Best Copycat Benihana Chicken Fried rice - The Fork Bite (2024)

This Benihana Chicken Fried Rice is the perfect copycat recipe for homemade hibachi, just like the one served at Benihanas. It's super delicious and easy to make at home, no tricks required, only lots of garlic butter. Anyone who's been to Benihana will agree that their fried rice is so tasty, and not to be missed.

Cooking Benihana fried rice at home

Though Benihana fried rice may be the king of fried rice, nothing is stopping you from making it at home! All it needs are a few simple ingredients, and either chicken or shrimp or a bit of both.

It's easy to make using a few ingredients you find at home. There's nothing exotic in this copycat chicken fried rice recipe. It's effortless to make, and once you start making it at home, I'm sure you may even stop going to Benihana!!

I've stopped going, and I don't regret it!

To me, I think it's the garlic butter that gives the fried rice its authentic taste. The taste is so enthralling that they even use it in their hibachi entrees like hibachi steak and shrimp.

It's all because it adds an excellent buttery umami flavor to dishes without being too overpowering. In short, it's the reason why people ask you, "What's your secret ingredient that makes the dish so delicious!

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What's the best rice for fried rice?

I've tried making fried rice with various rice variants and have decided that medium to long grain rice is the best. I like using Jasmine rice because its fluffy and sturdy grains don't fall apart when fried. However, short-grain rice like glutinous rice or sweet/sushi rice tends to get soft and sticks together.

Can you use freshly cooked rice for fried rice?

Of course, you can! I tried and tested this trick and my fried rice worked perfectly fine.

All you have to do is spread out the rice on a plate or tray while it's hot. Give it some time for its surface moisture to evaporate, and you can use it to make some excellent fried rice. Of course, even a day's old rice makes perfect fried rice.

What is hibachi food?

It's when you realize the literal meaning of Hibachi is 'fire bowl' that you get an idea of the amount of heat used in cooking it! Hibachi refers to meat, vegetable, and seafood dishes cooked on high heat using a metal cooking plate. You find a wooden or ceramic container filled with burning wood or charcoal under the cooking plate.

What kind of butter is used in Hibachi?

Benihana's garlic butter is indeed a super dish that adds personality to so many types of dishes. It complements chicken, steamed vegetables, steaks, salmon, bread, and much more. It's also so easy to make, using unsalted butter, lemon juice, fresh garlic, and soy sauce. Check on how to cook the Benihana garlic butter recipe at the bottom of this post.

What Seasoning do hibachi chefs use?

Garlic, ginger, and sesame seeds are the three most common dry spices used in hibachi cuisine. Garlic's flavor is most intense if you use it in whole clove form while garlic and jarred minced paste are also quite spicy.

Follow these tricks to make the best fried rice

1 Always use the right rice.

The rice texture is what defines the perfect fried rice. Typically all Chinese variant medium grain rice goes well for fried rice.

However, the Thai-style fried rice uses fragrant jasmine while fried rice cooked the Japanese way comes out well with even if cooked with sushi rice, which is short grain rice.

Type of rice for making fried rice

• Jasmine Rice
  Jasmine is medium-grain rice popularly used in Thai cuisine. It is perfectly balanced in stickiness, making it easy to eat. Jasmine rice has its signature aroma, and its individual grains are a superior texture. It's perfect for quick and straightforward stir-fried dishes where the flavors shine right through.
• Sushi rice
  Sushi rice is Japanese-style short-grain rice that's stickier than ordinary medium-grain rice. While it's difficult to stir without any clumping, it tastes chewy at the end, making it an excellent rice option.
• Medium-grain white rice
  Chinese restaurants usually use medium-grain white rice. It is optimally balanced rice, like jasmine rice, but with a slightly less floral aroma. So while the rice is a good team player, it's not that as versatile as jasmine rice.

2 Plan ahead of time

I've always wondered if it's true that fried rice is better made with a day's old rice because fresh rice may get mushed while drying it.

