This Japanese corn rice takes a special place in our family because it is easily the tastiest and satisfying summertime dish. Studded with sweet corn and bursting with a rich taste of butter and umami soy sauce, it is far more exciting than the plain steamed rice. The beauty lies on its simplicity and versatility—you can literally serve the corn rice with any Japanese meal or other Asian-theme cookout or even a western BBQ. We love serving it with grilled meat and veggies, and sometime we make onigiri rice balls with it and pack them up for a picnic. When fresh corn on the cob show up in your local market, I hope you will set aside a few and make this recipe!
What is Japanese Corn Rice?
As the short-grain rice is cooked with other ingredients (sweet corn for this case), this recipe is considered a type of Takikomi Gohan (炊き込みご飯) or Japanese mixed rice. If you cook the corn separately and add to the cooked rice, then it’s called Maze Gohan (混ぜご飯).
Butter Shoyu Flavor
The seasoning cannot be any simpler—mainly salt and soy sauce to enhance the natural sweetness and flavor of corn. Once the rice is cooked, add butter to the hot steamy corn rice. The butter soy sauce (butter shoyu) will impart the most mouthwatering aroma, enough to wake up anyone’s appetite!
3 Flavor Options for This Recipe
After testing the recipe a few times, we as a family have a few suggestions.
Option 1: Salt + sake
If you want to skip the butter, I’d suggest leaving out the soy sauce completely. In our opinion, simple salt-flavored corn rice tastes much better without the soy sauce. Sake is added for the umami and natural sweetness.
Option 2: Butter + soy sauce (this recipe)
This is my personal preference—a moderate amount of butter and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. The overall flavor is more rounded. You can enjoy the rice with the main dish. Here, I enjoy corn rice with beef seasoned with my Homemade Yakiniku Sauce.
Option 3: More butter + more soy sauce
Mr. JOC and our son are partial to this option because it has a richer “butter shoyu” flavor. They both prefer their food to have a stronger taste. It comes down to your preference. Regardless of how you choose to season it, each one is equally delicious. The only difference for Option 3 is the rice will have a much darker color from the amount of soy sauce used.
Ingredients for Japanese Corn Rice
Ears of corn Japanese short-grain rice Salt Sake Soy sauce Butter (I use unsalted; if you use salted butter, adjust the amount of salt) Freshly ground black pepper
How to Make Japanese Corn Rice
How To Adjust the Amount of Rice
For Japanese cooking, we calculate the amount of rice based on a rice cooker cup. One rice cooker cup is 180 ml or ¾ US cup. For this recipe, I used 3 rice cooker cups of short-grain rice which yield roughly 5-6 people. Depending on the amount you would like to serve, please adjust the total rice cooking liquid as follows:
1 Rice Cooker Cup (180 ml or ¾ cup): 200 ml (2 tsp sake + 1 tsp soy sauce + water) 2 Rice Cooker Cups (360 ml or 1½ cups): 400 ml (4 tsp sake + 2 tsp soy sauce + water) 3 Rice Cooker Cups (540 ml or 2¼ cups): 600 ml (2 Tbsp sake + 1 Tbsp soy sauce + water) 4 Rice Cooker Cups (720 ml or 3 cups): 800 ml (2.5 Tbsp sake + 1.5 Tbsp soy sauce + water) 5 Rice Cooker Cups (900 ml or 3¾ cups): 1000 ml (3 Tbsp sake + 2 Tbsp soy sauce + water)
Cooking Tips
Use fresh corn. For a simple dish like this, it is common sense to use fresh, raw corn on the cob. Remove kernels from cobs. Hold the cob steady. With a sharp knife, make long downward strokes on the cob, separating kernels from the cob. You can also buy this corn kernel peeler but I honestly prefer using a knife. Always soak Japanese short-grain rice. The amount of liquid for cooking the rice is the same as cooking white rice despite the addition of corn kernels. However, the seasonings (sake and soy sauce) should be included in the total liquid. I recommend adding the seasonings and filling up the required amount of liquid with water. Add the cobs to the rice. The cobs have a lot of concentrated sweetness, so don’t throw them away! Include them in the pot (or rice cooker) for more flavor! Cut into desirable smaller pieces so the cobs will fit in your pot.
This is truly a quick and easy recipe that celebrates the best of summer produce, so I hope you find joy in making it! Sign up for the free Just One Cookbook newsletter delivered to your inbox! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram for all the latest updates.
