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Best Homemade Nigiri Sushi Recipe
5 from 6 votes

Best Homemade Nigiri Sushi Recipe

An easy and complete homemade Nigiri tutorial with lots of tips and tricks. Unlike maki sushi, nigiri isn’t rolled. Instead, it’s comprised of a thin slice of raw or cooked seafood like salmon or shrimp atop a mound of vinegary rice. You’ll learn everything about Japanese nigiri including the difference between nigiri and sashimi, and how to make perfect nigiri at home.

Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
45 mins
Total Time
1 hr
Servings: 16 pieces
Course: Lunch
Cuisine: Japanese

Ingredients

Nigiri-Making Staples
  • sushi rice
  • sushi vinegar
  • wasabi
  • pickled ginger
  • soy sauce
  • eel sauce
  • nori sheet seaweed
  • sharp knife
Most Popular Topping Ingredients: Choose Your Favorite
  • salmon
  • tuna
  • Shrimp Ebi
  • egg Egg, Tamago (Japanese omelet
  • Yellowtail Hamachi
  • Eel
  • octopus
  • uni

Instructions

    Cup of Yum
  1. Step 1: Cook the Sushi Rice: Wash and rinse the rice with cold water. Add the rice and water to the rice cooker. Cook according to the instruction.
  2. Step 2: Season the Rice: Transfer the rice to a large bowl and let it cool down slightly. When it’s still very warm, stir in the sushi vinegar (or the mixture of rice vinegar and sugar).
  3. Step 3: Prepare the Topping: If you use raw fish, cut it against the grain, with an angle of 30 to 45 degrees. I recommend cutting it to 3-inch long, 1-inch wide, and 1/4-inch thick pieces. (You’ll need to adjust the angle from time to time to get the proper length and thickness.) If you make tamago nigiri, you’ll need to cook the egg first. See this post for details.
  4. Step 4: Shape the Rice: Place about 3 tablespoons of rice in your hand. Squeeze it together until it rolls into a firm oval shape. Make the bottom flat with the rounded top. (You can dip your hand in tezu water to prevent sticking.)
  5. Step 5: Assemble the Nigiri: Place the fish, egg, or veggie slice on the root of your fingers. Then take a pea-sized portion of wasabi, and spread it in the middle of the slice. Place the rolled sushi rice onto the topping slice, and bend your fingers to cover both the topping and rice together. Press down the rice using the index finger from the other hand. Turn the topping and rice and let the topping slice sit on top of the rice.
  6. Step 6 (optional): For some nigiri sushi such as Tamago, you can wrap a thin nori strip around the width of the nigiri to secure the topping to the rice. Serve with optional wasabi, soy sauce, along with pickled ginger.