Loco Moco Chicago Style

Loco Moco Chicago Style?

Today, we are making a dish I am calling Loco Moco, Chicago Style. You might say back to me, “You are talking nonsense, since Loco Moco is a Hawaiian dish”. If you have ever gone to Hawaii, you know that Loco Moco is a dish that originated there and that it is a burger patty topped with an egg and smothered in brown gravy and served with rice. So, what the heck does Chicago have anything to do with this dish? Let me explain.

Chicago is known in the food world for many things…deep dish pizza, Chicago style hot dog, and beef sandwiches for example. They also happened to be known for a condiment called giardiniera which actually was developed in Italy and brought over by Italian immigrants to Chicago.

In Italy, the dish is a relish of pickled vegetables. Chicago style may include olives and will typically include cauliflower, carrots, bell peppers, and chile peppers all diced up and marinated in olive oil after the vegetables have been pickled.

I’m sure you are still wondering what the connection is. There is no connection until you put them both together! And that’s what I did for this recipe. I mixed some giardiniera into the loco moco gravy. Voila…Loco Moco Chicago Style.

We mixed the pickled vegetables into our gravy near the end of our cooking process to bring some texture to our dish.

What’s Special About Our Gravy?

To add some umami to our dish, we’ve added some shiitake mushrooms to our gravy. In addition to the mushrooms, the Giardiniera is added to the gravy for additional texture and flavor.

To experiment a little more, we used guar gum to thicken the gravy without using flour or cornstarch. Guar gum is like xanthan gum (a plant-based thickening agent). The result of using cauliflower and guar gum was to make this dish a little more keto-friendly.

The spicy crunch of the giardiniera is a texture surprise that only tastes better when mixed with a spoonful of our well-seasoned gravy and a bite of cauliflower rice. To all those from the Hawaiian Islands, I apologize for playing around with one of your well-known dishes. You can let me know if I went too far in making this dish in the comments below.

Hope you enjoy this fusion of Hawaii and Chicago. As always, thanks for Spending Time in My Kitchen!

Loco Moco Chicago Style

Recipe by David Frank – Spending Time In My Kitchen

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

45

minutes

Ingredients

• Burger

• 1 lb Ground Beef, 80/20

• 2 Tbl Panko breadcrumbs

• 1 Tbl Worcestershire sauce

• 1/4 tsp Diamond crystal, salt

• 1/4 tsp Black pepper

• 1 tsp Garlic powder

• 1 tsp Onion powder

• Gravy

• 24 oz Beef stock, low sodium

• 1/2 Cup Dried Shiitake mushrooms

• 2/3 tsp Gar gum (substitute 4 tbl of water and 2 tbl of cornstarch to make a slurry)

• 1/4 Cup Tamari soy sauce

• 1/2 Onion, cut into slices

• 2 Tbl Ketchup

• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

• 1 Cup Giardiniera

• Other Ingredients

• 4 Eggs, soft

• 24 oz Cauliflower rice (or regular rice)

• To Garnish: Chopped parsley, chives, or green onion

Directions

• Initial Steps
• Rehydrate the shiitake mushroom. See note below
• Make your cauliflower rice, or regular rice if desired. (Frozen cauliflower rice is convenient and easy to find in the frozen vegetable section at your local grocery store). Set aside.
• Burger
• Add all burger ingredients into a large bowl and mix well
• Shape into 4 round patties about 1 inch thick. (Press down with your thumb in the middle of the patty to make an indentation about 1/2 inch deep to ensure your burger does not bulge out in the middle as you cook.)
• Add 2 tsp of oil into a cast-iron pan or skillet. Turn the heat to medium. Heat the pan till the oil is just about to smoke. Add burgers to the pan and cook until browned on both sides. Remove burgers from the pan and set aside.
• Gravy
• Slice 1/2 onion into thin slices and add to the pan used to cook the burgers. Cook until softened. Stir occasionally. Set aside when done.
• Add gar gum (or cornstarch if used) to the broth in a 5-quart saucepan. Whisk until well combined. Place pan over medium heat until the gravy starts to boil. Reduce heat to a low-medium simmer.
• Add the remaining gravy ingredients to the saucepan with the broth. Add the onions to the saucepan. Stir all ingredients until combined. Cook until mushrooms have softened (approximately 20 minutes-see note below ) and the sauce has thickened to the desired texture. If the sauce is too thick, add more broth. If too thin, continue to cook until the sauce has reduced to the desired texture.
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• Add gravy into the original skillet/ pan used to cook the burgers. Scrape the bottom of the pan to make sure all the brown bits have mixed into the gravy. Set the pan to simmer until the burgers are heated through.
• As the burgers are simmering, make 4 fried eggs.
• Cook Your Eggs
• Add 2 Tablespoons to a separate pan to make your fried eggs. Salt and pepper to taste. (Cook eggs to desired temperature and doneness. Typically, the eggs are cooked to a soft texture.)
• Additional Steps and Plating
• To Plate: Add rice to your plate. Place the burger on top of the rice. Slather on your gravy. Top off with your fried egg. Sprinkle over the dish some chopped parsley, green onion or chives. Enjoy!

Notes

• To save some time, rehydrate the shiitake mushrooms before starting the cooking process. Place them in water to hydrate overnight. Another option is to boil them in the broth before adding any other ingredients for approximately 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, go to step 5 and continue the process of making the gravy over a low-medium simmer.

Did you make this recipe?

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