This Chinese sticky rice dish is loaded with ground pork, shrimp, Chinese sausage, shiitake mushrooms, and a flavorful sauce that's all cooked up in the rice cooker! It's an easy way to make this deliciously popular Chinese dish!
When one thinks about Chinese food, one automatically envisions a bowl of plain white rice.
But you never see white rice served alone because...well, it's really plain!
By itself, a bowl of white rice leaves you asking, "What's there to go with it?"
It's kind of like a blank canvas that needs some color...or flavor in this case.
Chinese sticky rice, on the other hand, is anything but plain...it is a flavorful work of art, ready to be enjoyed!
My Chinese sticky rice, or "lo mai fan", is loaded with tasty ingredients like Chinese sausage, Chinese mushrooms, ground pork, and shrimp, all cooked up in a delicious, yet mild sauce.
Add some Thai glutinous rice to the mix and you have a bowl of perfection.
A couple of notes about Thai glutinous rice:
1) It contains no gluten, despite the sound of the word. The "glutinous" in this case merely means "like glue", or simply...sticky!
2) It might also be called "Thai sweet rice"...but it's not sweet!
3) When you go looking for it in the store, it may not say "Thai" at all. You might see it labeled as simply "glutinous rice" or "sweet rice".
And just for some added insight into this recipe, the first thought might be to put the rice in the rice cooker first and then top it with all the filling. I tried this method a few times and every time I did, the rice came out too mushy. Mushy is never good for rice.
The rice in lo mai fan is meant to be steamed, not boiled, but if you don't have the whole steamer set-up (like me), this is the way to make it work in the rice cooker!
The grains of rice are tender with just the right amount of stickiness...no mushy rice or wet clumps!
This recipe really hits the spot for flavor, texture, and balance of all the ingredients. As my niece, Deanna pointed out, "It looks like Grandma's!"
And while I couldn't officially name this recipe "Mom's Chinese Sticky Rice", it is my own creation that definitely makes me think of my childhood and how my mom made it!
So if you've got a rice cooker, this is the perfect recipe to try and cook up something more exciting than plain white rice!
~ Lisa.
Watch How To Make It!
Rice Cooker Chinese Sticky Rice
Ingredients
- 2 cups Thai glutinous rice (see note below)
- ½ lb. (225g) ground pork
- ¼ lb. (115g) shrimp, deveined and shells and tails removed (about 12 medium-sized)
- 2 Chinese sausages
- 2-3 medium sized dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 ¼ cups water
Sauce:
- 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoons soy sauce (tamari for gluten-free)
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
- 1 clove garlic, minced or grated
- ½ teaspoon tapioca starch (cornstarch okay)
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
Equipment
Instructions
Soaking:
- Place dried mushrooms in a bowl with hot water and let soak for at least 2 hours until softened. (See note below)
- Run cold water through the rice in a strainer. Stir the rice with your hand to wash and rinse it well until the water is mostly running clear.
- Soak the rice in a bowl of water for at least 2 hours.
When ready to cook:
- Combine the 3 tablespoons oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or tamari), 1 teaspoon grated ginger, minced garlic clove, ½ teaspoon tapioca starch, ½ teaspoon sesame oil, and ¼ teaspoon white pepper in a bowl and mix well to make the sauce. Set aside.
- Drain the rice through a colander, discarding the water.
- Remove mushrooms from soaking liquid and gently squeeze out some of the water. Cut of and discard tough stems. Cut mushroom caps into slices or chunks.
- Slice Chinese sausages into disks.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add Chinese sausage and ground pork and cook until pork is mostly cooked through.
- Add mushrooms and sauce to the pan and stir. Heat through.
- Add shrimp and cook until just starting to turn pink and remove from heat.
- Transfer Chinese sausage mixture to the rice cooker pot and level out.
- Add drained rice on top and level out.
- Add 1 ¼ cups water to the rice cooker.
- Cook until rice cooker button pops, or for about 25 minutes. Let sit for another 5-10 minutes. Rice should be completely cooked and slightly translucent.
- Fluff rice with chopsticks, stirring well to mix the rice and filling ingredients.
- Garnish with chopped green onions, if desired.
Notes
- The longer you soak the dried shiitake mushrooms, the better so you can slice into them very easily and do not see any dry area inside. Soaking overnight is the easiest thing to do.
- I find larger shiitake mushrooms tend to hydrate faster than small ones, but they do cost more.
- You can use fresh shiitake mushrooms, but they will not have the same deep umami flavor as the dried mushrooms.
- When buying the rice, the bag will either say "Thai glutinous rice" or "Thai sweet rice", or the word "Thai" might be excluded.
- Use a regular 1 cup measuring cup to measure the rice; do not use the plastic measuring cup that comes with your rice cooker.
- Some Chinese sausages have a dry casing that should be removed before slicing the sausage, depending on the brand and how they made it.
- The dry shiitake mushrooms can be omitted, if desired.
- You can use chicken thighs cut into small pieces, or cha siu in place of the Chinese sausage and/or shrimp.
- I use frozen shrimp and thaw them in cold water for about 30 minutes before cooking.
- To reheat any leftovers, place in a dish and steam, or microwave with a bit of water in the dish. Microwaving may dry the rice out a little, but works in a pinch.
Nutrition
Hi Lisa,
Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. I tried for the first time for my family. I replaced pork with boneless chicken thigh, replace fresh prawns with dried small shrimps and topped it with some fried onion shallots. It is easy to prepare and good filling portion for dinner. The sticky rice is just right texture. It tastes very good too. All love it. All had second serving. 🙂
Hey Ailian! Thanks for making my recipe and for sharing your version of it...that all sounds great! And yes, I love topping mine with fried shallots as well! So glad that your family liked it!
