Last Updated on August 16, 2024 by Carne Diem
Protein: Beef, Shrimp, Chicken
Method: Griddle or Flat top
Jump to RecipeMaking Japanese teppanyaki at home is a fun and delicious experience. Using a flat top griddle like a Blackstone, you can recreate this traditional Japanese dining experience at home with these step-by-step instructions.
Table of contents
Our kids love going to eat at Japanese teppanyaki restaurants, watching the chefs prepare the meal in front of them and putting on a show. You may be surprised that you can make a great Japanese Teppanyaki meal at home. In fact, making Japanese teppanyaki on our grill at home, has become one of our favorite special dining in meals. It is so easy and fun to make teppanyaki on a griddle at home like a Blackstone or Cooking Steel, and we will share our step-by-step instructions for pulling off the entire teppanyaki experience.
Teppanyaki vs Hibachi
What is the difference between teppanyaki and hibachi? There seems to be a fair amount of confusion between these two Japanese cooking methods, especially in the United States. Both are a fantastic Japanese style of cooking for preparing meats and vegetables. The difference, however, is in the grill that is used to prepare the meats.
What is hibachi?
Hibachi cooking involves cooking on a grill called a shichirin, and is more similar to American style grilling. The food is grilled at high temperatures on a grill grate, typically above charcoal. The hibachi grill can be used to prepare meats like yakitori or yakiniku, like our A5 Japanese Wagyu Beef With Yakiniku Sauce.
What is Teppanyaki?
Teppanyaki is a Japanese cooking technique using a flat top teppan style grill or hot plate. This method of open flat top cooking is perfect for using a griddle like a Cooking Steel, Blackstone, or other open flat top grill. It is a great method for preparing foods like meat and veggies, and even Flat Top Chicken Fried Rice.
Looking for more ideas of recipes to cook on your griddle or flat top? Check out some of our favorite recipes to make on our Cooking Steel or Blackstone Grill.
- St. Louis Slinger
- Fried Lump Crab Cakes with Sriracha Mayonnaise
- Breakfast Pastrami Hash
- Fried Mashed Potato Cakes with Herbes de Provence Butter
- Peruvian Lomo Saltado: Stir-fried sirloin steak and fries
Making Teppanyaki at Home on your Griddle or Blackstone
The first step at making a great teppanyaki meal at home is choosing your ingredients. We like to do a variety of meats and veggies for our at home teppanyaki. Some of our favorites include beef tenderloin, shrimp, marinated chicken, zucchini, onion, bean sprouts, and mushrooms. Feel free to use your favorites as well and get creative.
What Sauces go with Teppanyaki?
There are a number of great dipping sauces that traditionally go with Japanese teppanyaki, and we have included recipes for some of our favorites, including teppanyaki garlic butter for grilling the meats and veggies, a ginger sauce, and everyone's favorite dipping sauce, Yum Yum Sauce.
Making Teppanyaki Garlic Butter
You will want to make this garlic butter to cook your meats and veggies on the teppan grill. To make the teppanyaki garlic butter you will need 4 ounces whipped butter at room temperature, 2 tablespoons of garlic paste or minced garlic, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce.
Simply whip together the ingredients and then place on a sheet of plastic wrap. Use the plastic wrap to shape the garlic butter into a log. Wrap the compound butter and then place in the refrigerator until needed. This compound garlic butter can be made well ahead of time.
Making Teppanyaki Ginger Sauce
Ginger sauce is one of the classic dipping sauces that you will find at teppanyaki restaurants. This homemade ginger sauce is super easy to make and is fantastic. To make this ginger sauce recipe you will need ¼ cup rice wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon ginger paste or minced ginger, 1 finely diced small shallot and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Simply combine the ingredients in a small bowl and set aside until you are ready to use it.
If you are cooking chicken, we like to marinate the cubed chicken with a little of this ginger sauce for added flavor.
Making Homemade Yum Yum Sauce
Finally, no teppanyaki meal would be complete without Yum Yum Sauce. Honestly, this may be my son's favorite part of the meal. If we just gave him a bowl of Yum Yum sauce and a spoon, he would probably be in heaven.
To make the Yum Yum Sauce for your homemade teppanyaki you will need 1 cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon ketchup, 2 teaspoons garlic powder, 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon sweet paprika, and ½ teaspoon white sugar. For those that like a little heat in their Yum Yum sauce, like they serve at restaurants like BIBIBOP, you can add some cayenne pepper, to taste, to kick up the heat. Combine the Yum Yum Sauce ingredients in a small bowl and refrigerate until needed. We like the Yum Yum sauce best after it has spent a night in the refrigerator.
How to cook Japanese Teppanyaki on your Grill
To make the Japanese Teppanyaki on your grill at home you will need a large griddle or flat top like a Blackstone or Cooking Steel. We love our Cooking Steels, as they are portable and have different shapes and sizes so you can turn almost any grill into a BBQ griddle. For this recipe we made our homemade teppanyaki using a Cooking Steel on our PK Grill. They also make shapes and sizes fitting Weber grills, ceramic grills like a Big Green Egg, and everything in between.
