Omurice (Japanese Omelet Rice)

Omurice or omelet rice is fried rice wrapped in fluffy scrambled eggs.

Japanese moms love to make their kids’ omurice for lunch, because the ingredients are simple and nutritious, the cooking process is easy, the dish looks pretty and appetizing, and kids especially love the ketchup on their omelet. 😋

Three kinds of Japanese omurice

There are three kinds of Japanese omurice (omelet rice) in different shapes:

1. Omelet wrapped rice

The most classic and common to see omurice is ketchup-flavored fried rice wrapped in a thin layer of omelet. 

Here is an easy recipe for omelet wrapped rice from Just One Cook book.

2. TORNADO omurice

Tornado omurice is a Korean street food, which has gained widespread appeal from viral TikTok videos.

To make tornado omurice, you will need to twirl chopsticks in the eggs to shape them into the shape of whirlwind, then place the egg tornado over a mound of rice.

It takes some practice to make a perfect tornado omelet. Here is a detailed recipe from My Korean Kitchen teaching you the how to twirl the eggs and how to make the demi-glace sauce to pair with the tornado omurice. 

3. Opening Book omurice

Actually, I made up this name.🙄 

But don’t you think this omurice looks like a book when it’s sliced open?📖

I couldn’t find the official name for this omurice, please let me know if you know its name or can make a better name for it! 

To serve,  slice the omelet lengthwise, gently open it up like opening up a book, and allow the fluffy scrambled egg inside to bloom.

And this is the omurice we are going to make today!

Before we actually start, here are some useful tips for you (as usual haha)😄:

1. How to test oil temperature for Japanese omelet

The oil temperature must be JUST right before eggs are poured in.

If the oil temperature is too low, the oil will be mixed into the eggs, then the eggs will be cooked evenly inside and outside. We might want to cook a chicken evenly, but not scrambled eggs – we want scrambled eggs to have a runny inside and a smoothly cooked and fragrant outside.

If the oil is too hot, you might burn the eggs, and also the scrambled eggs will turn solid fast and won’t have a runny inside. 

– This is how to test the oil temperature for scrambled eggs:

Dipping the tip of a pair of wooden chopsticks into the beaten eggs. Draw 2 lines with the tip of the chopsticks on the bottom of the pan.

• If the “egg lines” are thin, clear, and turn solid immediately (with in 0.5 second) and you can easily move them around with the chopsticks, the oil temperature is just right.
• If the “egg lines” dissolve into the oil, and break into small pieces when you try to move them around, then the oil temperature is too low.
• When the oil temperature is too hot, the eggs will burst in oil.

2. Add cornstarch water to scrambled eggs

You have probably heard about this cornstarch trick for so many times, but are you curious about the reason behind this technique?

As explained by Popular Science, cornstarch in eggs can absorb and retain “moisture that would’ve been lost to the heat”, and furtherly keep the texture of the scrambled eggs smooth.

Simply mix a small portion of cornstarch (or potato starch) into a bit of milk or water before adding your eggs to the bowl and whisking. In this way the scrambled eggs with cornstarch water will have a tenderer and fluffier texture inside.

3. Use a saucepan with taller sides

I found it’s easier to flip the omelet in a saucepan with taller sides than in a shallow fry pan.

• Image that you have a half cooked omelet in the pan with it’s open side facing up.

• If you are using a big and shallow fry pan or skillet, you will have to flip the omelet 180 degrees to have the open side facing down to cook and seal it.

• Now if you are using a saucepan as I suggested, you will just need to tilt the saucepan 90 degrees and let the open side of the omelet naturally land on the side of the saucepan to seal the gap.

You’re less likely to break the omelet when you cook it with a saucepan. 

4. Cook the eggs in two batches

My last tip for making a successful opening book omelet is cooking the eggs in two batches:

    Firstly, cook half of the egg mixture until set. Then, add cooked eggs to raw eggs, mix them all together. Lastly, pour them back to the pan to form the omelet.

In this way, the inside part of the eggs won’t be too raw (it could be unsafe to eat raw eggs. Eggs raised and produced in Japan are often safe to eat raw.) And it’s easier to control the doneness of the outer egg skin when we cook the eggs in two batches.

5. Fried Rice

Basically, you can use whatever fried rice you like for omurice.

The rice will be hidden inside or below the omelet. The scrambled eggs are the main characters in this dish. 

This is also a perfect leftover food consuming recipe. For your leftover takeout, no matter it’s meat, vegetable, or rice, you can stir fry them altogether.

It’s common for Japanese moms to season the fried rice with some ketchup to make it sweet and sour, so that the kids will like them better.

Just in case you haven’t made fried rice before, here is a ketchup fried rice recipe from MIWA’s Japanese Cooking.

Why don’t I suggest my golden egg fried rice recipe for Japanese omurice? If you use this recipe, you might end up eating too many eggs (3 in fried rice, 3 in omelet, 6 eggs in total) in a day. 😂 The American Heart Association recommends up to one egg a day for most people.

Now you are fully prepared to make the opening book omurice!🥳

How to make Omurice that opens up like a book

EQUIPMENT

• Nonstick Saucepan

INGREDIENT LIST

• 3 large eggs (or 4 medium eggs)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp milk (or water)
• ½ tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp cooking oil (I used vegetable oil, you can also use butter)
• ketchup (optional)

Step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS

1. Crack 3 large eggs to a bowl, add ½ tsp of salt, beat well.

2. Add 1 tbsp of milk (or water) and ½ tsp of cornstarch to a small bowl. Mix well.

3. Add cornstarch milk/water mixture to eggs, mix well. Sift the egg mixture through a strainer to remove lumps.

4. Heat up a medium size nonstick saucepan over medium heat with 1 tbsp cooking oil or butter. (See content above for how to easily test the oil temperature.)

5. Pour half of the eggs into the saucepan and quickly stir the eggs with chopsticks or a spatula.

6. Once there’s no liquid egg at the bottom of the pan, and the eggs are set (but are still tender and soft, do not over cook the eggs), pour the fried eggs to the bowl to mix with the raw eggs.

7. Use a whisk or a fork to break up the scrambled eggs into small pea-size pieces, stir until the raw eggs and scrambled eggs are well combined.

8. Heat up the medium size nonstick saucepan over medium heat with 1 tbsp cooking oil or butter. (See content above for how to easily test the oil temperature.) Pour the egg mixture into the pan.

9. Wait for about 10 seconds until the bottom of the omelet is set. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold one edge of the omelet to the center, and fold the opposite edge to the center. Hold the spatula on the open side for about 10 seconds until the omelet holds its shape.

10. Push the omelet to the edge of the pan, tilt the pan so that it’s standing on its side. Flip the omelet so that the open side is on the side of the pan. Hold for 10 to 15 seconds until the open side is sealed.

11. Place the omelet over fried/steamed rice (see my golden fried rice recipe here). Drizzle with ketchup.

12. To serve, slice the omelet lengthwise, gently open it up like opening up a book, and allow the fluffy scrambled egg inside to bloom.

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