Loco Moco 

Updated April 17, 2024

Loco Moco 
Romulo Yanes for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Vivian Lui.
Total Time
45 minutes
Rating
4(1,786)
Notes
Read community notes

This classic Hawaiian dish is similar to Japanese hambagu, a ground beef patty topped with a ketchup-based sauce, but loco moco is heartier, served atop a pile of white rice, smothered with caramelized onion gravy and topped with a fried egg. People in Hawaii enjoy it for breakfast, lunch, dinner or any time in between. This version is adapted from “Aloha Kitchen: Recipes From Hawai‘i,” by Alana Kysar, a cookbook of Hawaiian classics. —Kiera Wright-Ruiz

Featured in: The 12 Best Cookbooks of Spring 2019

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings
  • 1pound ground beef, at least 15 to 20 percent fat
  • 1medium Maui or yellow onion, peeled (¼ of the onion chopped; ¾ sliced)
  • 2garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated
  • 3teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
  • ½teaspoon black pepper, plus more as needed
  • tablespoons neutral oil
  • 8ounces cremini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (optional)
  • 2cups beef broth
  • 2teaspoons soy sauce
  • 2tablespoons cornstarch
  • 4cups steamed white rice
  • 4large eggs, fried, sunny side up or over easy
  • 2chopped scallions, for garnish
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

745 calories; 37 grams fat; 11 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 18 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 66 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 4 grams sugars; 35 grams protein; 1062 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a large bowl, combine the beef, chopped onion, garlic, 1½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Mix with your hands or a wooden spoon until just combined, being careful not to overmix.

  2. Step 2

    Form into four patties about ½-inch thick. Place the patties on a plate, cover with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

  3. Step 3

    Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large 12-inch skillet over medium. When the oil is hot and shimmering, add the sliced onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until almost translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and continue cooking, stirring often, until soft and caramelized, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

  4. Step 4

    Add 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet and heat over medium. When the oil is hot, swirl the pan around to evenly coat it, then gently place the patties in the pan, spacing them out evenly. Cook until browned, about 4 minutes per side. Using a spatula, transfer patties to a clean plate to rest.

  5. Step 5

    Add the remaining ½ tablespoon oil to the pan and heat over medium until hot. Add the mushrooms (if using) and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper.

  6. Step 6

    Add the caramelized onions, beef broth, soy sauce and the remaining 1½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce to the mushrooms and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low.

  7. Step 7

    Place the cornstarch in a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the broth from the skillet and whisk until smooth. Stir the cornstarch slurry into the skillet and simmer until the sauce has thickened, 5 to 7 minutes.

  8. Step 8

    Place 1 cup steamed rice on each plate and top each serving with one patty, then the gravy, a fried egg and chopped scallions.

Ratings

4 out of 5
1,786 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

Wait until your oil is hot-hot, add your egg to the pan and then spoon the oil on top of your egg while the bottom cooks, or butter if that’s what you’re frying with. I usually fry on medium to medium-high and it’s quick and perfect every time.

How do you cook a sunny side up egg to look like the one in the photo with its lovely crispy edges *and* the white cooked all the way up to the yolk? It looks like my ideal egg but I have trouble getting both qualities. Start slow, finish on high? Type of pan?

I do not get all the gripes and snobbiness. People, you see the ingredients and preparation notes. If it appears lackluster then do not make it and proceed to write negative reviews. Just pass. It is after all about nostalgia for those who have eaten this as a native of Hawaii or a visitor. This dish has been featured on DDD several times and people rave. Just cook something else and stop being nasty.

Substitute riced cauliflower for white rice and it's low carb and paleo.

If you are ever in Buffalo, NY you can eat this at Sea Bar. Chef Mike A. who owns the restaurant Beat Bobby Flay with this dish.

How did this only get 4 stars? Made it, was delicious. Also probably the best hangover food in the world. Now I need to get a hangover just to eat this afterward.

I make this with a Beyond Meat burger patty and mushroom gravy so it's vegetarian.

Grew up where the Loco Moco was "invented". Cafe 100 in Hilo is the drive inn. There are many different combos that make it. Main is white rice, fried hamburger, fried egg and gravy. We have it at least once a month.

My advice: double the sauce recipe and triple the amount of onions within the sauce recipe. Carmelize the onions earlier in the day, or the night before. There is no way this recipe takes 45 minutes -- closer to 2 hrs. It's a really nice recipe but I dont know if it was worth the time it took to make the sauce. I've never seen an onion carmelized in under 45 minutes. The sauce is really delicious and we wish there was more of it but we made what the recipe called for. Double the sauce recipe.

Instead of the white rice, I served this over Francis Lam's Kimchi Fried Rice, also on the NYT recipe. For eggs with runny yolks and just set whites, heat butter over high, crack eggs into pan, and cover with a lid, turning heat off. Allow to set for 5 minutes.

I made this exactly to the recipe and it was delicious, but I did add the patties into the sauce just to warm through a bit before serving.