Heat your griddle, Blackstone, or other flat top grill
Preheat your griddle over high heat, about 500 degrees. Give the surface at least 30 minutes to heat up. You will want to have all of your ingredients prepped and close by prior to cooking as things move quickly once you start.
Cook your vegetables and mushrooms
Working in batches, cook the zucchini, mushrooms, onion, bean sprouts, or other vegetables of your choosing, with a couple tablespoons of the garlic butter on the hot griddle. Stir frequently until done. Remove to a bowl for serving.
How do you make an onion volcano with your teppanyaki?
No teppanyaki meal is complete without the iconic onion volcano. To pull this off you will need some cooking oil and a high proof alcohol. Form your volcano and pour a little cooking oil into the bottom of the volcano. Vegetable oil or sesame oil works well. Give it a couple minutes to heat up, then carefully add a little of the high proof alcohol. We typically have had best results with alcohol like Bacardi 151 or a strong brandy.
For best results, using a squirt bottle helps you more safely get the alcohol into the center of the onion volcano. When the volcano begins to smoke you can carefully light it with a long match or lighter, and you should get a nice little fire erupting from the top of the volcano. We do not recommend doing this inside, for obvious reasons.
Cook your proteins
Next, cook the shrimp and teppanyaki steak with a couple tablespoons each of the garlic butter. Stir frequently until cooked through. If desired, your guests can try to catch some shrimp in their mouth. Our dog loves this part, as my family is terrible at catching my perfectly thrown shrimp bites.
Finally cook the chicken with some of the garlic butter until cooked through. By now you should be feeling like one of the master chefs and your favorite teppanyaki restaurant.
Serving your Homemade Japanese Teppanyaki
Serve your sizzling teppanyaki grilled meats and veggies with the Ginger Sauce, Yum Yum Sauce, and white or fried rice. We also like to include additional soy sauce for dipping, and of course some sake.
Frequently Asked Questions
Unfortunately, we do not recommend using an electric griddle for homemade teppanyaki, as most have a non-stick surface that can become damaged with the spatulas and high heat cooking used for the teppanyaki. Cooking teppanyaki style also can produce a fair amount of smoke so it is best done outside, or under a heavy-duty hood.
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📖 Recipe
Japanese Teppanyaki with Ginger and Yum Yum Sauces
Equipment
- Griddle or Flat Top like a Blackstone or Cooking Steel
- Metal Spatula
Ingredients
- 8 Ounces Beef Tenderloin Cubed
- 1 Pound Peeled raw shrimp
- 2 Chicken Breasts Cubed
- 8 Ounces Bean Sprouts
- 8 Ounces Shitake or Bella Mushrooms Sliced
- 1 White Onion Cut into chunks
- 1 Zucchini Cut into 2-inch sticks
Teppanyaki Garlic Butter
- 4 Ounces Whipped Butter room temperature
- 1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
- 2 tablespoons Garlic paste or minced garlic
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Ginger Sauce
- ¼ Cup Rice Wine Vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon ginger paste
- 1 small shallot finely diced
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Yum Yum Sauce:
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- ½ teaspoon white sugar
Instructions
Instructions:
- Mix the room temperature butter with the remaining garlic butter ingredients. Refrigerate until needed.
- Combine Ginger Sauce ingredients in a small bowl and refrigerate until needed.
- Combine Yum Yum Sauce ingredients in a small bowl and refrigerate until needed.
- Marinate the cubed chicken with a small amount of the ginger sauce and refrigerate until needed.
- Preheat your griddle to high heat (500 degrees).
- Working in batches, cook the zucchini, mushrooms, onion and bean sprouts with a couple tablespoons of the garlic butter. Stir frequently until done. Remove to a bowl for serving.
- Cook the shrimp and steak with a couple tablespoons each of the garlic butter. Stir frequently until cooked through. Finally cook the marinated chicken with a little of the garlic butter.
- Serve the steak, shrimp, and veggies with the Ginger Sauce, Yum Yum Sauce, and white rice.
Casey
OMG we did this with friends the other night and it was SO MUCH FUN!! Wayyyyyy cheaper than going out, too! We'll do this again soon--everyone had a blast!!
Anita
Oh man, it's been ages since I went for a teppanyaki. Now I can just grill them at home, and that yum yum sauce is so spot on delicious.
Carne Diem
So glad you enjoyed it!
Tayler
We had this for dinner tonight and OMG was it delicious! Just like at the Japanese steakhouse!
Devan
What a great idea to make this outside at home. I also love how you used that Kerrygold Irish butter which is worth its weight in gold! Thanks for the inspiration!
Kate
I was so delighted at how delicious this turned out! Never thought I could recreate a restaurant-style meal at home. Thank you!
Carne Diem
Thanks!