Spam Onigirazu スパムおにぎらず

If you love a popular Hawaiian favorite SPAM^® Musubi, you will LOVE this SPAM^® Onigirazu (スパムおにぎらず).  The ingredients are similar to classic musubi; all you need is SPAM^® product, rice, and nori (seaweed) sheet.  The biggest difference is that you could add more fillings in Onigirazu, and today I added lettuce and fried egg to make it more like a breakfast dish.

What is Spam Musubi?

Just in case you’re not familiar, SPAM^® Musubi is a popular snack and lunch dish in Hawaii.  It’s made of a thinly sliced grilled SPAM^® product on top of rice pillow.  The SPAM^® product and rice is wrapped together with nori (seaweed), almost look like Tamago Sushi.  I made a cuter version of it, Piggy SPAM^® Musubi, a while ago…

How To Make Spam Onigirazu

SPAM^® Onigirazu is a little bit fancier version of SPAM^® Musubi.  You could add more ingredients and make it more delicious as onigirazu hold more fillings inside.
If you’re not familiar with onigirazu, it’s basically a rice sandwich; instead of making a triangle/round onigiri (omusubi), we make a rice sandwich with more fillings.  I made a video on how to make it here, and I have also shared my Chicken Katsu Onigigirazu and Bulgogi Onigirazu recipes on my blog (and more recipes coming soon!).
As the SPAM^® product is a bit on salty side, I like to add the egg to make it more balanced, while lettuce (especially iceberg lettuce) gives a crunchy and refreshing texture.
SPAM^® product is usually cooked with soy sauce for musubi, so I season the SPAM^® product the same way in this recipe.  Soy sauce, mirin, and sake – the most important 3 ingredients for typical Japanese flavors.

Hawaiian Foods Week with Spam Onigirazu

My children absolutely love onigirazu and it’s one of their most requested lunch items.  As next week (June 12 – 18) is Hawaiian Foods Week, I got the idea for this recipe while grocery shopping and saw SPAM^®.  As many of you know, SPAM^® products are part of life in Hawaii.  It’s served everywhere from grocery store delis to fancy restaurants. Even McDonald’s features several SPAM^® items on their breakfast menu.

For next week, I am celebrating Hawaiian Foods Week with many of the brands you know and love including King’s Hawaiian, Dole, SPAM^®, Kona Brewing Co. and Mauna Loa.
After making the onigirazu for my children, I made several sandwiches with King’s Hawaiian rolls, SPAM^® product, and King’s Hawaiian BBQ sauce for Mr. JOC.  He thoroughly enjoyed the combination and it’s made the list as one of our quick meal ideas.
What’s your favorite Hawaiian foods?  Share in the comment below!

I hope you enjoy making this recipe!  If you try it, don’t forget to share your picture on Instagram,

Mark, one of JOC readers from Oregon, kindly sent me this beautiful onigirazu mold that he handcrafted.  It’s made of Port Orford cedar and there is not a single nail used in this mold!  Thank you Mark!  If you want to purchase this mold, please click onigirazu mold page for details.

Spam Onigirazu

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

Author: Namiko Chen

Serves: 6 Spam Onigirazu

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1 (7-oz) SPAM® product
• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 6 sheets nori seaweed
• 3 cups warm cooked Japanese short grain rice
• Kosher salt
• 1 Tbsp. furikake
• 6 lettuce leaves (I used ice burg lettuce for the crunch)

Seasonings:

• 1 Tbsp. mirin
• 1 Tbsp. sake
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
  

Instructions

1. Heat 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil over medium high heat in the frying pan and cook the eggs as you like. I made the egg “over hard” (over well), which is a fried egg turned over and cooked until the yolk is solid. Make the eggs in batches if necessary, and transfer to a plate when they are cooked.
   
2. Meanwhile take out the spam from the can and cut into ¼ “ (6 mm) slices. You’ll get about 6-7 slices. Once the eggs are cooked, add the spam slices to the pan and cook both sides until nicely browned. Transfer the spam slices onto a plate.
   
3. Turn down the heat to medium low and add 1 Tbsp. mirin, 1 Tbsp. sake, and 1 Tbsp. soy sauce. Mix well quickly.
   
4. Transfer the spam slices back to the pan and coat well with the sauce.
   
5. Place a plastic wrap on a working surface and put a sheet of nori seaweed on top (shiny side facing down), with a corner pointing up. Evenly spread the steamed rice in a thin layer and form into a square shape in the center of nori sheet. I’m using the onigirazu mold (read more about it here).
   
6. Sprinkle a little bit of kosher salt and furikake. Salt is added to prevent the food from spoiling as we eat onigiri, onigirazu, and bento at room temperature and typically without refrigeration.
   
7. Place the fried egg and spam slice on top.
   
8. Place the lettuce and thin layer of steamed rice on top, maintaining a nice rectangular/square shape.
   
9. Now if you have an onigirazu mold, pull up the mold carefully. Remember to wet the “lid” before you press down so rice does not get stuck to it.
   
10. Bring left and right corners of nori sheet towards the center. Fold gently but tightly to wrap around the layers at the center.
    
11. Then bring bottom and top corners towards the center. Continue to fold gently but tightly around the layers. Make sure the rice is tucked in nicely.
    
12. If you like your onigirazu to showcase the filling after cutting in half, mark with a piece of rice or lettuce strip perpendicular to the filling. When you add the filling, you can decide which way you want to cut so it looks the best when the ingredients are revealed.
13. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Set aside for 5 minutes with nori’s seam side down.
    
14. Cut the onigirazu with a sharp knife (following the mark that tells you which direction to cut). Run your knife in running water before cutting so that the cross-section will be clean. If you plan to make this the previous night, wrap the onigirazu with kitchen towel and keep in the refrigerator overnight. The towel will prevent the rice from getting hard from the cold temperature. Eat within 24 hours.
    

Notes

Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.