However, I soon found out that it's not true. I learned that you could easily make some superior fried rice as long as you give the fresh rice enough resting time.

It's because these things happen when rice sits.

• The moisture in the rice evaporates to give you dry rice.
• Starch retrogradation also takes place while rice cools down. It is where the swollen and softened cooked gelatinized starches start crystallizing. It firms up the rice and makes it less sticky. Bread also goes through the same process, which is why it dries as it stales.

Methods on how to make the rice cool down

• Fanned Rice

  Fanned rice is cooked rice that's spread on a tray to cool down. Place it under the fan for about an hour to let the rice dry up but not end up stale, just like you need it.

• Fresh Cooked rice

  You can also make excellent fried rice with freshly cooked rice. You just have to spread it out on a plate or tray when it is still hot. Leave it there for a few minutes, which gives the rice surface moisture enough time to evaporate.

• Day-Old rice

  Rice, which is a day old, is perfect for fried rice but may clump. It's better to loosen it up with your hands before adding to the wok to stir-fry. And as it's internally drier than freshly cooked rice, you will have to quickly start with its stir-frying to ensure it doesn't get hard. Otherwise, a day's old rice is excellent for making fried rice.

  See Also

  Copycat Benihana Fried Rice Recipe - CopyKat RecipesBenihana Fried Rice - CJ Eats RecipesBenihana Fried Rice (Copycat Recipe)Benihana Fried Rice Recipe (with Chicken) » Recipefairy.com

3 Don't forget that rice needs washing too!

You need to wash and remove the excess starch in rice before use. It's the starch that makes rice clump, and who likes to eat fried rice that's all clumpy?!

I suggest you rinse off the extra starch first if you plan to cook your fried rice using raw rice. All it takes is a 30-second rinse under a cold tap, or you can also just dip the rice in a bowl of cold water and shake it.

4 Loosen up the rice

There is the possibility of the rice you use for your fried rice ending up clumped or stale. If yes, then I suggest you break it up before adding it to the wok. It ensures that the rice is separated into its independent grains so that there's no risk or possibility of it getting crushed or broken while stir-frying.

If you wonder if it's a good idea to oil cold rice before adding it to the wok, it's not. I've tried it and found out that cold oil isn't as effective at spreading as heated oil is. So the only thing you do is use much more oil than you require. I suggest you loosen up the rice clumps with your hand and add oil only to the wok.

You can start cooking once your rice is loosened, and ready for cooking. Remember that fried rice is quicker to make when compared to other common stir-fry elements like meat and vegetables.

While it's the rice that may not end up overcooked, fried rice is a quick-cooking dish. So I suggest you keep all your spices and mix-ins ready before setting up the wok on the burner.

5 Do your cooking in a wok

I do agree that woks and their rings of burners weren't built for commercialized gas ranges. However, they are always a better option to stir fry food than skillets or saucepans. It has different heat zones where you can quickly shift the ingredients to the sides from the center if and when you need to add new components, and it's so easy to toss and flip food in it.

That's the secret to getting wok hei; the flavor reached after vaporizing and combusting oil as you toss the rice.

My personal choice is a flat bottomed wok. I like it because there is no risk or worry that it may accidentally topple over. It's a cheap, carbon steel wok that darkens to a shiny, and nonstick black finish once you keep using it.

Important note

Woks give the best dishes on gas cooktops. It is because the flame rises and heats both the wok's sides and base. So if you use an induction or heating coil stovetop, then I suggest using a flat but heavy cast-iron or nonstick skillet. You may not get the rice with the wok hei flavor, but there's no other option for electric cooktop owners!

6 Keep things hot

The biggest mistake I've made while making fried rice is not waiting for the pot to get really hot and cooking large amounts of rice at a time. The only thing you end up with is a clump of mushy rice in the wok center, and you have to scrape it off.

You could say that cooking fried rice is something like how you sear beef chunks while making beef stew. You must use a piping hot pan before adding rice. This way helps the exterior brown to give a good texture before it starts exuding too much moisture internally, and you end up with steamed and not fried rice.

