Takikomi Gohan (Mixed Browned Rice)
Although I’m not a fan of plain ol’ white rice, I love my mom’s takikomi gohan or seasoned mixed rice.
The primary ingredients my mom uses for her takikomi gohan are chicken, carrots, konnyaku, gobo, and shiitake mushrooms. In Japanese, this type of mixed rice using 5 ingredients is called gomoku gohan.
If she has renkon she will add this too, or sometimes use this in place of gobo. There are also times when she adds ageh, but usually she sticks to the 5 primary ingredients listed above.
When we ate takikomi gohan for dinner, my mom would serve this with sumashi jiru, a clear Japanese soup (recipe to follow in future post), pickled vegetables, and okazu.
I called my mom to ask her for this recipe and this was one of the rare dishes where she said in Japanese, “Hold on, no, let me call you back. I’ll go find my recipe.” WHAT! I finally came across a dish where my mom uses a recipe, and didn’t just ramble off a bunch of ingredients for me to use in tekitou (arbitrary) amounts.
Mom’s Brown Rice Takikomi Gohan Recipe
- 2 cups brown rice
- 1 small chicken thigh (or 1/2 chicken breast)
- 1/4 konnyaku
- 1/3 carrot
- 2 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 2 pieces of gobo (each 1 1/2 inches long)
- 2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
- 1 tablespoon mirin (sweet sake)
- 1 tablespoon cooking sake
- 2 1/4 cup water (total, including reserved mushroom liquid) – according to your rice cooker’s measurement
Wash brown rice until water runs clear. Drain, and let stand for 30 minutes.
Use 1 cup warm water to reconstitute dried shiitake mushrooms. Let soak for about 15 minutes until the mushrooms are tender. Reserve the soaking liquid. Trim stalk, discard and slice cap lengthwise into thick strips.
Slice konnyaku block horizontally and then slice each piece into smaller rectangular pieces. Be sure to buy the block of konnyaku rather than the konnyaku noodles. Pictured below is package of the dehydrated shiitake mushrooms and block of konnyaku. Both of these were purchased at Marukai.
Cut chicken into small bite-sized pieces.
Slice carrots horizontally and then cut each slice into quarters, making “little triangle shapes,” as my mom says.
Gobo isn’t pretty. It’s hairy and has a thin brown skin. Remove the skin by running the blade down the gobo in a downward sweeping motion. It’s almost like scraping the skin off. Sweep the blade away from you.
Only peel about 3 – 4 inches of the gobo and cut off the peeled portion. Cut this into 2 pieces about 1 1/2 inches long. Then slice each piece lengthwise into thin matchstick-sized pieces. Soak in water until you’re ready to put them in the rice cooker.
Excluding the chicken, the chopped vegetables (shiitake, gobo, carrots, and konnyaku) combined should be about 3/4 cup.
Add all of the chopped ingredients into the rice cooker, including the raw chicken. There are some recipes that suggest these ingredients be cooked prior to adding them to the rice, but all of the ingredients cook inside the rice cooker and meld all of the flavors together. No undercooked chicken or vegetables – I promise!
In a separate bowl, measure out the reserved mushroom liquid (1 cup), plus 1 1/4 cup water, plus shoyu, mirin and sake. The 3 magical ingredients for most of my mom’s dishes (and Japanese cooking in general) are shoyu, mirin and sake.
Again, lots of packaging with Japanese writing but don’t be intimidated to go shopping if you don’t read Japanese. You’ll be able to find these. :)
Pour all of the liquid ingredients into the rice cooker and cook rice as you normally would.
Because the vegetables increase the amount of liquid in the rice cooker as it cooks, the takikomi gohan will be a bit stickier than white rice. My brother and I grew up eating stickier takikomi gohan because my dad prefers it like this, so we were used to my mom making it this way. However, if you prefer takikomi gohan that is less sticky, consider using only 2 cups of water, but depending on your rice cooker you may end up with rice that is hard. You might need to experiment a bit.
If you have questions or would like to leave me a comment, please don’t hesitate to do so!
Judy | bebe mama
- 2 cups brown rice
- 1 small chicken thigh (or ½ chicken breast)
- ¼ konnyaku
- ⅓ carrot
- 2 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 2 pieces of gobo (each 1½ inches long)
- 2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
- 1 tablespoon mirin (sweet sake)
- 1 tablespoon cooking sake
- 2¼ cup water (total, including reserved mushroom liquid) - according to your rice cooker's measurement
- Wash brown rice until water runs clear. Drain, and let stand for 30 minutes.
- Use 1 cup warm water to reconstitute dried shiitake mushrooms. Let soak for about 15 minutes until the mushrooms are tender. Reserve the soaking liquid. Trim stalk, discard and slice cap lengthwise into thick strips.
- Slice konnyaku block horizontally and then slice each piece into smaller rectangular pieces.
- Cut chicken into small bite-sized pieces.
- Slice carrots horizontally and then cut each slice into quarters, making "little triangle shapes", as my mom would say.
- Remove the skin of the gobo by running the blade down the gobo in a downward sweeping motion. It's almost like scraping the skin off. Sweep the blade away from you.
- Only peel about 3 - 4 inches of the gobo and cut off the peeled portion. Cut this into 2 pieces about 1½ inches long. Then slice each piece lengthwise into thin matchstick-sized pieces. Soak in water until you're ready to put them in the rice cooker.
- Excluding the chicken, the chopped vegetables (shiitake, gobo, carrots, and konnyaku) combined should be about ¾ cup.
- Add all of the chopped ingredients into the rice cooker, including the raw chicken. There are some recipes that suggest these ingredients be cooked prior to adding them to the rice, but all of the ingredients cook inside the rice cooker and meld all of the flavors together.
- In a separate bowl, measure out the reserved mushroom liquid (1 cup), plus 1¼ cup water, plus shoyu, mirin and sake.
- Pour all of the liquid ingredients into the rice cooker and cook rice as you normally would.
- Because the vegetables increase the amount of liquid in the rice cooker as it cooks, the takikomi gohan will be a bit stickier than white rice. If you prefer takikomi gohan that is less sticky, consider using only 2 cups of water, but depending on your rice cooker you may end up with rice that is hard. You might need to experiment a bit.
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