Loco Moco Recipe

This Loco Moco Recipe is the perfect 30-minute weeknight meal. It features a tasty cooked hamburger patty stacked high over rice with a delicious mushroom sauce and a fried egg. This comfort food classic will quickly become a new family favorite.

We’re huge fans of quick weeknight, delicious weeknight meals. My daughter loves beef, and if your family is the same, try my Meatloaf or Chopped Steaks Recipe.

Loco Moco

Loco moco is a Hawaiian staple that consists of a seared beef patty with mushroom gravy, rice, a fried egg, and a garnish of green onions. Legend has it that a group of kids from a local gym and their parents went into a diner in Hawaii and asked for something different than a sandwich with a bowl of rice, hence this recipe.

The loco part of the name, obviously in Spanish, allegedly came from one of the gym kids who they called “Crazy George” for the way he played sports. I’m not sure where the “moco” part came from, but this word translates from Spanish to English as snot. The sunny-side egg placed on top would be the reason.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Beef — I almost always use 80/20 ground chuck whenever a recipe calls for ground beef. However, you can use any lean-to-fat ratio ground beef.
• Onion – You can use a shallot, white, yellow, red, or sweet onion. In addition, you’ll need some garlic cloves.
• Soy Sauce – Any good shoyu and a lower-sodium soy will work. Coconut aminos will also work.
• Oil – Any neutral flavored oil, ghee, lard, tallow, or butter will work.
• Mushrooms—Any wild or domestic mushroom is good in the gravy. The more classical ones are cremini or button mushrooms.
• Flour – All-purpose or bread flour will work.
• Stock – Beef stock is best to use. Brodo is also an option.
• Eggs – Large eggs that are chilled or at room temperature are great.
• Rice – Any long-grain rice like Jasmine will work.
• Seasonings – The ground beef contains Worcestershire, coarse salt, and freshly cracked pepper. You can substitute the Worcestershire for half the amount of balsamic vinegar.

How to Make a Loco Moco

Cook the rice, fluff it, set it to the side, and keep warm.

Combine the ground beef with onions, garlic, soy, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper and form it into patties. To ensure the flavor is good, fry a small amount and taste it to see if it needs more seasonings.

Brown the patties in a large frying pan in a small amount of oil over medium heat for 3-4 minutes per side or until browned.

Set the meat aside and brown the mushrooms in the pan over medium heat.

Stir in the flour until combined with the mushrooms to make a roux.

Add the beef stock and cook for 3-4 more minutes or until it becomes thick, like gravy.

Place the cooked patties back into the mushroom gravy and keep warm.

Fry the egg in oil in a sauté pan over medium heat to the desired doneness

Serve the patty with the gravy on top of the rice, then place the fried egg on the beef.

Making Perfect Gravy

• If it’s clumpy – the only way around this is to strain it to eliminate the clumps. This results from too much flour and not enough fat when stirring it into the mushrooms. A roux is equal parts flour and fat, so consider that when you add the oil to the pan at the beginning.
• Thin Gravy — This means not enough flour was added to the mushrooms. To fix this, make a roux separately and whisk it into the gravy.
• Too Thick — This will often occur if there is too much total roux and insufficient liquid. The easiest way to counter this is to add more liquid.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Make-Ahead: You can make this recipe up to 2 hours ahead. Cook the hamburger patties in the gravy and hold them over very low simmering heat, keeping the rice warm.

How to Store: Keep the meat and gravy separate from the rice, and cover and keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Do the same and keep it in the freezer for up to 2 months.

How to Reheat: Add the desired beef and gravy to a saucepan and heat over low heat until hot.

