- 150g (5oz) shimeji mushrooms
- 1 aburaage (fried thin tofu, Note 1)
- 2 cups hot water
- 150g (5oz) chicken thigh fillets , skin off, diced into about 2cm / 4/5" cubes
- 1 tsp soy sauce (normal soy sauce, not dark soy sauce)
- 1 tsp sake
- 360ml (12.2oz) rice (¼ short grain rice + ¾ sticky rice) (Note 2)
- 295ml (10oz) dashi stock (Note 3)
- 1 tbsp sake
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Mitsuba or snow pea shoots (Note 4)
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Wash rice until water runs clear. Soak the rice in water and leave it for 30 minutes (Note 5).
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Add the Chicken ingredients into a ziplock bag or a bowl, mix well and leave for 10-15 minutes.
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Remove cluster of shimeji mushrooms and separate each stem (Note 6).
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Pour 2 cups of hot water over abraage to remove excess oil, then squeeze water out. Cut aburaage lengthwise into half, then cut into 3-5mm / 1/8-⅕" wide strips crosswise.
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Drain rice using a sieve and place the rice in a heavy based pot, add remaining Rice ingredients. Shake the pot gently and make sure that surface of the rice is evenly flat. Spread the chicken over rice, then spread shimeji and aburaage on top. No need to mix.
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Place the lid on and cook as per the steps 5 & 6 of the instruction in How to Cook Rice in Japanese Way. When mixing the rice, try not to damage mushrooms.
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Serve in a rice bowl with mitsuba or snow pea shoots as garnish if using.
1. You can buy aburaage at Asian grocery stores. They are sold frozen and usually come in a pack of 3. You will only need one so the rest can go in the freezer for later use.
2. Shimeji gohan is traditionally made with short grain rice in Japan but I add sticky rice because I like the texture and flavour of sticky rice. Amount of sticky rice to mix with short grain rice is up to you. But if you are using less or more of sticky rice, you’d have to adjust the amount of dashi to use. Please see Note 3 below.
3. For how to make dashi stock, please refer to Home Style Japanese Dashi Stock or if you are vegetarian, Varieties of Dashi Stocks.
Sticky rice requires much less water to cook than short grain rice. So if you increase or decrease amount of sticky rice, the amount of liquid to cook rice would have to be adjusted. You can work out the required liquid using the formula below.
Volume of Sticky Rice x 0.8 + Volume of Short Grain Rice x 1.2 = Volume of Liquid Required
In this recipe, Volume of Liquid Required is 324ml (= 270ml x 0.8 + 90ml x 1.2) / 10.9 oz (= 3 oz x 1.2 + 9.1 oz x 0.8). Since the rice is to be cooked with 1 tablespoon each (15ml / 0.5 oz) of soy sauce and sake, the amount of dashi required is 324ml less 30ml = 295ml (rounded up to multiply of 5) / 10.9 oz less 1 oz = 10 oz (rounded up).
4. Traditional garnish for takikomi gohan is mitsuba (三つ葉) which is a Japanese herb that looks like large flat leaf parsley and has a distinct flavor unlike any other herb.It is not easy to find mitsuba here in Sydney but I was lucky to be able to buy it at the Japanese Grocery store. If you don’t have mitsuba, you can use snow pea shoots. Alternatively, use julienned cooked snow peas, green beans or other vegetables which can add extra colour to the dish instead. But garnish is optional, not critical.
5. By soaking sticky rice in water, each grain will get cooked fluffier.
6. If each shimeji mushroom is large, cut vertically. Tiny mushrooms can be bunched into a small group to make it a similar size to other mushrooms.
7. Nutrition information assumes the recipe is for 4 servings.