Hibachi Chicken – If you’ve been to Benihana, the Japanese steakhouse restaurant, you already know that ordering a hibachi meal is as much about performance as it is the food. It’s a culinary experience, dining around a sizzling hot flat grill where you eat food with all your senses.

The sizzling of butter and the searing sounds of meat on the hot grill, the beautiful aromas of grilled meats and vegetables and the buttery, garlicky delicious flavors, all with a good dose of entertainment and cooking skills by your chef at the table…

Hibachi dinners sure create good fun memories. How about creating that same Hibachi experience in your own home for your friends and family? You won’t need that huge flat hot grill for sure.

Hibachi meals are simple, super delicious and happen in a flash. We will tell you all the tips and tricks to make a cracking Hibachi style meal. Let’s start today with this simple and delicious Hibachi Chicken!!

Here, bite sized chicken is quickly seared over high heat. The big flavors are created with the help of just two ingredients, butter and soy sauce. Quite remarkable.

Then you will serve Hibachi Chicken just like in a restaurant, with Hibachi style sautéed veggies and Hibachi fried rice, with a good dunking in their famous Yum Yum Sauce.

Our usual stir fries like Chicken Stir Fry, Kung Pao Chicken, and Beijing Beef have lots of sauces and flavor enhancers. Not this Hibachi style chicken. It won’t need it.

We Love Hibachi Chicken, Why?

1. Hibachi chicken is a meal with simple pantry staple ingredients, and yet it tastes super delicious. Sometimes you don’t need tons of ingredients to create flavors. Just the butter and soy sauce give you very tasty chicken.
2. This meal can be served with different components, like with fried rice and sautéed veggies. But everything happens fast, as it’s flash cooking on high heat. You can do everything in the same big skillet, so not too much clean up later.
3. You can create famous Benihana restaurant copycats at home very easily at a fraction of the price.
4. It’s very versatile. You can cook the same recipe with different proteins like steak, shrimp or pork. You can even swap veggies to whatever is your preference, or available.

What is Hibachi Chicken?

Hibachi is an ancient Japanese cooking appliance, and the food prepared using Hibachi is called Japanese Hibachi food. Hibachi is a Japanese word where “hi” means fire and “bachi” means a bowl.

So Hibachi, aka “fire bowl”, is basically a traditional Japanese open-grate cast iron barbecue grill. With this cooking technique, everything happens quick, in a flash like quick stir fries, due to the high heat cooking method on a hot sizzling grill.

In North America, the term “Hibachi” is known for fancy dinners with a show in Japanese steakhouse restaurants like Benihana and Kobe. It’s very similar to Teppanyaki Japanese restaurants, where the chef prepares delicious food right in front of you with fresh meats and vegetables.

With very little condiments and spices, and using high searing temperatures, Hibachi flawlessly cooks chicken, shrimp, steak, scallops and vegetables using less fat.

Today’s Hibachi chicken is simply a dish of diced chicken, cooked Hibachi style with butter and soy, and sears fast on high heat. It’s usually accompanies by sautéed vegetables and fried rice, and served with yum yum or mustard sauce.

You won’t need any fancy Hibachi grill for this chicken stir fry dish. Any wide skillet, preferably a wider cast iron pan or even a good wok work perfectly. A Blackstone griddle is another great tool in your kitchen to cook Hibachi Chicken and veggies.

Hibachi Chicken Ingredients

We are making making this meal with all of the components that come with a Hibachi chicken dinner at the restaurant. Your would need following ingredients to make this restaurant style meal.

Hibachi Chicken

• Chicken – You can use chicken breast or boneless, skinless chicken thighs for this recipe, though chicken breast is used commonly in restaurants. Cut it into bite size pieces.
• Butter – Butter is what makes it hugely special. The flavors would be totally different without it. It gives a big “oomph” compared to oil.
• Garlic – Great flavor booster.
• Soy Sauce – Most authentic recipes out of Japanese restaurants use only soy sauce, skipping the other complex flavors.
• Pepper – Just a dash to join the buttery, garlicky, soy flavor.

