Omurice is basically fried rice wrapped in an omelette – two delicious foods in one! It’s a western-inspired Japanese recipe, and you can generally find it in all sorts of cafés. It can look like a piece of edible art (as you can see from this rilakkuma-inspired omurice). Whatever form it may take, at the heart of the dish is always fried rice, omelette and the all-important tomato ketchup.

This recipe serves 2 (makes 2 omurices), and takes 40 mins to cook. I have pre-prepared the chicken here, as this version is more meat-heavy than what you’d normally find, and I didn’t want the chicken to feel dry. It’s been marinaded in buttermilk overnight.

Also, I prefer using buttermilk for omelettes, as they make the omelettes much fluffier than using milk or just using eggs without either.

Ingredients
200g of chicken breast
100ml of buttermilk
3/4 cup of rice
1 block of chicken stock cube
3 eggs
1 tbsp of powdered parmesan (optional)
A pinch of black pepper
150g peas
1/2 onion

Tomato ketchup

You’ll also need salt to taste.

Pre-step (optional): cut the chicken into cubes of roughly 1cm across and cover them in the buttermilk. Leave overnight to tenderise the chicken. It will look a bit disgusting, like the above, but the buttermilk doesn’t affect the taste of the chicken.

Step 1: wash the rice and add in the chicken stock cube along with 1.5 cups of water. Make sure that the stock cube dissolves. Place this into a saucepan and simmer on low heat with the lid on. Leave to cook for 15 minutes.

Step 2: while the rice is cooking, break the eggs and scoop the buttermilk from the chicken mix into the eggs.

Step 3: add the parmesan, pepper and a pinch of salt to the egg mix and beat thoroughly, then set this aside. It will be used for the omelette.

Step 4: rinse the chicken so that it’s completely clean from buttermilk (otherwise they’ll get too crispy on the outside).

Step 5: check that the rice is now soft. It doesn’t have to be completely cooked at this stage. Add in the peas and stir, then cook for an additional 5 minutes with the lid back on.

Step 6: in the meantime, chop the onions into tiny pieces.

Step 7: scoop the rice into a bowl, add olive oil to the pan and add the onions.

Step 8: wait until the onions are sizzling, then add the chicken.

Step 9: keep stirring, and once the outside of the chicken looks less pink, add in the rice mix and keep frying/cooking for 10 minutes.

Step 10: add salt and ketchup to taste, and stir thoroughly. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, then scoop back into the bowl.

Step 11: now it’s time for the omelettes! Coat the bottom of the frying pan in olive oil, heat on high heat and then add in half of the egg mix. Swirl it in the pan so that it covers the bottom properly.

Step 12: it should only take 1-2 minutes for the omelette to set. Then turn it and cook the other side (or if you’re good at flipping, flip it).

Step 13: place the omelette flat on a plate, and repeat for the second omelette.

 

Step 14: scoop the rice onto the omelettes, then wrap this around and turn so that you have the folded part at the bottom. Zig zag or decorate with tomato ketchup, and it’s ready to serve!

I’ve gone for a simple zig zag here. What about you?

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