Miso Glazed Salmon Musubi with Garlic Butter Rice

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I’m a huge Spam musubi guy, but this salmon musubi might have me switching teams for a minute 🤯 You stack miso glazed salmon over garlic butter rice, wrap it in nori with a little furikake and shichimi, and it’s one of the best bites I’ve had in a while. The salmon gets tossed in a sweet-savory miso glaze and baked, the rice gets loaded with garlic, butter and chicken broth, and together you get that umami-rich comfort thing musubi does SO well!

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What Makes This Salmon Musubi So Good

Musubi is endlessly versatile, and that’s exactly what makes it fun to mess with. The big swap here is salmon instead of Spam. You slice the fillets thin, toss them in white miso, soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar and sesame oil, then bake until the glaze goes glossy and the edges caramelize. That glaze brings deep savory umami with just enough sugar to catch some color.

Plus, the rice is doing way more work than plain sushi rice ever would. If you like playing with musubi variations, this sits right next to my air fryer Spam musubi katsu, where the Spam gets panko-breaded and crisped katsu-style with Bachan’s sauce. Same handheld idea, completely different protein.

What Is Garlic Butter Rice?

It’s a really simple way to level up basic rice, and if you’ve never made it you’re in for something. You melt butter with minced garlic, toast the raw rice in it, then cook the rice in chicken broth instead of water so every grain picks up flavor from the inside out. Scallions go in at the end. That’s the entire thing, and it turns rice from a base into the reason you’re eating.

In a musubi it matters even more than usual, because rice is most of what you’re biting into. Swap plain rice in here and you’ll notice immediately how much flatter it tastes.

What Is Miso Glaze Made Of?

Five pantry things whisked smooth, which is white miso paste, soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar and a little sesame oil. The miso and soy bring the salt and umami, the brown sugar helps it caramelize, and the vinegar and sesame oil round it out. Toss your salmon in it, bake at 375F for about 12 minutes, and you’re done. If you want the classic version, Just One Cookbook’s miso salmon is where I’d send you.

Tips for Making Salmon Musubi

1. Slice the fillets thin and long

Cut each fillet down the middle so you get 4 long, thin pieces. Thin salmon cooks evenly in 12 minutes and sits flat on the rice, whereas a thick piece leaves you with a musubi you can’t get your mouth around.

2. Cook the rice in broth, not water

This is the step I’d never skip. Chicken broth plus the garlic butter is what makes the rice taste like something on its own, and water gets you none of that. Toast the rice in the butter first too, before the liquid goes in.

3. Overlap the salmon in the middle

Lay two pieces end to end with the fatter ends on the outside and the thinner ends overlapping in the center. That way every slice you cut has an even amount of fish rather than one great half and one sad half!

4. Compress the rice properly

Press the rice down firmly in the mold before the furikake goes on. A loose musubi falls apart the second you pick it up, and the whole point of this is that you eat it with your hands.

Storage and Leftovers

These keep in the fridge for up to 2 days, though I’d wrap them individually so the nori doesn’t go soggy against the rice. Cold rice firms up a lot, so let them sit out for 10 minutes before you eat.

You can also microwave one for 20 to 30 seconds to soften the rice back up. Just know the nori loses its crispness either way, which is why I think these are best the day you make them!

Equipment

• Musubi mold
• Baking pan
• Frying pan
• Mixing bowls

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups short grain white rice, raw
• 2 tablespoons salted butter
• 2 1/2 teaspoons garlic, minced
• 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 3 stalks scallions, chopped
• 2 salmon filets
• 1/4 cup white miso paste
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• Nori sheets, furikake and shichimi togarashi, to taste

Substitutions and Swaps

• The salmon. Any firm fish takes this glaze well, so cod or black cod both work beautifully. Spam is obviously the classic if you want to go back to basics, and the glaze is honestly great on that too.
• The white miso. Red miso is much stronger and saltier, so I’d use about half as much and add a little more brown sugar to balance it. White miso is mellow and sweet, which is why it suits salmon.
• The chicken broth. Dashi is the more Japanese choice and it’s excellent here. Vegetable broth works fine, and even water with a bouillon cube beats plain water by a mile.
• The butter. Olive oil works if you’re avoiding dairy, though you lose the richness that makes garlic butter rice what it is. This is one where I’d stay with the butter if you can.
• The musubi mold. An empty Spam can with both ends removed is the classic hack and it works perfectly. You can also press it by hand, it just takes a bit more patience to get clean edges.

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 375F. Slice each salmon fillet down the middle so you have 4 long, thin pieces.
2. In a small bowl, combine the miso paste, soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar and sesame oil until smooth. Put the salmon in a large bowl, pour the sauce over, and toss until fully coated.
3. Line a baking pan with foil, lay the salmon on it, and bake for 12 minutes.
4. Mince the garlic. In a pan over medium heat, melt the butter and stir in the garlic, cooking until it starts to turn golden.
5. Add the rice and mix well, then pour in the chicken broth and cover until it starts to boil. Uncover and let the rice cook until it absorbs all the liquid, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a bowl.
6. Chop the scallions and mix them through the rice.
7. Add rice to a large musubi mold and compress it, then sprinkle on furikake and shichimi togarashi. Lay two pieces of salmon on top end to end, fatter ends outside and thinner ends overlapping in the middle.
8. Wrap in a sheet of nori, cut in half, and eat.

The thing I keep coming back to with musubi is how flexible the format is. Once you know how to stack and wrap it, swapping Spam for salmon is barely a change in effort, and the garlic butter rice underneath does as much work as whatever you put on top.

These pack well and hold up at room temperature, so they’re a good one to make a few of at the start of the week. 🙌

If you make these, leave a star rating on the recipe card and tell me in the comments how they came out. It really helps other people find the recipe, and I want to know if you’re team salmon or still team Spam!

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