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Salmon Onigiri
Updated May 13, 2024
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- Total Time
- 2 hours
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour 55 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 2cups uncooked Japanese short-grain rice
- Salt
- 1(6-ounce) salmon fillet
- 4sheets nori (dried seaweed)
- Toasted white and black sesame seeds, for garnish
Preparation
- Step 1
Make the rice: Put the rice in a large bowl, add enough tap water to cover the rice, and wash it, using your hands to swish the grains around. Discard the water. Repeat this process 3 or 4 times. Let the rice soak in water for 30 minutes. Transfer the rice to a sieve, drain and let sit for at least 15 minutes. While the rice is being soaked and drained, heat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Step 2
Combine the rice and 2½ cups water in a medium pot. Cover the pot with a lid and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once the water is boiling, turn the heat down to low and continue to cook, covered, until the water is completely absorbed, 12 to 13 minutes. Take a quick peek, and if you see any water left, cover and continue cooking for another minute or so.
- Step 3
Remove the pot from the heat and let it sit, covered, for another 10 minutes. Uncover and let the rice cool until you can hold the rice without burning your hands. (To cool it quickly, spread it out on a sheet pan). Do not let the rice cool down completely.
- Step 4
Make the filling: Sprinkle a little salt on both sides of the salmon fillet, and place the fillet on a small sheet pan or baking dish. Bake for 10 to 20 minutes, until the salmon flakes easily when you poke it with a fork.
- Step 5
Break the cooked salmon into flakes and set it aside, discarding the skin if there is any (or you can eat it).
- Step 6
While the rice is cooling, cut the nori into 1½-inch-wide strips.
- Step 7
Wet your hands to prevent the rice from sticking to them. Put some salt on your hands by dipping three fingertips in salt and rubbing to spread it all around your palms.
- Step 8
Scoop a handful (about ⅓ cup) of warm rice into one hand. Create a small indentation in the center of the rice. Put 1 to 2 teaspoons of salmon inside. Then mold the rice with your hands around the indentation to cover the filling completely.
- Step 9
Gently form the rice into a triangle, using three fingers (thumb, pointer finger, middle finger) to make a triangle corner. Squeeze and pat the rice just firmly enough so the onigiri doesn’t fall apart. You don’t want to squeeze the rice too tightly.
- Step 10
Wrap the nori around the onigiri like you’re wrapping a blanket around a baby, then sprinkle the top point that’s not wrapped in nori with sesame seeds. You can also wrap the seaweed over the bottom of the onigiri, like a flap or a diaper, and sprinkle sesame seeds along the other two sides. If your hands get too messy, wipe them off and re-dip them in water and salt before you make the next one. Repeat these steps with the rest of the rice, salmon and nori.
- Step 11
Eat the onigiri immediately, as the rice gets hard when you refrigerate it. But if you really need to wait to eat them, there’s a trick: wrap the whole tray of onigiri with thick kitchen towels and store in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before eating.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Mixing furikake with the cooked rice makes for umami-rich onigiri! Especially love furikake made with dried shiso. My husband's favorite Japanese convenience store onigiri is tuna with mayo :).
Babies in blankets? Diapers? Thankfully I've managed to make these – well before encountering this recipe – without any of this imagery. I do use seasoned sushi vinegar, contrary to one commentator's preferences, as I would if making maki rolls, and I got an inexpensive onigiri press on Amazon that shapes the rice perfectly. My favorite filling is Ikura with a little hot sauce.
Here's my kids lunch version: 1. Wake up, wash rice, use short grain if possible, if not, no worries, cook on quick setting in the rice cooker. 2. Find the onigiri mold you bought on Amazon. 3. Cut nori into strips, or whatever fits your mold. Follow directions here about wetting/salting your hands. 4. Find something in the fridge to put in the middle. Smoked salmon and Kewpie? Avocado and cukes? Leftover tuna salad? 5. Put rice, then filling, then rice in mold, wrap in nori. Happy kids!
