Chicken and Shiitake Takikomi Gohan

Takikomi gohan is Japanese “cooked-in” rice. Short-grain rice cooks together with chicken, vegetables and dried shiitake in dashi seasoned with soy sauce and mirin, and the shiitake’s own soaking liquid goes into the pot. Cooked in a rice cooker on the mixed-rice setting, the rice at the bottom forms a golden, crisp crust called okoge, which is the best part.

Untested: I have not cooked this one yet. It is here because the Mushrooms dive needed it, and it is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (2 rice-cooker cups) short-grain rice
3 dried shiitake (15 g)
1/2 cup water, for soaking the shiitake
1/3 package konnyaku
1 aburaage (fried tofu pouch)
1 oz gobo (burdock root)
2 oz carrot
1 boneless chicken thigh
1 1/2 cups dashi, including the shiitake soaking liquid
1 1/2 tablespoons mirin
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
Mitsuba or scallion, to garnish

Directions

Key ingredients

Shiitake Dashi 干し椎茸の戻し汁

Soak the shiitake cold. Soak the dried shiitake in the 1/2 cup of water, cold, until soft. Keep the liquid. (Why cold is on the Mushrooms dive’s science page: much of shiitake’s savouriness is released gently during heating.)
Wash the rice. Rinse the rice until the water runs nearly clear and drain it.
Cut. Slice the shiitake, konnyaku, aburaage, gobo and carrot small, and cut the chicken into small pieces.
Season the liquid. Make the shiitake liquid up to 1 1/2 cups with dashi, and add the mirin and soy sauce.
Cook. Put the rice in the cooker with the seasoned liquid. Scatter everything else on top without stirring, and cook on the mixed-rice setting.
Fluff. Fold gently, bringing up the crust from the bottom, and garnish.

Notes

Where this recipe came from Adapted from Just One Cookbook’s “Takikomi Gohan” (justonecookbook.com). The quantities are theirs. It uses dried shiitake only, no fresh mushrooms and no sake.

About the photo The photo shows matsutake gohan, the autumn matsutake version of the same Japanese mixed rice.