Rice balls are an easy appetizer or side to roll in the fun and make a plate festive. You need 3 ingredients: white rice, bread crumbs, and olive oil.
And 2 steps you can do in 15 minutes.
Jasmine or regular white rice work best. Because they do not need egg to hold together for a more sticky rice.
You can find uncooked white rice in grocery stores. And if you’ve never cooked rice (besides quick rice in pouches), then below you can learn how to slow cook fluffy rice (that you can freeze for a later meal months down the road).
But you came for the rice balls. So in two easy steps here’s how you make them:
Step one is you can make sticky rice (from your fluffy rice) with just water and rice.
The best way is in a double broiler because that will keep each piece of rice cooking consistently.
The setup is a cooking safe dish or mug inside a pot of water.
Then add your rice to the inside vessel and water to the top.
Cook on medium heat with a lid-on, adding water as it cooks down. Check the water level often as rice gets thirsty quickly within minutes. So it’s best to be around the kitchen. 😊
The secret to perfect sticky rice is keeping it moist to the end. But at the very, very end (last few minutes) you wan’t the water to all absorb.
It’s no tasty fun if you have a swamp of water at the top or bottom, or mushy rice.
You want fluffy and sticky rice. And if you’ve added more rice than your vessel can hold as it grows in height, then take some rice out and cook separately (maybe into your edible bowl today). 🥣
After you finish cooking the rice that can take about 45 minutes to an hour depending on your heat and cooking vessel setup, then form into balls. They should stick by themselves.
If they don’t, cook a little more until the water is absorbed.
Step two is toast the Panko bread crumbs with a little oil drizzle in a sauté pan on the stove. Panko gives a nice crunch. And this makes it chef-fy dish as I worked around food in catering management for a decade.
And what will be anti-chef-like at least the ones in hotels, will be to use healthy olive oil (and not another type of oil or butter). 😉
Then turn down the heat and roll the rice balls directly in the bread crumbs.
Tip: There’s no need to create other bowls you need to dip in and then clean up.
Oil is also easier to clean in a sauce pan (than glass or plastic).
So there you go… you have ready-made easy to pick-up-by-hand rice balls as sides or appetizers for your meals!
Panko Rice Balls in 15 minutes - Easy 2-Step Method
Ingredients
- white rice
- Panko bread crumbs
- olive oil
Instructions
- Make the sticky rice.
- Toast the bread crumbs in oil.
- Roll the rice into balls and then in the bread crumbs directly from the pan.
How to Make Fluffy White Rice - Double Boiler Method
Equipment
- microwave/oven-safe soup size mug
- cooking pot with lid larger than mug
Ingredients
- white rice or rice of choice (brown or wild rice for whole grain healthy)
- water
- olive oil, drizzle (optional)
Instructions
- Add tap water to the pot that goes up half way up the outside of the mug.
- After rinsing rice, add rice to the mug. Add up to 2/3 to the top of the mug (leaving 1/3 of the mug unfilled).
- Then, add filtered water to the rice-mug leaving about 1/2" from the brim top so it doesn't boil over.
- Cook on medium (or medium-low) heat with covered lid for about 30 minutes or until rice is soft, almost cooked done to liking, and water is almost absorbed. Add a little filtered water as needed to the rice to finish off cooking (usually a few additional minutes). Add olive oil drizzle if desired for moist and separated rice but NOT sticky rice.