7 Go easy with add-ins

Remember that just like pasta is the integral ingredient in a plate of pasta, your rice should be the highlight of your fried rice. Whatever ingredients you add should be flavor enhances, and not individual stars.

I keep my fried rice simple with diced onion, garlic, scallion, and carrot.

I prefer using pre-cooked meat like diced ham or some shredded chicken. Or I may even sear the beef in the wok middle before adding other mix-ins.

It's when the meat and ingredients are warm in the middle of the wok that I start tossing them and the rice, and then lastly stir fry everything together.

8 Go easy with the sauce

I've come across many recipes that ask you to add lots of soy, hoisin, or oyster sauces to the fried rice. It always made me wonder what the point was in adding dry and single rice grains to the fried rice if you were anyway going to soak them in these sauces eventually!!

It's with trial and error that I found out that the cooking technique is crucial for cooking fried rice. There's no need to add too much sauce to make exceptional fried rice. One teaspoon of soy sauce and sesame oil will give you fragrant fried rice.

9 Season rice with salt

While the soy sauce does make the rice salty, it won't season the entire dish. You need to add some salt to season the rice, and not soy sauce. Salt doesn't add any excess moisture and doesn't distract any of the subtle rice flavors.

10 How to add the egg

Don't worry. There technically isn't any rule to follow to add eggs to fried rice. It's just that there are so many ways to add it; I always prefer using the easiest method.

All you have to do is push the rice to the sides and add some oil to the wok bottom. Now crack and scramble an egg in the wok middle. Use your spatula top to break the egg into smaller pieces and then toss mix and evenly distribute everything.

11 Add some fresh green ingredients

I prefer adding fresh green vegetables to it before serving. You can add any greenies like sliced scallion, chopped cilantro, mint, or even green peas. And if you wonder, I use frozen peas because I feel it beats fresh peas!

12 Toss well

Now that you've added all the ingredients, a few good tosses help give you a plate of exceptional fried rice. You should end up with fried rice with individual rice grains and evenly distributed mix-ins.

Ingredients you'll need

• • 2 tablespoon safflower oil
  • 8 oz chicken thighs
  • 2 cups rice (cooked and cold) ** check the Notes
  • 2 tablespoon garlic butter (+extra 1 teaspoon for the rice - optional)
  • 3 eggs
  • ¼ cup green onions (sliced)
  • ¼ cup onion (diced)
  • ¼ cup carrots (diced)
  • 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper

Garnish:

• 2 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoon green onions

Benihana garlic butter recipe

• 1 stick unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce

Step by step instructions

Prep the Fried Rice:

1 Break the cold rice using a fork. Set aside. Cut the veggies and set them aside.

2 Using wok or skillet, heat the safflower oil over medium heat. Cook the chicken and stir occasionally until it turned to lightly brown, firm, and opaque throughout.

3 Season with salt and pepper, continue to stir, and add 2 tablespoon of garlic butter and stir to coat the chicken.

4 Push the chicken on the side and add the green onions, onions, and carrots. Stir until softened. Scramble the eggs (season the eggs with salt and pepper). Stir and combine all together.

5 Add the cold rice, season with oyster sauce and fish sauce. Stir and stir until the rice is warm and brown.

6 Serve hot and top with green onions and sesame seeds.

How to cook the Benihana garlic butter:

1 Gather all the ingredients and combine them in a bowl using a folding method.

2 Gently fold the room temperature UNSALTED butter toward the center of the bowl until the ingredients are evenly mixed.

3 Once you get the desired even color, you have reached the right consistency. You can stop right there because you don't want the butter to soften too much while at room temperature.

4 Place the garlic butter mixture in a container (with an airtight lid) and store it in the fridge for future use. The butter will last for at least 3 weeks or will be good for a month if being stored in the fridge (in an airtight lid container).

Other Rice Recipes:

• Nasi Goreng Indonesian Fried Rice
• Chicken and Rice Casserole
• Chinese Sticky Rice
• Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

Full Recipe