KFC Japan releases official onigiri rice ball, miso ramen rice recipes to level-up fried chicken

Super easy ways to give your KFC takeout a mouthwatering Japanese twist.

There’s arguably no from-overseas fast food chain that Japan has accepted to enthusiastically as KFC, and that cultural appreciation goes both ways. So while the Colonel’s fried chicken is a viable meal as-is in Japan, KFC also periodically releases official recipes for how to use its signature poultry as an ingredient in traditional Japanese dishes.

They’ve just released a new batch of recipes, so let’s check out some of the tastiest-looking, starting with tori gobo okowa onigiri, or chicken and burdock root rice balls.

Ingredients:
● Original recipe KFC fried chicken (2 pieces)
● Rice (360 milliliters [12.2 ounces])
● Sliced carrots and burdock root (70 grams [2.5 ounces])
● Kirimochi rice cake sheets (50 grams [1.8 ounces])
● Soy sauce (1 tablespoon)
● Mirin (2 tablespoons)

Mirin (a type of cooking sake), kirimochi, and burdock root aren’t too hard to find at Japanese food specialty stores outside Japan, and often you can find packs of pre-cut carrots and burdock together, called a kinpira gobo pack.

Step 1: Start by washing the rice and slicing the mochi into 1-centimeter (0.4-inch) squares.

Step 2: Next, put the rice into your rice cooker, along with the soy sauce and mirin. Next add the chicken (still on the bone), carrots, burdock root, and, last, the mochi slices. Then close your rice cooker’s lid and cook everything like you would a pot of regular rice.

Step 3: Once the rice cooker is done, transfer the contents to a bowl. Remove the chicken from the bone, put the meat back in the bowl, and stir everything together. Once you’ve got a uniform distribution of ingredients, form the mixture into rice balls, and you’re ready to eat!

Pretty easy, huh? So easy that we should still have plenty of energy left over to try our hand at making miso chicken ramen takikomi gohan, or miso ramen-seasoned chicken rice.

Ingredients:
● Original recipe KFC fried chicken (2 pieces)
● Instant miso ramen (1 pack)
● Rice (360 milliliters [12.2 ounces])
● Salt (1/2 teaspoon)
● Green onions

Takikomi gohan is another Japanese dish where you stick a bunch of extra ingredients into the rice cooker, and this one is also a snap to make.

Step 1: Put rice and necessary amount of water into the rice cooker. Add miso ramen broth base (i.e powder) and salt, then stir. Add chicken (still on bone). Finally, break the dry, uncooked ramen into small pieces and add them. Close the rice cooker lid and cook as usual.

Step 2: Once the rice cooker is done, remove chicken from bone and stir everything together. Top with sliced green onions, and you’re all done.

As you can see, KFC Japan is really big on the idea of rice cooker dishes. They even recommend combining the same amounts of chicken and rice (two pieces and 360 milliliters) with two packs of creamy tarako cod roe pasta sauce and half a teaspoon of salt in the rice cooker, then crowning it with shredded shiso (Japanese basil), like in the picture below.

▼ Add in the KFC okonomiyaki and ramen soup from a previous recipe batch, and you’ve got your weekday dinners planned out.

KFC Japan says each of the recipes serves three to four people, just the right amount for a meal with some friends with broad palates or leave yourself with some tasty leftovers if you’re dining solo. And as for those chicken bones? If you don’t feel like just throwing them away, we’ve got a bath time idea for how to use them.

Source: KFC Japan via IT Media
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Insert images: KFC Japan
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