No, the rice shouldn't be seasoned. For sushi it should, but for onigiri it traditionally is not.
Simple, good instructions. Proportions of rice to salmon seem a bit off though. I doubled the recipe but it only made 11 onigiri and I had about half the salmon left. This wasn't a big issue because I ate the leftover salmon on its own, but would recommend trial and error if you are planning on making these to share as you may not get the same yield as the recipe author.
Made this last night with a few modifications: cooked the salmon in a teriaki pineapple marinade (which I used as dipping sauce after making the onigiri), and followed the directions on my sushi rice container for the flavor/texture (rice wine vinegar, sugar, and salt). It turned out amazing, and was super filling. Will definitely be making this again.
Okay how do we get the wrapped nori to stick to the rice or to itself?
I’ve not made this, but aside from the rice cooker/onogiri mold comment, I can’t see how this recipe as described has 5 minutes prep time. The 3-4 rinses of the uncooked rice would take 2-3 minutes and I’ve not even begun to diaper the salmon.
Can someone provide more guidance on how to wrap the seaweed around the rice and salmon? I have two kids but really don’t see how the diaper reference helps.
I made my rice more sushi like by using rice wine vinegar (5tbsp), salt (1tsp), and sugar (1tbsp) (whisk together in a small bowl then fold in the rice after it was off heat for 10min), and had no issues getting the nori to stick. This recipe doesn’t include flavoring for the rice and this step makes it *very* sticky.
Maybe not traditional but a couple of hits of magi in the cooked rice is nice. I made this today with smoked salmon and it worked (makes the recipe even easier).
A go-to recipe I love to meal prep to have on-hand when I’m too tired to cook. I add edamame and caramelized onion as a filling for some batches as well ♡♡♡
Here's my kids lunch version: 1. Wake up, wash rice, use short grain if possible, if not, no worries, cook on quick setting in the rice cooker. 2. Find the onigiri mold you bought on Amazon. 3. Cut nori into strips, or whatever fits your mold. Follow directions here about wetting/salting your hands. 4. Find something in the fridge to put in the middle. Smoked salmon and Kewpie? Avocado and cukes? Leftover tuna salad? 5. Put rice, then filling, then rice in mold, wrap in nori. Happy kids!
Simple, good instructions. Proportions of rice to salmon seem a bit off though. I doubled the recipe but it only made 11 onigiri and I had about half the salmon left. This wasn't a big issue because I ate the leftover salmon on its own, but would recommend trial and error if you are planning on making these to share as you may not get the same yield as the recipe author.
Yeah, I only got 6.5 onigiri out of this, but they were a good size (2 each were filling for my husband and me).
Mixing furikake with the cooked rice makes for umami-rich onigiri! Especially love furikake made with dried shiso. My husband's favorite Japanese convenience store onigiri is tuna with mayo :).
Babies in blankets? Diapers? Thankfully I've managed to make these – well before encountering this recipe – without any of this imagery. I do use seasoned sushi vinegar, contrary to one commentator's preferences, as I would if making maki rolls, and I got an inexpensive onigiri press on Amazon that shapes the rice perfectly. My favorite filling is Ikura with a little hot sauce.
The rice should be seasoned -- rice vinegar and sugar. And shouldn't the salmon be seasoned as well? Soy and mirin might be nice. Anyway, anything can be stuffed into onigiri, not sure why this very generic set of instructions merits a spot on the Nytimes recipe page.
I think, personally, you have enough seasoning for yourself and the rice, as that comment was SALTY!
No need for vinegar and sugar--you're not making sushi (which uses mirin and not sugar, in any case).
No, the rice shouldn't be seasoned. For sushi it should, but for onigiri it traditionally is not.
I love reading this recipe - it has a lovely voice.
For those of us who've never made this,but love to eat it, it is extremely helpful to have these instructions. I'm going to impress my grand kids who really love sushi. Thank you Priya for the detailed instructions.
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