Taco Rice タコライス - Cook With Naseem

Tex-Mex and Japanese – a surprisingly delicious fusion of cuisines.  It’s best represented by Okinawan Taco Rice, a simple mashup of taco fillings and Japanese white rice.  It’s a satisfyingly, unique comfort food that’s quick to make for a weeknight dinner!

As a delicious addition to our Okinawa Travel Series that Mr. JOC has been writing (Here’s Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 coming soon), I’ve been sharing Okinawan recipes including Rafute, Sata Andagi, Taco Rice, and Okinawa Soba (coming soon).

Among these dishes, Taco Rice (タコライス) was my son’s favorite, begging me now to make it every week.  Mr. JOC wasn’t sure about the combination of tacos and Japanese steamed rice, but he was pleasantly surprised how good it tasted.

Whether or not you’re a big fan of Tex-Mex tacos, give this recipe a try.  Your family will love it!   It’s so easy to make, and is perfect for a weeknight meal.  You can prepare taco meat and individual toppings ahead of time, and assemble right before you are ready to eat.

Watch How to Make Taco Rice

Tex-Mex and Japanese – a surprisingly delicious fusion of cuisines. It’s best represented by Okinawan Taco Rice, a simple mashup of taco fillings and Japanese white rice.

What’s Taco Rice?

Taco Rice is an Okinawan dish in which the ingredients of a Tex-Mex taco – ground beef, lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes – are served on a bed of warm rice, with salsa on top.

Taco Rice was first created in 1984 by a Japanese restaurant owner, Matsuzo Gibo, who wanted to create affordable and fulfilling meal that can be made quickly and enjoyed by young American military. His restaurant was nearby the American military base and he thought combining the tacos, which were already popular among the American military, and Japanese staple dish, steamed rice.

Although it may not be classic Okinawan dishes like Rafute, Sata Andagi, or Okinawa Soba that the Okinawans make at home generation after generation, Taco Rice has become a new Okinawa’s specialty food.

Homemade Taco Seasonings

If you look up a Taco Rice recipe in Japanese online, you will notice that a lot of recipes use soy sauce, Tonkatsu sauce, curry powder, or ketchup.  In Okinawa, you can get a packet of taco seasoning easily as there are American military there.  But in mainland, taco seasoning is not easy to get.  I think that’s why the taco meat is always seasoned with some common Japanese condiments that’s available in Japanese kitchen.

For my recipe, I followed this taco seasoning recipe online and make my taco meat as I have all the seasonings at home.  If you don’t want to get individual bottles of spices just to make this recipe, consider getting a packet of taco seasoning for a quick fix.  But these spices are fairly common and you either already have them or will be using in other recipes.  So it is a good investment too!

Popular Taco Rice Restaurants in Okinawa

During our recent trip to Okinawa, due to the limited time we had, we couldn’t make it to the original restaurant that taco rice was created.  It’s called King Tacos (キングタコス) and currently there are 6 King Tacos locations within Okinawa.

The Nagata and Futenma locations in Ginowan, the Misato location in Okinawa city, the Agena and Yokatsu locations in Uruma, and the flagship location in Kin.

The original King Tacos store is located:

• Address: Azakin 4244-4, Kin-cho, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa
• Business Hours: 10:30 am to 1:00 am (no holidays)
• Phone: 090-1947-1684

The original taco rice (タコライス, ¥400/$4) is composed of ground beef, seasoned with taco spice seasoning, served on a bed of Japanese rice.  Then taco rice cheese (タコライスチーズ, ¥500/$5) additionally includes cheese on top.  And Taco rice cheese vegetable (タコライスチーズ野菜, ¥600/$6) additionally includes shredded lettuce.

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Taco Rice

• ½ lb ground beef ((I used 85% lean))
• 1 clove garlic
• ½ red onion ((¾ goes to taco meat, ¼ goes to salsa))
• 2 leaves iceberg lettuce
• 1 Tbsp neutral flavor oil (vegetable, canola, etc)
• Mexican cheese
• 3 cups  cooked Japanese short grain rice  ((I cooked 1.5 rice-cooker-cups (240 ml uncooked rice *See Notes))

Taco Seasoning

• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ tsp onion powder
• ¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• ¼ tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp paprika
• 1 ½ tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Salsa

• ½ tomato
• 5 strands cilantro
• ½ lemon

1. Gather all the ingredients.
   

Make Homemade Taco Seasoning

1. Combine all the ingredients for taco seasoning in a mason jar (or a plastic bag) and shake well to mix together.
   

Cut ingredients

1. Mince the garlic clove and set aside (we will use this for stir frying with meat).
   
2. Mince the red onion.
   
3. Cut the tomato into small cubes (you need about half tomato, although it’s shown as a whole tomato here).
   
4. Chop cilantro into small pieces.
   
5. Combine chopped red onion, tomato, cilantro in a medium bowl and squeeze half of lemon into the bowl. Mix well together.
   
6. Cut the iceberg lettuce into thin strips.
   

Make Taco Meat

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Cook the garlic cloves until fragrant. Then add the red onion and sauté until coated with oil.
   
2. Add the ground beef and break into small pieces using spatula.
   
3. Add 4 tsp Taco Seasoning (Roughly 2 tsp for every 1/4 lb) and combine well with the meat. Turn off the heat.
   

Assemble

1. Serve the steamed rice on a plate/bowl. Put the ground beef on top. Then top with cheese, lettuce, and tomato salsa as much as you like. Serve with extra salsa and enjoy!
   

Steamed Rice: 1.5 rice cooker cups (240 ml) yields roughly 3 American cups. 

 

Taco Seasoning: This taco seasoning recipe is from All Recipes. 

 

Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook.  All images and content on this site are copyright protected.  Please do not use my images without my permission.  If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source.  Thank you.

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