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What is Hayashi Rice?
Hayashi rice (ハヤシライス) is a popular Western-style dish in Japan. It’s made with tender, thinly sliced beef, soft onions, crunchy bell peppers, and earthy mushrooms, all simmered in a tasty demi-glace style sauce.
You’d find this dish in many yoshoku restaurants across Japan, but it’s also commonly made at home using store-bought roux cubes (a bit like the ones you use to make Japanese curry.)
As the word “rice” is included in the name, you can assume that Hayashi Rice is only served with rice; however, it can also be enjoyed with bread or mashed potatoes. I make hayashi rice with delicious garlic butter fried rice included in this recipe.
How I Developed This Recipe
In Japan, while many people opt for the convenience of store-bought premade roux when making Hayashi Rice, a certain satisfaction and flavor comes from making it entirely from scratch at home. With this philosophy in mind, I developed a recipe to create the best possible Hayashi Rice without relying on premade roux.
The key to this recipe is not just avoiding the roux; it’s about building layers of flavor that come together to create a rich, comforting dish. Combining garlic fried rice with the mixture gives you an additional depth of flavor and a wonderful aroma that premade roux simply can’t offer.
It’s a dish that brings the warmth and heartiness of a home-cooked meal to your table!
Ingredients & Substitution Ideas
- Thinly Sliced Beef: Choose round or boneless beef short rib.
- Vegetables: Include crushed garlic, sliced yellow onion, cubed bell pepper, and sliced brown button mushrooms.
- Other Ingredients: Salt & pepper, all-purpose flour, unsalted butter.
- Tomato Ketchup: Regular ketchup works; I used Heinz tomato ketchup.
- Red Wine: Substitute with grape or cranberry juice if you want to avoid alcohol in your cooking.
- Worcestershire Sauce: Any brand you usually use.
- Beef Stock or Maggi Bouillon: Dissolve in boiling water for the base.
- Garlic Rice Ingredients: Cooked Japanese short-grain rice, unsalted butter, garlic, and parsley for garnish.
Here is a list of alternative ingredients, substitutions, and variations against the recipe card below to make the best Hayashi Rice to your preference:
- Chicken thigh or pork belly (instead of beef)
- Mushroom of your choice (instead of baby chestnut mushroom)
- Green peas
- Aubergine (eggplant)
- Spinach
- Broccoli
- Grated hard cheese for extra flavor
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Visual Walkthrough & Tips
Here are my step-by-step instructions for how to make Hayashi Rice at home. For ingredient quantities and simplified instructions, scroll down for the Printable Recipe Card below.
I use thinly sliced beef for this recipe. You can buy it already sliced or store the beef in the freezer until firm (not frozen!) and cut it thinly using a sharp knife. Sprinkle the beef with salt and pepper and coat in a thin layer of flour.
The flour helps the beef pick up more flavor in the pan and thickens the sauce.
Preheat a large pan or pot to medium to medium-low and melt the butter. Crush your garlic cloves straight into the pan and fry until fragrant. Be careful not to burn the garlic, which can create a bitter taste.
Add the beef to the pan and seal on both sides. This helps keep the juices in the beef, making it tender and flavorful.
Add the thinly sliced onions to the pan and sauté until slightly softened. If they start sticking to the pan, add a little more butter or even a drizzle of olive oil.
Add bell pepper and mushrooms once the onions are softened to your liking. I cut the bell pepper into squares and thinly slice the mushrooms. Stir fry everything together for about 1 minute and reduce the heat to low.
Before adding any of the sauce ingredients, add some plain flour and mix until evenly distributed over the ingredients. This will help the sauce stick to the ingredients and also contribute to thickening.
Next, add the ketchup and mix thoroughly.
Once everything is coated in the ketchup, pour in the red wine and Worcestershire sauce.
Finally, add the beef stock and turn up the heat to medium-high, stirring occasionally to prevent anything from burning on the bottom of the pan. Once the mixture has thickened, you can return the heat to simmer and keep it warm while you cook the rice.
The sauce should be slightly thick and glossy like this.
Heat a large pan or wok on medium and add butter and crushed garlic.
Once the butter has melted and the garlic smells fragrant, add the cooked rice to the pan and stir fry with a sprinkle of parsley until the rice is warmed through and the flavors are evenly distributed throughout the rice.
I always recommend using “day-old” rice for fried rice dishes. Freshly cooked rice tends to become a bit mushy or sticks together, whereas leftover rice that has been cooked and chilled always makes perfect fried rice! It’s not essential, but recommended!
Serve your hayashi beef and garlic butter rice together on a plate. You could also decorate it with a sprig of fresh parsley.
I hope you enjoy this delicious Japanese hayashi rice shortcut recipe!
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FAQ
Hayashi rice is a Japanese dish with Western influence. However, the origin of this dish remains unclear. It is known to have been created during the Meiji period (1868-1912) in Hyogo prefecture in Japan; however, how it came to be is still a mystery.
