How To Make Japanese Chicken And Shimeji Mushroom Rice

Jun 15th, 2008 by admin

Back in January, I wrote about 8 Useful Japanese Ingredients. Here’s a simple recipe for chicken and shimeji mushroom rice that I learnt from cookery writer Kimiko Barber at her Japanese Kitchen cookery workshop held at Books for Cooks in Notting Hill, London. The recipe is taken from the workshop recipe booklet that was handed out in class.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

200g / 7 oz Japanese short grain rice
4 small chicken breast fillets, sliced diagonally (I cut them into chunks, but you can do either)
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp soy sauce
150g /1 packet shimeji mushrooms
1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted, for garnishing
1 sheet nori, cut into strips, for garnishing

For the cooking liquid:

225 ml / 8 fl oz dashi stock (which takes 5 minutes to make)
2 tbsp sake
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin

What to do next:

Wash and rinse rice (5 or 6 times until water is clear), then set aside to drain for 30 minutes. Place chicken into bowl with sake and soy sauce to marinade until rice is ready to cook. Remove base of shimeji mushrooms and separate them by hand. Make fresh dashi stock.

Add rice to saucepan with tight-fitting lid, add cooking liquid mixture and bring to boil over moderate heat. Boil for 3 minutes, add chicken and mushrooms, lower heat and steam-cook with lid on for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, toast sesame seeds and cut nori into strips.

Turn off heat and let it steam for a further 10 minutes before stirring and fluffing up rice. Garnish with sesame seeds and nori, and serve. It’s delicious comfort food, and a great one-pot meal!

If you liked this, try these recipes from the same cookery course: