Along with the more ubiquitous Karei Raisu (curry rice), Hayashi Rice, is a family staple in the Japanese home. Much like mac & cheese in the US, Hayashi Rice is a meal that kids love, and one that evokes childhood memories for grown-ups.
Since most households use "instant" roux blocks (as is the case with Japanese curry), Hayashi Rice is a simple comfort food that doesn't require a lot of fuss. But as good as the roux blocks are, my from-scratch method doesn't take all that much longer, and the results are definitely worth the few extra minutes to add spices and make the roux. Plus, it's all natural without MSG or other weird ingredients.
Although this dish has been around for less than 100 years, no one really seems to know where the name comes from. A common story is that it comes from the western term "hashed beef". While I know that Japanese people have a tendency of mashing together English words, I just don't buy it. Hashed beef would have more likely turned into something along the lines of "Hashibeefu". But there's another theory that the name comes from someone named Hayashi, which seems a more plausible explanation since Hayashi is a pretty common Japanese name.
Regardless of it's origins, it's a spiritual cousin to karei raisu that's somewhere between beef bourguignon and beef stew. With a dark luscious sauce made with caramelized onions, red wine, tomatoes and demi glace, it's rich and full of flavor. The roux thickens it giving the sauce a gravy like consistency that envelopes the tender beef, onions and mushrooms.
If you happen to end up with leftovers, the sauce is fantastic served over omurice (an omelet with fried rice in the middle). What I usually do is brown some garlic in butter then fry the rice, then make an omelet with an egg or two that I stuff with the garlic rice. Heat up some of the Hayashi and pour it on top and it's pure heaven.
📖 Recipe
Units
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 pound beef chuck (cut into ¾" pieces)
- 3 medium onions trimmed and thinly sliced
- 3 small cloves garlic minced
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda (optional)
- 2 cups red wine
- 2 cups water
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cloves
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon tonkatsu sauce (or Worcestershire sauce)
- 1 tablespoon demi-glace (not the canned Japanese kind)
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 8 ounces crimini mushrooms cleaned , trimmed and halved if large
- 8 ounces onions cippolini , peeled and trimmed
- 3 tablespoons cultured unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Heat a large pot or dutch oven over medium high heat until hot, then add the oil. Generously salt and pepper the beef, then add it to the hot oil. Fry undisturbed for a few minutes or until the beef has a golden brown crust on one side, then flip the beef and fry until browned on the second side. The browned crust is were the flavor is at, so the more crust the better.
- Transfer the beef to a plate and set aside. Add some more oil if needed, then add the onions and garlic. Cover with a lid and cook over medium low heat for 10 minutes. Remove the lid, then add the baking soda if you want to speed up the caramelization process. Fry the onions, stirring frequently until it's about ⅙ of the original volume, and is dark brown and glossy. If you add baking soda, this should take about 20 minutes, if you don't, it will take about an hour.
- Return the beef to the pot along with the wine, water, bay leaf, cloves, tomato past, tonkatsu sauce, demi-glace, soy sauce, and paprika, along with the mushrooms and cippolini onions. Partially cover with a lid and cook for 1-2 hours or until the beef is very tender. While the beef is cooking, heat the butter and flour in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Stir continuously until the butter is melted, then stop stirring until the mixture starts taking on a color. Continue cooking and stirring at regular intervals until the roux has reached a caramel brown color. Remove from the heat.
- When the beef is tender, turn the heat down to low, add the roux a spoonful at a time and stir vigorously to keep it from clumping. The hayashi rice should start getting thick pretty quickly (you might not need all the roux). Stop when you're happy with the thickness. Serve with hot white rice.
Marc Matsumoto says
Except MSG is not natural. It's lab synthesized. I don't have issues with foods that naturally contain glutamic acids. I just don't see the point of adding a compound that's been manipulated in a lab, when you can build umami in a dish through natural sources of glutamic acids. My biggest issue with MSG, isn't about whether it's bad for you or not, it's that people use it it to cheat, skipping tried and true methods of developing umami compounds (such as through the Maillard reaction) and opting instead to sprinkle on a powder. I also find that using MSG leaves a lingering umami taste in your mouth in the same way that modified sugars (such as sucralose) leave a cloying sweetness in your mouth. It's unpleasant and unnecessary, so why use it?
taisuke says
i am a moslem and wine (and also alcohlic drink) is prohibited for us. can we substitute red wine with vinegar (acetic acid) to make the taste?
Marc Matsumoto says
Nope unfortunately wine that has undergone the final stage of fermentation (to become vinegar) does not have the same flavor as wine. Aside from that it is very sour. Try looking for halal wine (non alcoholic), otherwise you could substitute a small quantity of grape juice with water.
taisuke says
arigatou gozaimashita
MarleMason says
this looks so good!
btw, i'm just wondering, how do you obtain this "Demi-glace" sauce, I assume you have to make one yourself since I couldn't find them locally? Is it possible to find it in a local supermarket and which brand do you recommend? Or if you have to make it from scratch, would you please tell me how? And since it seems like we have to make it in batch and we're using only a tablespooon, how long can we keep the sauce for? can we freeze it and use it some other time?
thank you~!!
marle
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Marle, demi-glace is a french sauce made from reducing veal stock and espagnole sauce. It's sold in upscale grocery stores and kitchen shops like Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma. You can also find it on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EQ5H6Q/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001EQ5H6Q&linkCode=as2&tag=norecipes-20. Because it's so concentrated, it will keep for months in the fridge, or
even longer in the freezer. It's great added to soups, stews, and pasta sauces because it's like adding concentrated meat stock.
sho_Opao says
hello, i was wondering if i can substitute beef broth cubes instead of the demi glace? thank you!
Marc Matsumoto says
Yep, beef bouillon cubes aren't the same thing, but it would be a suitable substitute. Keep in mind that bouillon cubes are going to be much more salty than demi-glace, so you may need to adjust for that elsewhere.
Ann says
So aside from beef bouillon cubes, are there any other substitute you can recommend for demi-glaze? I'm a little bit worried of the bouillons saltiness...
Marc Matsumoto says
You could try and take some low/no sodium beef broth and boil it down until its about 1 tablespoon of liquid. —
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ricecake says
just made this, following your recipe to a tee. it was AMAZING! i'm never going back to boxed hayashi rice roux! thanks, marc!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Ricecake, I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed this. I'm always happy to get someone off those bricks of MSG and sugar.
recipetried says
This looks great. I'm going to start gathering the ingredients to make this. It wasn't until I tried a demi glace sauce over tonkatsu that I got hooked on this type sauce. Googled it and your recipe came up. I wouldn't have normally clicked on the name "hiyashi rice" since that sounds like fried rice to me. Can't wait to try. Photo looks delicious.
yc says
Hi, could I ask what kind of red wine to use for this recipe? Dry? Sweet? Just ordinary cheap cooking wine?
I don't drink so any more specific recommendations (ex. Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, etc.) would be very much appreciated!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi YC, I'd recommend a Merlot or Malbec for this one. You don't want it too sweet, but you also don't want something with too many tannins. On price, it doesn't have to be expensive since you'll lose a lot of the subtleties that make expensive wine expensive in the cooking process. That said, don't use "cooking wine", which is often loaded with preservatives and salt to make it undrinkable (so it doesn't get hit with alcohol taxes), it not only tastes like crap it will mess up most recipes because of the amount of salt in it.
yc says
Wow, thanks for the suggestions and that bit on cooking wine! Never knew that... Will get back to you after trying out the recipe!
yc says
Finally got around to making this after a long hunt for the concentrated demi glace. It was so good! I made a mistake of letting the alcohol of the wine boil off before adding everything else, but next time, I'll follow the recipe exactly! Thanks Marc!
Petr Urválek says
Just tried and I can say it's great. Only change I made is that I put one carrot. I used my own home made demi- glace. Great stuff for any ocasion. Hate using food industry ingredinces full of chemicals.
Marc Matsumoto says
Glad to hear you enjoyed it Petr! Great idea adding a carrot.