If you're willing to stir almost constantly, you can carmelize onions in 10 minutes over high heat (if the pan is already hot, if the oil is already hot, if the onions aren't cold). Same way you can make a dark roux in 15 minutes. But you're more than likely going to get burned once or twice.

make this quick and lazy when I have left over white rice. Use a Bubba Burger patty or similar, omit onions and mushrooms, unless you made them night before, Fry patty, use jarred beef gravy, top off with a fried egg. ( hot smoking oil for the fried edges.) Not as good, but gets a hungry man/boy out the door pretty quick with only one pan. one plate, and fork to wash. some man boys will eat over sink from the pan, or wrap it all in a flour tortilla!

I use a good quality nonstick skillet with a heavy bottom and a clear lid. Using a lid is essential to getting the top cooked, and with a clear lid you can keep an eye on things. My pan also has a slightly deeper profile which I think helps with moisture control. I go with a medium heat throughout so maybe a slightly longer cook time than I used to use.

C’mon, now! I am so tired of recipes that claim you can caramelize onions in 15 to 17 minutes. It just isn’t possible. It will take a minimum of 45 minutes to an hour, though I like to go to an hour and a half or more.

Pretty good. I agree with the others that say to double the gravy. Also not sure why it says you can caramelize onions in 10 minutes, you should caramelize them on low heat for an hour in butter. Also in my experience (probably from doubling the gravy) it took much longer to reduce to a gravy consistency than the recipe said. Overall though a solid loco moco.

Made this exactly as directed except the mushrooms, which I did not have. I loved that this was doable with basics I almost always have in the fridge! defrosted the ground beef in the AM and it was ready to cook in the PM. Added steamed broccoli and kimchi for some vegg and added flavor. Such an easy and delicious weeknight meal!

And din’t forget the shoyu. Must add shoyu before serving.

I made this recipe as written two nights ago. It was very good for sure. But, I agree with some that say it takes much longer to make than stated. Also a few moving parts and pans in this recipe makes me feel it's a lot work for a Hamburger Dinner albeit a tasty one. In the unlikely event I feel very ambitious and want to do all that extra work I would make it again, however it's a pretty good guess that I won't.

One of my favorite rare comfort foods. Made for Monday lunch using leftover rice re-steamed in the microwave and the last burger from a weekend BBQ. Used dried porcini mushrooms and their soaking liquid, along with a smidge of better than bouillon beef base. Was too lazy to fully caramelize the onions, but their light gold was pretty good. Honestly, the mushroom onion gravy was so good, I would have been happy with it over rice with no beef patty.

i would make the gravy first and keep hot in a sauce pan, then the patties and then the eggs - i found it hard to keep everything warm otherwise. but super delicious no doibt

Absolutely delicious. The dish is certainly more complex to cook than it first appears. If the dish didn’t turn out well you should go back to focusing on the basics. How to cook perfect fried or over easy eggs, how to cook a perfect burger patty, how to caramelize onions. Multiple pans worked well to cook multiple items in parallel. Stainless steel for the onions, mushrooms and gravy, a cast iron for the beef, and a non-stick for the eggs.

This might be the best comfort food dish I have ever had. It hits all the right notes. I'm pretty sure I reached the seventh stage of enlightenment while eating this.

It is easy to caramelize onions quickly. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but if you add water to the pan, you can keep it hot without burning the onions. Less stirring. just let the water evaporate to finish with beautiful golden sweet onion bliss.

subbed impossible beef for the ground beef and veggie broth for the beef broth to make it vegetarian, was great!!

Pleasant meal - not overly exciting, though. I didn't have any mushrooms on hand, so saved time there, but I missed them for flavor. My gravy didn't thicken much beyond au jus. Keeping everything warm by the time I was ready to serve was a challenge. I feel like the gravy needed more depth (besides the lack of mushrooms) -- maybe next time I'll have the Hawaiian and Japanese versions meet a bit more with some sriracha or ketchup or hoisin or something in there.

Between the caramelized onions, mushrooms, and beef broth this dish is bursting with satisfying umami. I cooked the rice in beef broth rather than water for an extra dose.

I bookmaked this one as a "desperation dinner" for when I was too tired to go grocery shopping but needed to eat. I had everything on hand except the scallions. Used brown rice. Loved it! I'm definitely going to make it again. Is it haute cuisine? No. But it was easy, tasty and filling.

loved this meal and how it came together. Only thing I would do differently is add more seasoning to the patties and double the sauce.

You guys. This is a HAWAIIAN dish. I’m sorry if it’s too greasy or unhealthy for you. It’s a pretty good reproduction of the original. If hamburger, runny eggs, gravy, and rice isn’t your thing, then don’t bother. Spam is a great addition/substitute. The end.

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Credits

Adapted from “Aloha Kitchen: Recipes From Hawai‘i” by Alana Kysar (Ten Speed Press, 2019)

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