Chef notes + tips

• If the sauce is not to your desired thickness, before adding the cooked patties, add in a little slurry (2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water).
• Since there was a lot of oil in the pan after cooking the hamburger patties, I drained half of it into a small skillet and used it to fry the egg.
• When browning the meat patties before removing them from the pan to make the gravy, they do not need to be fully cooked through.
• Cook the fried egg to your desired amount of doneness.  It is recommended that the yolk be runny.
• While personal preference, I’m a fan of fluffy rice. Often, when cooking rice on the stovetop, it becomes soggy and overcooked. It’s my professional opinion that most package recipes for rice overcompensate for the amount of water, causing this overcooked result.
• Since most long-grain rice recipes have a standard ratio of 1 ½ part water to 1 part rice, I counter that by doing a 1 ¼ part water to 1 part rice.  Stick with this proportion for delicious fluffy rice.

More Beef Recipes

• Steak Frites
• Beef Wellington
• Boeuf Bourguignon
• Beef Stroganoff
• Easy Beef Stir Fry

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Loco Moco Recipe

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5 from 30 votes

This 30-minute Loco Moco Recipe features a hamburger patty stacked high over rice, a delicious mushroom sauce, and a fried egg.

Servings: 5

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Ingredients 

US CustomaryMetric

• 1/2 peeled small diced sweet onion
• 2 finely minced cloves of garlic
• 2 pounds 80/20 ground beef
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 8 ounces sliced cremini mushrooms
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups beef stock
• 5 eggs
• 5 cups cooked jasmine rice
• ¼ cups sliced green onions
• coarse salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Instructions

• Add the onion, garlic, beef, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce to a large bowl and mix until completely combined. Form the mixture into 5 patties, season on both sides with salt and pepper, and set on a plate.
• Add the oil to a very large frying pan over medium heat. Once it begins to smoke lightly add the hamburger patties in and cook for 3-4 minutes per side or until well browned on each side.
• Set the hamburger aside. Drain off ½ of the oil used to cook the ground beef into a small frying pan and set the small pan aside.
• In the same large frying pan over medium heat, add the mushrooms and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until lightly browned.
• Add in the flour and stir it in until it is completely combined,
• Pour in the beef stock and the remaining 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and cook for 3-4 more minutes over medium heat until it becomes thick like gravy.
• Add back in the cooked meat patties and simmer over low heat.
• Fry the eggs 1 at a time in the small frying pan in the rendered meat fat over medium heat for 30 seconds for a sunny-side-up egg.
• Serve the beef patties and mushroom sauce over top of the cooked jasmine rice and top off with the fried egg and garnish with sliced green onions.

Notes

Make-Ahead: You can make this recipe up to 2 hours ahead. Cook the hamburger patties in the gravy and hold them over very low simmering heat, keeping the rice warm.

How to Store: Keep the meat and gravy separate from the rice, and cover and keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Do the same and keep it in the freezer for up to 2 months.

How to Reheat: Add the desired beef and gravy to a saucepan and heat over low heat until hot.

If the sauce is not to your desired thickness, before adding the cooked patties, add in a little slurry (2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon water).

Since there was a lot of oil in the pan after cooking the hamburger patties, I drained half of it into a small skillet and used it to fry the egg.

When browning the meat patties before removing them from the pan to make the gravy, they do not need to be fully cooked through.

Cook the fried egg to your desired amount of doneness.  It is recommended that the yolk be runny.

While personal preference, I’m a fan of fluffy rice. Often, when cooking rice on the stovetop, it becomes soggy and overcooked. It’s my professional opinion that most package recipes for rice overcompensate for the amount of water, causing this overcooked result.

Since most long-grain rice recipes have a standard ratio of 1 ½ part water to 1 part rice, I counter that by doing a 1 ¼ part water to 1 part rice.  Stick with this proportion for delicious fluffy rice.

Nutrition

Calories: 838kcalCarbohydrates: 55gProtein: 46gFat: 47gSaturated Fat: 16gCholesterol: 293mgSodium: 808mgPotassium: 1074mgFiber: 2gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 287IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 104mgIron: 6mg

Course: Main

Cuisine: American, Hawaiian

Author: Chef Billy Parisi