Spam Rice Balls

These spam rice balls are the perfect snack to satisfy your cravings. Made with sticky rice and chunks of bite-sized spam, simply pop them in your mouth or pack them to-go for a delicious meal!

What are Spam Rice Balls?

These spam rice balls were inspired by a delicious Korean snack called jumeok-bap, which are sticky rice balls mixed with different kinds of proteins and seasonings.

It’s also somewhat similar to onigiri, another sticky Japanese rice dish that’s easy-to-eat and incredibly portable for a quick snack or picnic.

Spam rice balls consists of dicing up spam into tiny cubes, seasoning it with soy sauce, sugar, and sake, and then letting it caramelize in the pan until sticky.

We then mix the spam along with our rice and extra seasonings before rolling them into bite-sized balls that’s perfect for popping them in your mouth.

My favorite way to pack these are in airtight tupperware containers and eating them for lunch or snack breaks. Give them a try and let me know in the comments how they turn out!

Ingredients

Short-grain rice: Like sushi rice, these kinds of rice are more sticky given their extra starch content. You’ll want the short-grain variety of rice if you want the balls to be able to hold their shape and stick together properly.

Roasted seaweed, furikake, toasted sesame seeds: These will be the seasonings for our rice balls. The seaweed adds a perfect umami flavor to the rice, while the furikake and sesame seeds lend a subtle crunch to the rice.

Spam: The star protein of this dish, which are both generally affordable, and widely accessible! Feel free to use other kinds of protein for this recipe if you prefer, such as leftover ground beef, chicken, salmon, tuna, etc.

Soy sauce: Since spam is already naturally salty, we’ll just be putting a touch of soy sauce into the mix.

Sugar: A touch of sugar helps to balance out all the salty and savory flavors of the spam and sauce.

Sake: This is a common Japanese cooking wine that provides a subtle aroma and mild sweetness. You can choose to omit this ingredient if you prefer.

• Substitutions: You can replace sake with any other general cooking wine, such as dry sherry or even Chinese cooking wine (Shaoxing). Otherwise, wine can be omitted altogether without changing the flavor too much.

Instructions

Begin by cooking your short-grain rice over a stove top or a rice cooker. Once cooked, measure 2 cups of the cooked rice and spread the rice over a plate to cool completely. Set aside.

Over medium heat, sauté the diced spam for about 5-10 minutes until browned and lightly crispy.

Mix together the soy sauce, sugar, and sake in a separate bowl until combined. Pour this over the crispy spam cubes and continue to cook until the sauce reduces and coats the spam. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine together the cooled rice, caramelized spam, roasted seaweed, furikake, and toasted sesame seeds. Gently mix all the ingredients together.

Shape the rice into small balls about 1-2 tbsps in size. Be sure to squeeze and pack the rice tightly to prevent them from crumbling. You should end up with around 12-15 rice balls in the end.

Sprinkle the tops of the rice balls with more sesame seeds or furikake. Serve at room temperature or slightly cold. Enjoy!

Cooking Tips

Cool your rice before rolling: Hot, freshly cooked rice isn’t just difficult to handle, but the excess moisture can actually prevent it from sticking together properly. You can spread the rice over a tray or plate to cool slightly to speed up this process.

Customize your rice balls: As with most recipes, you can easily tweak the ingredients of this dish to better suit your tastes.

• Change up the proteins: Feel free to substitute the spam with mushrooms, tofu, ground protein, flaked fish, or even eggs to suit your dietary preferences.
• Customize the sauce: For a change in flavor, you can add some chili oil or flakes to your sauce for a little kick. You may also adjust the amount of sugar to adjust how sweet you’d like the glaze to be.

Wet your hands when rolling: Keep bowl of water close to your station while rolling the rice into balls. Lightly moistening your hands with water helps to prevent the rice from sticking!

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

How do I serve this?

These rice balls are perfect for anytime of the day; think picnics, hikes, or quick-and-easy fun lunches for work or classes!

How do I store leftovers?

While these are best eaten on the same day, you can store leftovers as meal-prep in airtight containers for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

You can choose to microwave them to eat warm, or simply let them come up to room temperature. Either option works and is equally as tasty.

Can I freeze these?

Some readers have asked if these can be frozen, and the short answer is no. Freezing will draw moisture out of the rice, causing it to become crumbly. It can also change the overall texture of the rice upon thawing.

Want more tasty and easy snack ideas? Check out these recipes:

• Spicy Enoki Mushrooms
• Tamago Sando (Japanese Egg Sandwich)
• Kinilaw (Filipino Ceviche)
• Vietnamese Pizza