Hi! I can't wait to try this recipe but I wonder - can you still top the rice with the lotus leaf in the steamer to get the extra boost of woody flavour? I am not sure if it adds flavour to the whole dish or not, but I always presumed it imparted something to the rice.
Hey Deborah! For the traditional steamed lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice (different dish/recipe to this one), the leaf does impart some flavor to the rice. I'm not sure how laying a lotus leaf on top of the rice in the rice cooker would work with this recipe, but it might be worth a try. I would just make sure to read up on how to prepare the lotus leaf before using it for cooking. Please let me know how it turns out, and thanks for the question!
I cooked this last night (without leaves) and it was delicious. I was missing the sausage but I didn't want to wait 🙂 I added a bit of chili garlic oil to the sauce and didn't soak the rice for 2 full hours, but even so it was definitely delicious and will be repeated. Thanks Lisa.
That's awesome, Deborah! I love the idea of adding some chili garlic oil to the sauce for a bit of a kick. Thanks so much for your update and so glad you liked it. 🙂
I love this but I am not sure about when to put the sauce on. Is it put on before cooking? Or used after? Thank you so much for the recipe 🙂
The sauce is added to the pan with the mushrooms and gets mixed in with the filling as you're cooking it. Then that entire mixture gets put into the rice cooker and topped with the glutinous rice. I hope that helps, Rachel!
Hey Lisa. I'm from Vancouver, living in Sydney, Australia. This was just the recipe I was looking for. I've made a version of this before but the rice was too sticky: you can guess why. So thanks for sharing this technique. It's really a favourite dish of mine so I'm glad to make it (I'm too lazy to wrap it up in lotus leaves and steam them!). Delicious!
Thanks for the comments and for trying my recipe, Andy...I'm really glad you liked it and that you can appreciate the non-stickiness! I'm also always happy to connect with a fellow Vancouverite. 🙂
I tried your recipe last night and it was a hit! I was wondering if it matters to have the rice on top of the meat mixture in the rice cooker or if it’s ok to have the rice on the bottom. My thought was that the sauce would seep into the rice instead of cooking onto the pot. Mahalo!
I'm so glad you like the recipe, Laurie! You can have the rice on the bottom if you'd like and the toppings on top in the rice cooker. The purpose of having the rice on top is so it cooks by steaming vs boiling, which results in slightly different texture for the rice. In the end, though, it's all good and is up to you how you'd like cook it! Mahalo for your comments!
Hi Lisa,
I tried your recipe but I used a can of chicken broth instead of the water. Also I used 3 cups of rice so I thought I needed more liquid so I used a 1/2 cup of the mushroom water. Everything else was used except the shrimp. I guess I did not need that extra water because rice came out a little mushy but still delicious. Our Breakfast club enjoyed it with an egg.😋 everyone loved it! Thank you.
Hi Barbara! Thanks for trying the recipe...I'm so glad you liked it! Yes, if you increase the amount of rice, you just have to make sure that you increase the amount of liquid to match the same rice to liquid ratio as in the original recipe. Enjoying the rice with egg sounds like a delicious idea and using chicken broth instead of water is also a tasty alternative. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Lisa,
I tried this recipe and it turned out great! I did not use fresh shrimps or pork, I used dried shrimps that I reconstructed. Its an easy recipe and comes really close to like restaurant-made. Thank you!
The dried shrimp would be perfect in this dish...all that tasty umami, especially with the dried mushrooms, too...sounds great! Thanks for sharing, Kristina!
I've looked at many recipes for Loh Mai Fan, but your recipe, utilizing the rice cooker, is by far, the easiest. It is also the closest to the way my mom made it and brought back many precious food memories. I have made this a few times for my family, and even my picky son gives it two thumbs up! Thank you so much!
Thanks so much, Reen! I love that making this recipe has brought back memories of having it with your mom...it's one of the best things I can hear! I'm also very glad that it passes your son's taste test!
Lisa - your recipes are always dependably easy and delicious, and this was no exception. I omitted the pork and used more prawns (so I could use up the entire bag at once -- I don't like having odds and ends left over). I used both fresh and dry shiitakes. I ran out of oyster sauce (only 2 tbsp left in my bottle) so I made up the difference with some Korean spicy stir-fry marinade I had in my fridge (it has the same consistency as oyster sauce, so I thought, why not?). It turned out AMAZING plus it has a bit of kick, which I love! Thank you - I can't wait to tell my mom I made sticky rice!!!
Thanks so much, Patricia! I love how you made it work successfully with what you had on hand...bravo! Sounds like you'll have to be making it for you mom soon!
Can this recipe be double? If yes, would the cooking time need to be adjusted?
If you have a rice cooker that has a button that pops up or that tells you when the rice is done, then doubling the recipe should be no problem. The rice cooker determines it is done when it doesn't sense any more or liquid to cook off, so just go with how ever long the rice cooker takes. Hope that helps, Geneva!
Ohhh, it's so good! I'm almost halfway through the entire thing in one sitting. It really hits the craving I've had all this lockdown. Pretty hard to mess up too - I eyeballed a little too much to be proud of and was resorting to powdered ginger and semi expired oyster sauce. Tastes perfect minus the slight leafy taste!
Thanks, Marsie...we do what we can with what we've got to make it work, right? I'm really glad you liked it and that it satisfied your craving.
For some silly reason my Tiger rice cooker kept going to "Keep Warm"! I've had to transfer it to a pot and cook on the stovetop, Cross fingers it works!
How odd that your rice cooker kept going to Keep Warm...and the rice wasn't cooked through yet? I hope it worked out on the stovetop, Jenny!