With McNuggets on sale, we’re diving back into the rich world of crazy rice cooker cooking.

It doesn’t attract a lot of attention in international journalism circles, but when McDonald’s Japan has a sale on Chicken McNuggets, a lot of people in Japan take notice, including our Japanese-language reporter Seiji Nakazawa. So with the price of a 15-piece order of McNuggets currently knocked down to 490 yen (US$3.25) from its regular price of 820, Seiji swiftly got himself to our local McDonald’s branch.

But as he was waiting to put in his order, Seiji’s mind drifted back to another chicken meal. A few months ago, he’d enjoyed some KFC Colonel Crispy chicken, but not as is. Instead, Seiji had tossed those boneless chicken tenders into his rice cooker and created something very delicious. So now, standing in line at McDonald’s, a question began to burn in his mind.

What would happen if he put Chicken McNuggets in the rice cooker and tried to make Chicken McNugget rice, using the provided McDonald’s sauce as extra seasoning?

So rather than dig in as soon as the McDonald’s staff handed him his box, Seiji put his willpower to use and carried his McNuggets back to the SoraNews24 HQ cooking studio. Opening up the rice cooker lid, he added 300 grams (10.6 ounces) of rice, water, and 15 Chicken McNuggets to the pot.

Then he poured in the three packets of sauce that had come with his order. Seiji had selected McDonald’s Japan’s new Garlic Beef Steak Sauce for all three packets, under the sound logic that garlic and fried chicken go great together. Opening up the packs, he was greeted by a powerful garlic aroma, filling him with equal measures of confidence and hunger.

Then all he had to do was close the lid, hit the start button, and wait for the cooking cycle to complete itself.

As the mixture cooked, Seiji looked forward to the flavors of the chicken and sauce fusing with the rice. His anticipation grew as he recalled the fragrance that had wafted up when he opened the rice cooker lid when making his batch of KFC rice, a mix of meaty poultry and starchy scents that reminded him of chicken ramen.

To Seiji’s puzzlement, though, no such chicken aroma was waiting for him when he popped the lid on his McNugget rice.

Visually, though, Seiji could see that the sauce had seeped into the rice, coloring the grains an enticing gold. Giving the pot’s contents a stir, he could also feel that the McNuggets had tenderized during the cooking process, and were now so soft that he could cut them with the side of the rice scoop if he wanted to.

After dishing up a bowl, Seiji grabbed his chopsticks and went in for a taste, and got a surprise too: the rice didn’t taste like chicken at all.

Yes, because of the garlic steak sauce, the rice did taste different from normal white rice, though in cooking the beef notes seemed to have gotten stronger and the garlic ones subtler, for an effect closer to light demi-glace than heavy garlic. And sure, the McNuggets tasted as good as ever. But Seiji couldn’t find any trace of chicken flavor that had been transferred to the rice itself.

This is pretty much the exact opposite of Seiji’s findings with rice cooker KFC Colonel Crispy rice, in which the rice had picked up all sorts of chicken flavor. We’re not sure exactly why this is, but the only thing we can think of is that KFC’s breading is either more porous or that KFC’s cooking method for Colonel Crispy tenders transfers more of the flavor to the breading than McDonald’s method for McNuggets does.

That’s not to say that the rice cooker McNugget rice is unpalatable, as the sauce-enhanced rice was tasty in its own way. However, if you’re in the mood for chicken (a pretty safe assumption if you’re buying Chicken McNuggets), tossing McNuggets in the rice cooker isn’t going to magically give you a side of chicken-flavored rice, so that’s a job better left to the Colonel.

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