Easy Jello Mochi (Microwave or Oven)

Jello mochi is a Japanese American staple recipe resulting in fruity, chewy, colorful mochi. The mochi is a Hawaiian style chi chi dango that you can make in the microwave or oven. Choose whatever Jello flavor you like!

What is Jello Mochi?

Jello mochi is a type of Hawaiian chi chi dango style mochi flavored by, you guessed it, Jello! In other words, you definitely won’t find mochi like this in traditional Japanese shops. You will, however, find this kind of mochi in Japanese American shops and in Hawai’i! You’re also likely to see this kind of mochi at Japanese American parties, church potlucks, and the like.

Jello mochi is essentially a chi chi dango recipe – the resulting dish is just a sweet, chewy rice cake cut into squares or rectangles. While you can definitely make a plain chi chi dango recipe, adding jello is a fun and easy way to incorporate different flavors into your mochi.

If you are confused about all the different kinds of mochi dishes there are, definitely check out my Ultimate Guide to Mochi.

How to Flavor Mochi?

Did you know it’s actually kind of hard to flavor mochi? The rice cake is so dense, flavors don’t come through very easily. What may work to flavor a cake or cookie will be muted in mochi. So, if you want to flavor mochi, your options are to use a lot of extract… or use a pack of instant Jello! Basically, you really need something artificial, unless you want to drastically alter your recipe.

Using Jello is actually quite fun! Pick any flavor! You can have orange mochi, raspberry mochi, mango, apricot, strawberry… The photos in this post use PINEAPPLE Jello to make a pineapple flavored mochi! So good! Because instant Jello mixes have gelatin included, your resulting mochi will have more of a bite, almost like a gummy candy. In contrast, my plain chi chi dango recipe without gelatin is more stretchy and elastic. One is not necessarily better than the other. I love both textures. You’ll need to try both to decide your preferred mochi texture for yourself.

Making Mochi in the Microwave vs. Oven vs. Steaming

This recipe originally called for cooking in the microwave, which is how I always made mochi as a kid. However, the best way to cook mochi in the microwave requires a microwaveable tube pan specifically for mochi. I have only ever seen this sold at Japanese markets in California (and most likely Hawai’i as well). I can’t even find it online on Amazon. So if you don’t have a microwaveable tube pan, you can also make this in an 8×8″ microwaveable square dish. However, the middle of the mochi will take longer to cook than the sides. So you’ll have to microwave a couple extra minutes and may have a softer middle with drier side pieces.

Alternatively, you can also make this in the oven! Cover your 8×8″ baking dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees F for 45-55 minutes, or until the middle is cooked. Again, your middle will be perfectly cooked, but the sides may be dry. When I bake chi chi dango in the oven, I often discard the side pieces.

ALTERNATIVELY TO THE ALTERNATIVE, you can also steam mochi to cook it. I, however, do not own a steaming contraption big enough to fit an 8×8″ dish. But if you cut this recipe in half, it should take about 15 minutes steamed.

More Mochi Recipes

I didn’t call this blog Mochi Mommy for no reason. If you love mochi, check out these other mochi recipes:

• Easy Homemade Mochi (Chi Chi Dango)
• Classic Hawaiian Butter Mochi
• Ichigo Daifuku (Stuffed Mochi with Strawberry)
• Yakimochi (Grilled Mochi)
• Pork Belly Mochi Skewers