Soy sauce and butter rice may sound like something a starving college student would whip up, but in Japan, butter rice is a deliciously addictive comfort food beloved by people of all ages. Known locally as butter shoyu gohan(バター醤油ご飯), this dish effortlessly turns a humble bowl of white rice into a luxuriously flavorful meal. Making it is as simple as nestling a generous pat of butter into hot fluffy rice and allowing it to soften before drizzling on umami-packed soy sauce. It's the perfect easy Japanese recipe to reach for when your pantry is empty, yet you're craving something irresistibly comforting.
Why This Recipe Works:
- The combination of butter and soy sauce adds richness and savory umami to plain white rice, transforming it into a decadent meal in seconds.
- By reheating stale rice with a pat of butter, you can breathe new life into the grains, making them moist and delicious once again.
- You can create endless variations by topping Japanese butter rice with ingredients like scallions, toasted sesame seeds, furikake, etc.
Ingredients
- Japanese Short-Grain Rice – With its sticky texture and mild sweetness, short-grain rice is the key to the key to this decadent dish. Check out my tutorial on how to cook Japanese rice for everything you need to know to select and cook this staple. If you want to make this a little healthier this butter rice recipe also works with brown rice. I don't recommend using long-grain white rice like basmati, but I do like making this with more flavorful cultivars like Riceberry or Jasmine rice.
- Butter – The richness of butter transforms plain rice into something luxurious and deeply satisfying. I recommend cultured butter because the fermentation process boosts the level of diacetyl in it, which is the compound responsible for making butter taste buttery. If you use unsalted butter you'll want to add a little more soy sauce.
- Soy Sauce – Soy sauce contributes salty umami, and because the dish is simple, I recommend using a high-quality dark soy sauce for the best flavor.
How to Make Butter Rice
Making this Japanese butter rice recipe is simple, but there are a few important points. First, you want to start with a piping hot bowl, straight from the rice cooker. If it's been a while since the rice finished cooking or if you're using leftover rice, no worries! Just top the rice with a pat of butter and microwave for about a minute or until the butter melts and the grains are steaming hot.
If you're starting with freshly cooked rice, nestle a generous pat of butter on top and let it soften for a minute. You can also bury it in the rice to speed this up. Once the butter has softened, swirl a generous drizzle of soy sauce onto the rice before stirring the mixture together. You want to ensure each grain is coated with the silky emulsion of butter and soy sauce.
This recipe is incredibly versatile, so feel free to customize your rice by sprinkling on toppings like nori, katsuobushi, chopped scallions, toasted sesame seeds, or even a fried egg.
Serve it With
If you'd like to turn this into a more balanced meal, I recommend serving this butter rice with vegetables. Simple side dishes like Kinpira Gobo, a sweet-savory stir-fry made from crunchy burdock root and carrots, or Spinach Goma-ae, featuring tender blanched spinach tossed with nutty ground sesame seeds, are perfect. For a lighter, refreshing option, pair it with Tsukemono, Japanese pickled vegetables, which offer a crunchy, palate-cleansing contrast. And if you're looking to dial up the comfort even more, a steaming bowl of Miso Soup is always a winning choice.
📖 Recipe
Units
Ingredients
- 170 grams cooked Japanese short-grain rice
- 1 ½ tablespoons butter
- 1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce
Instructions
- Make sure your rice is steaming hot. Heat the rice up in a microwave oven if it's not freshly cooked.
- Nestle 1 ½ tablespoons butter on top of 170 grams cooked Japanese short-grain rice and let it soften for about a minute. You can also bury the butter in the rice to speed this up.
- Drizzle the butter rice with 1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce and stir until the butter and soy sauce are evenly distributed.
DJ says
Wow! In spite of numerous summers in Japan, I only spent two winters there (as a student, so wasn't eating much home-style food, mostly tako-yaki at 02:30). This is such a winner on several levels (I agree it's important get the BEST butter and best soy you can afford... especially the butter.. since they are the stars). I might do some experimentation with this later on: small pieces of pre-cooked corn or possibly natto (last minute of course, we don't want to create a new life form!.. as the butter might take the "edge" off the natto) or uni, maybe even a few very tiny pieces of jamon serrano or even brie--something very umami. Possibly dropping in a warm onsen egg with a little curry powder.... it's such an interesting platform with such incredibly simple ingredients served properly. Thanks a million St. Marc. I thought I knew Japanese food until I met you... haha.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi DJ, all great ideas! I love the idea of doing this with natto! I did butter + soy sauce + pecorino romano + red kampot pepper the other day really good.
Elaine Hawkins says
So delicious! Thank you! I have been following you for years and everything is always so amazing!
Marc Matsumoto says
Thank you for the kind words Elaine! It always puts a smile on my face when I hear from a longtime reader😁
judy north says
Dear Marc,
I made the Beef Short Rib fingers for some friends last week. You were so right about the Gochjang sauce. It was everything you said about the degree of fire. Mine was mild, but still heat delicious. I made the coleslaw as well.
My friends are light eaters, but this recipe was so delicious we ate the whole
thing. The only thing left was the rice, coated with the sauce, and they asked to take it home. When I described this meal to my son, who is a chef, he is coming out on Weds. to go to Costco together to buy the ribs and come home to make this again. BRAVO!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Judy, I'm so happy to hear you and your friends enjoyed the rib fingers! I hope your son enjoys them too!
Bkhuna says
1.5 tsp = 7.4 milliliters. The photograph is very misleading.
I love this dish. When I first moved to Japan I wasn't use to eating plain white rice. It took a few years and a desire to learn about Japanese food to find out about this and other ways of eating rice.
K Stroup says
I think the photograph represents how someone would make the dish at home, by just pouring on the amount of soy sauce they desired. For me that would be a lot! I'm sorry that you found it misleading. Also, when writing recipes, one has to start with an amount that's acceptable to most people. So making it small (1.5 teaspoons) assures that the dish won't come out too salty for most people. It's the amount Marc uses in his video, and he pours it all over the rice, not just onto the pat of butter. Maybe that's less misleading?
I like the drama of this photograph. The photos have to capture the audience and make them want to read the recipe, so some amount of artistry is required. Still, I don't find it unrealistic, just good photography.
Thank you for sharing your history with this dish!💖
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Bkhuna, I'm sorry you feel this was misleading. It was shot at a very high shutter speed and it was around a 1-2 second pour. I ate the results, it was not overly salty. I gave measurements for the nutrition information calculation but you don't need to measure exactly. Just keep adding soy sauce until you find an amount that tastes good to you.
DJ says
It's so easy to modify the ingredients to suit your palate. I literally can't think of an easier dish in the world to tweak. Good luck!