Hibachi Vegetables

• Veggies – Onion, zucchini, carrot, and mushrooms. You can swap them with any of your favorite stir fry veggies.
• Butter – Again, a must for Japanese style stir fries.
• Soy sauce – Only sauce we are using.
• Pepper

Hibachi Fried Rice

• Butter
• Veggies – Carrot, peas, corn (optional).
• Aromatics – Ginger and garlic.
• Rice – Use cold leftover rice when making fried rice.
• Flavor enhancers – Soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil.
• For scrambled eggs in fried rice – Eggs and a dash of salt.

Yum Yum Sauce

• Mayonnaise – We use Dukes, but any of your favorite good quality mayo will do.
• Tomato Paste – It lends to the pink color.
• Melted butter – It makes the sauce extra special.
• Rice vinegar – For a little tang.
• Honey – For a hint of sweetness.
• Paprika – Regular, not smoked.
• Garlic Powder – Just a hint.
• Water – To make the sauce less thick.

Hibachi Chicken Dinner Recipe

You can cook Hibachi chicken in just a matters of minutes on busy weeknights, and serve it with regular white rice for a quick meal option.

But to have a complete Hibachi style chicken dinner, serve this chicken the way it’s always served, along with quick sautéed veggies and fried rice with a side of yum yum sauce to dunk the chicken bites in.

Hibachi Chicken: Heat butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Add diced chicken and cook for 4-5 minutes, sautéing. Add garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add in soy sauce and pepper and cook till chicken is cooked through. Plate it out.

Hibachi Vegetables: In the same skillet, melt butter and sauté cut veggies till they start to soften a bit. Add in soy sauce and pepper, and cook till veggies are cooked to your preferred crunchiness. Plate them out.

Hibachi Fried Rice: In the same skillet, heat butter and sauté carrots, peas and corn over high heat for 3-4 minutes. Add in chopped ginger and garlic and sauté for a minute. Add in rice along with soy sauce and sesame oil, and stir fry rice with veggies, combining everything well. Make a well in between the rice, pushing it towards the edges of the skillet. Scramble egg in the well with a little salt, then mix it with the rice.

Yum yum sauce: Mix all sauce ingredients together and whisk until well combined.

Serve Hibachi chicken with sautéed veggies, fried rice and yum yum sauce.

Hibachi Chicken Tips

1. To make restaurant quality Hibachi chicken, always cook it on high heat. This allows quick flash cooking with a good sear to the meat. A large cast iron skillet is ideal to cook Hibachi style recipes. A Blackstone griddle is a big bonus to cook Hibachi style. If cooking in a smaller skillet or pan, cook in batches so as not to over crowd, which can steam the meat and create liquids instead of giving a good sear.

2. The big secret of Japanese style stir fries is using butter to get those amazing hibachi flavors going.

3. Don’t skip the Yum Yum sauce. Every Japanese steak house serves Hibachi chicken, or any of their meats, with this creamy, tangy, spicy sweet sauce. It’s super easy to make yum yum sauce with regular pantry staple ingredients.

4. Use substitutions for chicken breast. Boneless skinless thighs will work beautifully with this recipe. Try other proteins like steak, shrimp or scallops hibachi style! Broccoli, snow peas, baby corn and bell peppers are great as stir frying veggies.

5. Always use cold leftover rice to make fried rice, as freshly cooked rice will give mushy fried rice. If you don’t have leftovers, spread freshly made rice on a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze for 10-15 minutes until chilled, or leave it in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Storing and Reheating

Hibachi chicken, along with fried rice and sautéed veggies, is a great meal prep option, as it refrigerates and freezes very well. Store everything in airtight containers and refrigerate. Eat within 4-5 days.

This would freeze great up to 3 months. Simply thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat it on stove top, or microwave until heated through.

Make this super simple Hibachi experience in your very own kitchen. Sometimes you don’t need a whole show to create magic.

Just simple, delicious flavors in a matter of minutes. Save money and create this Benihana Copycat Chicken Recipe for your family tonight!

Hibachi Chicken, on our Gypsy Plate… enjoy!

Try these other great Japanese Recipes!
Teriyaki Bowls
Tonkatsu
Japanese Beef Curry
Teriyaki Skewers
Katsudon
Katsu Curry