Loco Moco Recipe: Hawaiian Comfort Food Favorite
How do you make homemade loco moco? I have your recipe, and making this classic Hawaiian dish is easier than you think!
The original loco moco was invented on Hawaii’s Big Island in the late 1940s at the Lincoln Grill Restaurant by a hungry group of teenagers. Over 75 years later, this popular dish remains a local favorite.
After I last visited Hawaii, I knew I’d come home and create a classic loco moco recipe. As a chef, that’s what I do. Especially when a dish is such a staple part of the local cuisine, like this popular Hawaiian specialty.
And because it’s so popular, there are many different versions. My recipe combines the best elements of my favorite Hawaiian loco mocos. I think you’ll love it!
Whether you’re a fan of Hawaiian food, you crave a hearty meal, or you just came home from Honolulu with a hankering for this classic Hawaiian breakfast, now you can make your own! And just like they do on the Islands, you can also eat your loco moco for lunch or dinner!
Components, Ingredients, & Substitutions
There are four components to a Hawaiian loco moco recipe: rice, burger patty, gravy, and egg. It may sound complicated, but it’s actually a pretty easy dish.
Below are step-by-step instructions for all four components. But since I spent 14 years as a personal chef, I’m all about cooking to preferences rather than to an exact recipe. And this recipe has lots of wiggle room for you to make adjustments if needed.
Rice
Traditional loco moco recipes call for long-grained white rice, but honestly, any rice will do. Sticky white rice, Jasmine rice, brown rice, even wild rice works. So, if you have a strong preference, I recommend you use it. This recipe is also perfect for leftover rice!
Ground Beef Burger
Like the famous St. Louis breakfast, the Slinger, loco moco goes beyond classic comfort food and is often considered a hangover cure. The common link: a big beef burger.
For a juicy hamburger patty, ground beef with a fat ratio of 80/20 is the ticket.
Of course, you can sub the ground beef patty with ground turkey, or even a veggie burger. If you have leftover beef patties from your cookout, use those!
Mushroom Gravy
Not your typical burger sauce, loco moco gravy is an essential element of this Hawaiian local dish. If you’re not a fan of mushrooms, ditch them, and you’ll have a plain brown gravy. Or, you can substitute onions for mushrooms and make onion gravy.
Sunny Side Up Egg
A perfectly runny sunny side up fried egg is the egg of choice in a typical loco moco. We are talking hangover cure after all.
I like the runny egg, it’s what I make for my avocado toast. Obviously, in your own home, if you don’t like a runny egg yolk, make an over-easy egg (or over hard).
Loco Moco Recipe
Serves: 4
Ingredients
2½ cups water
1¼ cups long grain rice
1½ pounds ground beef
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon salted butter
8 ounces sliced button mushrooms
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1½ tablespoons soy sauce
1½ cups beef stock or beef broth
3 sliced green onions
Instructions
1. Feel free to use a rice cooker. Otherwise, in a medium 2-quart pot with lid, bring water to a boil over high heat.
2. Add rice, stir, and replace lid. When water comes to a boil, lower heat to simmer. After 10 minutes, stir, replace lid, and let sit. The rice will continue to cook without needing to be watched.
3. In a large bowl, mix together ground beef, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper, and form four patties of equal size.
4. Start the loco moco gravy. In a sauce pan or large skillet, melt the butter and sauté the mushrooms over medium heat.
5. Sprinkle the mushrooms with flour and mix together well.
6. Add the soy sauce to the beef stock, then slowly add the stock to the mushroom mixture while continuing to stir. Once all the beef stock has been added, simmer for 5–10 minutes to thicken.
7. In a separate skillet or large frying pan, cook the hamburgers on medium-high heat for about 3 minutes on each side until desired doneness.
8. Place the cooked hamburger patties on a paper towel on a plate. Wipe out pan and fry the eggs on medium-low heat for 3–4 minutes.
9. While eggs are cooking, start plating the loco moco. Spread one cup of rice on each plate. Add the cooked patties on top of the rice, and smother them with the brown gravy. Once the sunny side up eggs are cooked, place them on top of the burgers. Sprinkle the eggs with the green onions.
Serving Loco Moco
Everything you need for plating your loco moco is in Step 9 above. Here are a few more tips that may help you with the rest.
Make Ahead
You can precook all of the components except the eggs before meal day.
To reheat the rice, add a few drops of water to the rice in a microwave-proof container with a lid. Three minutes on high will do it.
The hamburgers can also be reheated in the microwave. Heat for 30 seconds on medium-high power, then flip. Repeat 3–4 times as needed.
The gravy is best reheated in a sauce pan on the stove top.
Side Dishes
As the ultimate comfort food, loco moco is a meal in itself, and therefore requires no side dishes. However, on the Islands, you may be served Hawaiian macaroni salad with it.
Leftovers
The last time I made this recipe for four, it was just for my husband and me. I put all of the leftovers in one airtight container. The next day, I put everything in a large pan. I broke up the burgers into small pieces, and made the best loco moco stir fry for yet another delicious meal.