There are different theories regarding the origin of its name as well. It is said that the name “hayashi rice” comes from the English “hashed beef with rice” or “hashed and rice.” Back then, few people could speak English in Japan, so “hashed” became mispronounced as “Hayashi.”
Considering the theory of name, we can assume the dish was inspired by “hashed beef.” According to records, Hashed Beef was mentioned in old English cookbooks and refers to dishes where leftover roast beef was boiled with shallots and pickles to make stew. It has also been mentioned in an American home encyclopedia as a dish where thinly sliced beef is cooked with onions in anchovy sauce, mushroom gravy, and ketchup. However, in Japan, Hayashi Rice is often made with “Demi Glace” sauce, which is French in origin. It seems that Japanese Hayashi Rice took inspiration from all over the world!
I must admit that when I was a kid, I considered hayashi rice as “fake curry rice.” I mean, they look very alike in a kid’s eye, and I thought it was somehow a cousin of curry rice or something but it tastes different. But in fact, they are two completely different dishes.
The first fundamental difference is that Japanese curry rice is a dish that evolved from India to England and Japan, while Hayashi rice’s origin is not so clear, but the sauce is mostly inspired by French cuisine. Even though they both have a gravy-like taste and texture, the flavors of each dish are vastly different.
To be more specific, curry rice uses a lot of spices and has a spicy and complex flavor, while hashed rice has a more sour taste of tomatoes and wine in a thick sauce. So making curry rice from scratch is strenuous (although I have curry rice from scratch recipe), but Hayashi rice can be simple, even from scratch.
As I mentioned above, beef is predominantly used and is the best option for this dish as beef pairs well with the sauce’s tomato and red wine element. However, if you prefer chicken or pork, you can still use these simply by switching out the beef.
When substituting meats, I recommend using fatty cuts that add more flavor to the sauce. In the case of using pork, I would recommend a thinly sliced pork belly, and for a chicken version, skin-on chicken thigh cut into bitesize pieces would work best.
In this recipe, I use the beef stock cube as well, but if you use different meats instead, you can also use other stock to match the meat of your choice.
If you combine hayashi rice and omurice, you can make a whole new dish that we call “omuhayashi.” You simply make omurice as usual and then pour the beef hayashi stew over the top. It’s seriously delicious; it’s a double combo!
If you’re interested in making “omuhayashi,” see our recipe post how to make omurice here!
I hope you enjoy this Hayashi Rice recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers. Thank you!
More Japanese Dinner Recipes
- Best Tonkatsu (Deep-fried Japanese Pork Cutlet）
- Hambagu (Japanese Hamburger Steak)
- Japanese Style Mapo Tofu (Mabo Dofu)
- Teriyaki Beef Rice Bowl with Wasabi Twist
Want more inspiration? Explore my Japanese Dinner Recipe Roundup Post for a carefully selected collection of tasty recipe ideas to spark your next meal!
Beef Hayashi Rice (Without Roux Packet)
Equipment
Ingredients
“Hayashi” Beef
- 200 g beef round or boneless beef short rib, thinly sliced
- 1 pinch salt and pepper
- 2 tsp all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 clove garlic crushed
- 100 g yellow onion sliced
- 150 g bell pepper cubed
- 80 g brown button mushroom sliced
- 1 tsp all-purpose flour to thicken
Sauce
- 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 4 tbsp red wine
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 300 ml beef bouillon or maggi buillon
Rice
- 2 portions cooked Japanese short-grain rice
- 1 tsp unsalted butter
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tsp parsley finely chopped or dry
Instructions
Hayashi Beef
- Sprinkle 200 g beef round with 1 pinch salt and pepper, and 2 tsp all-purpose flour. Mix well until all the beef is evenly coated.
- Heat up a large pan on medium/medium low and add 1 tbsp unsalted butter and 1 clove garlic .
- Once the butter is melted and the garlic is fragrant, add the beef to the pan and sear on both sides.
- Next, add 100 g yellow onion to the pan and fry until softened.
- Add 150 g bell pepper and 80 g brown button mushroom, mix and reduce the heat to a low setting.
- Sprinkle 1 tsp all-purpose flour over the ingredients in the pan and mix well.
Hayashi Sauce
- Add 2 tbsp tomato ketchup, 4 tbsp red wine and 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, mixing in between each ingredient.
- Finally, add 300 ml beef bouillon and turn up the heat to medium high. Stir occasionally.
- Once thickened, turn the heat down to the lowest heat to keep it warm while frying the rice.
Butter Garlic Rice
- Heat a separate pan on a medium heat and add 1 tsp unsalted butter and 1 clove garlic.
- Once fragrant, add 2 portions cooked Japanese short-grain rice and stir fry for a few minutes. Sprinkle with 1 tsp parsley and mix until it's distributed throughout the rice.
- Dish up the rice onto one side of the serving plates and pour the hayashi beef next to it. Garnish with fresh parsley and enjoy!
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