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.

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 seasoning do they use at hibachi restaurants?

The seasonings at hibachi restaurants are actually pretty simple. Veggies, rice, meats, and seafood are all seasoned with salt and pepper . Almost every dish also gets a hefty hunk of butter and garlic, as well as a squirt of a soy sauce based sauce.

What is the liquid they squirt at 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 do hibachi chefs squirt on rice?

What Seasonings Do They Use At Hibachi? We asked our local hibachi chef and here is what is actually on the cart. The shakers are salt, pepper, sesame seeds, and garlic powder or garlic salt. The squirt bottles are sesame oil, soy sauce, and Japanese barbecue sauce (like Mr.

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 type of steak does Benihana use?

Whether sourcing chicken breast for Benihana's popular Rocky's Choice or filet mignon for our Emperor's Feast entrée, we carefully select each piece of meat to make sure we receive the highest quality, most flavorful options possible and all cuts of beef are USDA Choice .

What is the soup they serve at Benihana?

(Japanese Steakhouse Soup) There are TONS of recipes online for Benihana's famous hibachi onion soup. Some of them are decent.

Do you wash hibachi rice?

How to make Hibachi Fried Rice? Ideally, cook the rice the day before according to the package instructions (rinse it well until the water runs clear before cooking it for the best texture). Let it cool down for 15 minutes, and store it in an airtight container overnight (or at least 4 hours) in the fridge. Sep 27, 2023

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.

What makes fried rice more flavorful?

To give your dish that signature fried rice taste, you'll need to drizzle in sesame oil and soy sauce , but feel free to use as much or as little as you wish. You can even mix in things like garlic powder, ginger root, or Sriracha sauce and chili pepper for a bit of a kick.

What gives Chinese fried rice its color?

Other recipes get the scarlet pigment from red yeast rice powder . Some cooks even use red food coloring to really nail the trademark char siu look. Either way, the result is a sweet-savory umami bite with a crispy exterior and tender interior that have kept foodies coming back for centuries.

DIY Benihana Recipes You Can Make at Home (2024)

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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.

448 votes

283

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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.

283 votes

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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.

287 votes

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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.

253 votes

129

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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.

129 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

What is the secret ingredient to restaurant fried rice? ›

What's so special about Benihana? ›