This Chinese Sausage Rice Cooker Rice is an emergency recipe for busy weeknights when you don’t have much in the fridge besides a few links of lap cheong. It’s so easy we feel a little silly even calling it a “recipe.”
Just think of it as a dinner hack you have in your back pocket for when you need something fast and simple…with maybe just a vegetable on the side!
Can You Even Call It A Recipe?
This is one of those recipes you don’t really think to write down, because it’s so simple. Can one even call it a recipe? So many Chinese kids grew up making it without any written instructions, this Chinese kid included.
First, you prepare to make rice the way your mom, dad, older sibling, or grandma/grandpa taught you, with the “finger trick” in your rice cooker pot.
You measure the height of the rice by first evening it out and then sticking your finger into the rice. After taking note of where the rice level is on your finger, you add the same level of water.
Then, you throw a few links of lap cheong (Chinese sausage) in with the rice, drop the pot into the rice cooker, and press the button. 20 minutes later, dinner is ready.
We’ve been quietly doing this all our lives, but it always seemed crazy to include this as a recipe here on The Woks of Life.
Upon further reflection though, it seems crazy not to include it.
Cooking Chinese sausage with rice in a rice cooker is such a go-to, nostalgic home cooking hack that we had to post it as a reminder to all the Chinese kids who grew up with it, and as an introduction to our readers who didn’t grow up with it.
If you have some lap cheong in your fridge, this is a quick and easy way to enjoy it!
Using Other Cured Meats
This method will also work with gon cheong (Chinese duck liver sausage) and lap yuk (Chinese cured pork belly).
We have a lap yuk recipe!
If you haven’t yet tried lap yuk, my mom has a recipe showing you how to make it! As the weather gets cooler, we know we’ll be curing batches of pork belly in our basement (yes you read that right). Click the link below to learn more:
You can also use a mix of different meats to make something akin to a Hong Kong Clay Pot Rice in your rice cooker! (Just make the sauce in that recipe to drizzle over the top.)
What If I Don’t Have a Rice Cooker?
While the rice cooker is probably the most important and ubiquitous electronic countertop appliance in any Chinese household, we understand that you may not have one (yet!).
Don’t worry! We’ve included stovetop instructions for this recipe, so you can make it without a rice cooker. It won’t be quite as no-brainer/foolproof/simple as the rice cooker version, but we promise it’s still very easy.
Ok, on to today’s “recipe.”
HOW TO MAKE STEAMED CHINESE SAUSAGE RICE
Rice Cooker Instructions:
Use your rice cooker cup to measure the amount of rice you’d like (2 cups is good for 3 people).
A NOTE ON RICE COOKER CUPS
Note that the cup that your rice cooker came with is smaller than a standard US cup measure. 1 rice cooker cup is usually around U.S. ¾ cup.
Then fill the rice cooker with water up to the line that corresponds with the number of cups you added. Alternatively, you can use the “finger trick” to simply measure the height of the rice (even it out first) along your finger, and then add enough water to match that height on your finger if you rest it on top of the rice.
Add the Chinese Sausage (1 link per person is a decent bet) on top. (I cut mine in half. This step is optional.)
Turn on the rice cooker. The cooker will steam both the rice and the sausage at the same time!
Then you can slice the sausages and serve with the rice!
Stovetop Instructions:
Measure your desired amount of rice and pour into a medium pot, taking note of the measurement. (You don’t need any special measuring tools for this step. You could just use any cup or mug you have.)
Cover the rice with 2 inches of water, and soak for 20 minutes. Once the rice has soaked, drain off the water it was soaking in. You should now just have a pot of soaked rice.
Measure out fresh water in the same volume as the rice, and pour it into the pot. Add the Chinese sausages on top.
Put the pot over the stove on medium high heat. Once the liquid comes to a boil, turn the heat to low, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes, or until all the liquid has cooked off and the rice is fluffy.
Slice the steamed Chinese sausages and serve with the rice!
Rice Cooker Lap Cheong Rice
Ingredients
- jasmine rice
- water
- lap cheong (Chinese Sausage)
Instructions
Rice Cooker Instructions:
- Use your rice cooker cup to measure the amount of rice you’d like (2 cups is good for 3 people).
- Then fill the rice cooker with water up to the line that corresponds with the number of cups you added. Alternatively, you can use the “finger trick” to simply measure the height of the rice (even it out first) along your finger, and then add enough water to match that height on your finger if you rest it on top of the rice.
- Add the Chinese Sausage (1 link per person is a decent bet), and turn on the rice cooker. The cooker will steam both the rice and the sausage at the same time! Slice the sausage and serve over the rice.
Stovetop Instructions:
- Measure your desired amount of rice and pour into a medium pot, taking note of the measurement. (You don't need any special measuring tools for this step. You could just use any cup or mug you have.) Cover the rice with 2 inches of water, and soak for 20 minutes. Once the rice has soaked, drain off the water it was soaking in. You should now just have a pot of soaked rice.
- Measure out fresh water in the same volume as the rice, and pour it into the pot. Add the Chinese sausages on top. Put the pot over the stove on medium high heat. Once the liquid comes to a boil, turn the heat to low, cover, and cook for about 15 minutes, or until all the liquid has cooked off and the rice is fluffy. Slice the sausage and serve over the rice.
