you have your own method for making perfect sushi rice, just go ahead and use that. My rice cooker broke a long time ago and I never got a new one but if you have one that is unbroken you should probably just use that.
Rinse your rice thoroughly. Several rounds until the water is completely clear. Add 1.5 cups of water to your pot of rinsed rice, bring to a boil, then turn the heat all the way to its lowest setting, cover, and let cook for 13-15 minutes. Add a little less than 1/4 cup rice vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to the rice, stir well, and let cool while you cook the chicken.
Heat oil in a large skillet, then add the chicken thighs, skin-side down. Cook on medium-high heat until nicely browned on both sides, then remove and set aside. Add chopped onion and the rest of the garlic, cook for 2 minutes or so, until the onions ar soft and the garlic is fragrant. Add water, brown sugar, and peppercorns to the pan, bring it to a simmer, then turn heat down to medium-ish and let it cook down for about five minutes.
Add the chicken back in, smooth side down. Simmer uncovered for 20-25 minutes, until the sauce is thick, glossy, and syrupy. Coat the chicken with syrup, then set aside to cool down enough to handle with (VERY WELL WASHED) your fingers.
When both components are cool enough to handle, follow these instructions to make the full nori wrap or these instructions to make the...um....Brazilian version. Just click, you'll see what I mean.
Each onigiri ball will only contain about 1-1.5 tablespoons of chicken adobo, so you'll want to cut up the chicken into very small pieces to pack as much in as you can. If you leave them to sit for awhile before eating, the adobo glaze will slowly seep through the rice and flavor the whole thing. It's sublime. Go ahead and tell people you invented it!