Chew On This: How to Make Teppanyaki (鉄板焼き) Fried Rice

While devouring the bacon fried rice at a costly teppanyaki restaurant, I was tempted to copy down the recipe. I shamelessly did just that. It felt like I was stealing some great chef’s secret recipe – but let’s be honest, it’s not my fault that I could see everything!

Before I delve into the recipe, here is some background on the Teppanyaki style of cooking! Teppanyaki (鉄板焼き) is a Japanese cooking style that uses an iron griddle to cook food. The word teppanyaki is derived from teppan (鉄板), which means iron plate, and yaki (焼き), which means grilled, broiled, or pan-fried. 

In essence, teppanyaki is pretty much food cooked on a flat iron stove with an iron spatula, much like the chef in the above image. Examples of some teppanyaki-cooked foods include steak, shrimp, fried rice, okonomiyaki (savory, hash brown-like pancakes with vegetables, meat, cheese, and other traditional Japanese toppings ), yakisoba (Japanese stir-fried noodles), and monjayaki (similar to okonomiyaki, except in the contents of its batter).

Hungry in your dorm room? Craving teppanyaki fried rice? Bored at home? Read on for the recipe below!

Ingredients (adjust as needed):

1. Cooked white rice
2. 2 Eggs
3. Bacon
4. Shallots or Onions
5. Carrots
6. Scallion
7. Soy Sauce
8. Butter
9. Salt
10. Pepper

Directions (heat should be medium – but adjust as needed):

1. Wash carrots, shallots/onions, and scallion
2. Dice everything – carrots, shallots/onions, bacon, scallion
3. Pour some oil into a pan and turn it up to medium heat
4. Cook small pieces of raw bacon on pan from step 3 – Cook bacon ALONE – then place in a bowl for later use
5. Cook diced up shallots or onion on pan – Cook shallots/onions ALONE – then place in a bowl for later use
6. Scramble egg on pan into small pieces
7. Add all of the rice + diced carrots + the bacon from step 4 + the shallots/onions from step 5 into the pan with scrambled eggs
8. Stir everything together and press fried rice into pan repeatedly
9. Keep tossing everything in the pan
10. On a separate pan, turn heat up to high and make soy sauce, butter mix – stir butter and soy sauce together until it comes to a boil
11. Pour the boiling soy sauce, butter mix into pan with fried rice
12. Stir it all together, while repetitively pressing rice into pan
13. Add salt and pepper (if you would like) while tossing and still pressing the fried rice into the pan
14. Complete!

Enjoy!