What is the secret ingredient to restaurant fried rice?

Cooking bits of chopped vegetables, seasoning, soy sauce, and oil, seems easy enough. However, when making fried rice at home, there's one ingredient you may be overlooking: Sugar.

Why is Benihana rice so good?

Once the rice is mature, each grain is harvested and carefully dried to maintain an ideal moisture level . This ensures perfect, tender and fluffy Benihana rice once it's cooked by our master teppanyaki chefs. At Benihana, creating classic flavors that guests crave means using quality ingredients for each recipe.

What do hibachi chefs squirt on rice?

What sauce do hibachi chefs use on rice? If you've been to a hibachi restaurant, you've no doubt seen the unlabeled plastic squirt bottles they use to season all the food. These bottles contain a variety of oils and a soy sauce or soy sauce blend that gives hibachi food its distinct flavor.

What do they squirt on hibachi?

In hibachi, a theatrical take on Japanese teppanyaki cooking, sake is used both to flavor the food and set it on fire during routines such as "the volcano."

What gives Japanese fried rice its flavor?

Japanese garlic fried rice is typically made with short-grain rice, and uses garlic, butter, and soy sauce to flavor the dish. A popular variation of the dish is to scramble in some eggs for some added protein.

Should I put rice vinegar in my fried rice?

Season With Soy Sauce, Rice Vinegar, and Sesame Oil While not every recipe calls for this fried rice trifecta, many of our favorites do. Why? Soy sauce is the salt element, rice vinegar gives the dish a touch of brightness , and sesame oil lends an utterly delicious, toasty note.

Why does homemade fried rice not taste like restaurant?

The answer: high heat, expert tosses, and something known as 'wok hei. ' As J. Kenji López-Alt writes for Serious Eats, expert cooking with a wok (and the gas range it requires) is one of the main reasons that fried rice from a Chinese restaurant tastes so much better than what you can make at home.

What is Benihana style cooking?

In the United States, teppanyaki (more commonly known simply as hibachi) was made famous by the Benihana restaurant chain, which opened its first restaurant in New York in 1964. Though Benihana cooks their food teppanyaki-style, they also serve dishes such as hibachi steak and chicken.

What makes hibachi rice taste so good?

Soy Sauce - Helps to give the fried rice an umami flavor and dark rich color. Light soy sauce or low sodium soy sauce can be used. Toasted Sesame Oil - Adds a nice toasted flavor to the recipe and pairs well with the other rice ingredients. Try not to use too much, as this oil has a very strong flavor.

What's so special about Benihana?

Named after his parents' Tokyo coffee shop, Benihana opened in 1964, featuring an authentic Japanese farmhouse interior and food prepared on steel teppanyaki grills right in front of customers . His highly trained teppanyaki chefs delighted customers with intricate knife work and theatrics.

How do you get hibachi flavor?

However, many hibachi restaurants serve a teriyaki sauce with the food. What gives hibachi unique flavor? If truly being cooked with fire, the coals or wood, but in the US, sesame oil, good quality dark soy sauce and butter with salt give it flavor.

What are the five basic seasoning in Japanese cuisine?

An Introduction to Five Core Seasonings in Japanese Cuisine Soy Sauce (Shoyu) Soy sauce, known as "shoyu" in Japanese, is arguably the most well-known and widely used seasoning in Japanese cuisine. ... Mirin. ... Dashi. ... Wasabi. ... Shichimi Togarashi.

How do you season a hibachi griddle?

To season the grill, you need to heat it until you can see smoke coming from it . Make sure to distribute the oil evenly before heating the grill. After fifteen minutes of grilling, allow the grill to cool for at least ten minutes before repeating the process.

DIY Benihana Recipes You Can Make at Home (2024)

446

VOTES

Benihana Fried Rice

DIY Benihana Recipes You Can Make at Home (1)

Photo: flickr / CC0

Feel free to combine this fried recipe with one of the steak or chicken recipes included on this list.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cook 1 cup of rice according to the directions on the outside of its package. Place 5 tbsp. of butter into a large skillet. Add in onions, carrots and scallions and saute until the carrots become translucent. Remove ingredients from pan and set aside. Next, please 3 tbsp. of sesame seeds in a shallow pan and place in oven. Bake until they are golden brown in color, approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

Make sure to shake the pan a few times to insure the seeds are evenly colored. Beat 5 eggs in a bowl and pour into a greased skillet. Scramble eggs. Next, add in the cooked rice, vegetables and sesame seeds. Add in 5 tbsp. of soy sauce, salt and pepper, to taste.

