Loco Moco Recipe: The Best Hawaiian Dish You'll Ever Taste

If you’ve ever been to Hawaii, there is a good chance that you might have tasted the famous loco moco, the traditional take-out food. In Hawaii, it is commonly served at festivals and luaus. No worries though, as we are pretty sure that our loco moco recipe will leave you satisfied. Even if you’ve never tasted this delight in its native country, we strongly recommend you give it a chance.

While it is safe to say that loco moco is indeed a calorie-dense dish, it makes up for it with a beautiful view of a hamburger patty on rice, topped by sunny-side-up eggs, and with a blend of gravy. The perfect meal to have with your loved ones, paired with a beer, and preferably on a sunny day, our loco moco recipe is also an easy and quick one. Let’s take a look. 

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Equipment
• Tips
• Hawaiian Loco Moco Recipe

Ingredients

1. Gravy

• Soy sauce — 1 tsp.
• Beef broth — 1 ½ cup.
• Worcestershire sauce — ½ tbsp. 
• Cornstarch — 1 tbsp.
• Ketchup — 1 tbsp., optional.
• Mushrooms — 2.
• Onion — ½ cup, chopped.

2. Burger

• Ground beef — 1 pound.
• Vegetable oil — 1 tbsp.
• Salt and pepper — to taste.
• Worcestershire sauce — ½ tbsp. 

3. Rice

• Rice — 2 cups, preferably short-medium grain.
• Chicken broth — ½ cup.

4. Eggs

• Eggs — 3-4, large.
• Vegetable oil — 1 tbsp.
• Parsley — 1 sprig, topping option.
• Tomato — 1 pc., topping option.

Instructions

1. Combine ground beef with the Worcestershire sauce. Shape the ground beef gently, preferably into 3 to 4 patties.

2. Season with salt and pepper. Put it in the refrigerator and let it marinate for up to half an hour. 

3. In the meantime, heat 1 tbsp. vegetable oil in a frying pan. Add sliced mushrooms, and chopped onions. Sauté for a few minutes, until translucent. 

4. Add beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce, and bring to a boil. Then, reduce the heat to low.

5. If you don’t have Worcestershire sauce, you can also mix ketchup with soy sauce as a substitute.

6. In a bowl, mix the cornstarch with water. Add the paste to the gravy sauce, and stir well. 

7. Season it with salt and pepper. 

8. For preparing the rice, bring the chicken broth to a boil in a pan, preferably on medium or high heat. 

9. Add rice into the broth and stir well. Reduce the heat to low, and cook for approximately 20- 25 minutes. 

10. Heat a large enough pan and add 1 tbsp. vegetable oil, and cook the patties until they turn brown. Make sure you cook both sides evenly. 

11. In another pan, warm canola oil, crack 3 or 4 large eggs and cook them sunny-side-up, which should take about 5 minutes. 

12. To serve, first put the rice, then add the patties above. Pour the gravy sauce, and complete with putting the eggs on top. 

13. We recommend using parsley and/or tomatoes as toppings. 

Equipment

• Mixing bowl.

• Measuring spoons and cups.

• Large cooking pan.

Tips

What separates a brown mud of rice, eggs, and meat from an authentic and delicious loco moco lies in the attention to detail. A great loco moco recipe relies on four different aspects, namely burger, rice, gravy sauce, and eggs. Below, we’ve listed some useful tips that might come in handy when following our loco moco recipe.

• The burger patty — When you are on the look for the perfect ground beef, you should look at the meat-to-fat ratio. For a mouth-watering experience, we strongly recommend going with a ratio of 80% meat and 20% fat. 85/15 will do the job too, but make sure that your meat is at least 80% lean. You can always substitute ground beef with ground turkey or ground pork, if necessary, although it wouldn’t be ideal. 

• The rice — One of the many great things about our loco moco recipe is that it allows great flexibility, and this goes for the rice, too. If keeping it original and authentic is not high on your list, you can always use brown rice. However, if you’ve decided to opt for white rice, we strongly recommend using short or medium-grain rice. The shorter grain is, the higher the starch content of the rice, which helps save its form. Although our loco moco recipe advocated boiling the rice, you can also use a rice cooker.