446 votes

282

VOTES

Benihana Onion Soup

DIY Benihana Recipes You Can Make at Home (2)

Photo: flickr / CC0

This recipe is a bit more time-consuming, but still worth the effort.

Combine 4 cups of canned chicken broth and two cups of water in a large saucepan and cook over high heat. While the broth and water are cooking, chop one white onion in half. Set one half off to the side and chop the second half coarsely. Also coarsely chop up 1/2 a carrot and a 1/2 celery stalk. Add the onions, carrots and celery into the saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for approximately 10 minutes or until the onions begin to turn translucent. Once ten minutes are up, remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon. Keep the soup on low heat.

While the broth is simmering, heat one cup of oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Slice the second half of the onion into thin slices and separate each piece. Dip each into one cup of milk and then in 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Fry the onions, a small handful at a time, until they are a golden brown color. Place them on a paper towel to drain.

Spoon soup into a bowl. Drop a few pieces of onion into the bowl. Add in about six to eight thin-sliced mushrooms. Allow them to sink to the bottom of the bowl before eating, approximately one minute.

282 votes

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VOTES

Benihana Ginger Salad Dressing

DIY Benihana Recipes You Can Make at Home (3)

Photo: Metaweb / CC-BY

This dressing is delicious on top of a salad.

Combine the following ingredients in a blender: 1/2 cup of minced onion, 1/2 cup of peanut oil, 1/3 cup of rice vinegar, 2 tbsp. of water, 2 tbsp. of minced fresh ginger, 2 tbsp. minced celery, 2 tbsp. of ketchup, 4 tsp. of soy sauce, 2 tsp. of sugar, 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice, 1/2 tsp. of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. of black pepper. Blend on the highest speed for approximately 30 second or until ginger is well-pureed. Store in refrigerator when done.

178 votes

Benihana Magic Mustard Sauce

DIY Benihana Recipes You Can Make at Home (4)

Photo: flickr / CC0

This is a yummy dipping sauce that almost any type of meat or seafood tastes good in.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place 1 tbsp. of sesame seeds in a shallow pan and place in oven. Toast for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the sesame seeds are golden brown. Make sure to toss the seeds a couple times to insure the seeds are evenly colored.

In a small bowl, combine 3 tbsp. of dry mustard and 2 tbsp. of hot water. The mixture will form a paste. Place the paste into a blender with the toasted sesame seeds, 3/4 cup of soy sauce and 1/4 cup of crushed garlic. Blend on the highest setting for about one minute. Remove and place in a bowl. Add in heavy cream, previously whipped, and blend together.

Store in refrigerator.

286 votes

251

VOTES

Benihana Shrimp Sauce

DIY Benihana Recipes You Can Make at Home (5)

Photo: Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY

Here's another simple but yummy sauce.

Combine 2 cups of mayonnaise, 1/2 cup of water, 1 tsp. of sugar, 1/4 tsp. of salt, 1 tbsp. of garlic juice, 3-4 tsp. of ketchup, 1 tsp. of ground ginger, 1 tsp. of hot sauce, 1 tsp. dry mustard, t tsp. of paprika and 3/4 tsp. of white pepper in a bowl. Whisk until well blended and then add into shrimp.

251 votes

128

VOTES

Benihana Hibachi Chicken

DIY Benihana Recipes You Can Make at Home (6)

Photo: flickr / CC0

Like Hibachi steak, this chicken goes well with rice.

Heat 1 tbsp. of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place 1 1/2 lbs. of bite-size boneless chicken pieces and mushrooms into skillet and cook until chicken is no longer pink, about 8 minutes. Add in 2 tbsp. of lemon juice and 2 tbsp. of sesame seeds. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.

128 votes

DIY Benihana Recipes You Can Make at Home (2024)

Benihana Fried Rice

Benihana Onion Soup

Benihana Ginger Salad Dressing

Benihana Magic Mustard Sauce

Benihana Shrimp Sauce

Benihana Hibachi Chicken

FAQs

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