Easy Hibachi Chicken with Yum Yum Sauce

This Easy Hibachi Chicken Recipe is made with simple ingredients in under 30 minutes. Inspired by the dishes at American Japanese steakhouse restaurants, you'll also find the recipe for homemade yum yum sauce and hibachi noodles!

There's something so special about a big plate full of hibachi chicken dunked in homemade yum yum sauce. And don't even get me started about the fried rice, hibachi noodles and a side of hibachi vegetables. I mean is there anything better?!

I love this kind of dinner so much that I've been perfecting this homemade hibachi chicken recipe since 2020!

And not to brag, but my easy recipe tastes exactly like what you'd find at typical hibachi restaurants!

Luckily, with this easy hibachi chicken recipe, you don't need any special training or special equipment so it's easy to make in your own home. Although you can totally use them, there's no flat top grill, blackstone griddle or large hibachi grill needed. All you need is hot skillet and some simple ingredients.

This cooking method is very straight forward, too. All you need to do is season some bite-sized pieces of chicken and fry it butter and seame oil. Once they start to brown, then you'll add the rest of the ingredients to create the perfect savory sauce.

​I've also got you covered in the creamy yum yum sauce department, too! If you're more into the ginger sauce that also comes with it, I recommend check this sauce recipe out!

But when it comes to the onion volcano, well, I don't have a recipe card for that yet but trust me when I say I'm working on it! One day, I'll have the full hibachi experience documented, but until then, we'll start here!

Ingredients & Substitutions

• Chicken: Hibachi style chicken is typically made with boneless skinless chicken breasts. You could also use boneless chicken thighs if you're into it. But if your goal is tender chicken, I recommend sticking to white meat.
• Salted Butter: Butter is my not-so-secret ingredient for making Japanese style hibachi chicken at home. I think butter gives the best flavor but you could swap it for olive oil or vegetable oil if you need to. 
• Sesame Oil: There is no substitution for sesame oil since we're really only using it for the taste. If you don't mind missing out on that sesame essence, you could absolutely swap it for another oil like avocado oil. 
• Garlic Cloves: I think fresh minced garlic cloves give the best flavor but you could absolutely swap it for garlic powder if you needed to. 
• Soy Sauce: Not into soy sauce or need it to be gluten-free? Try swapping it for coconut aminos. If you have teriyaki sauce on hand, you could swap the soy sauce and the brown sugar and use that instead... But I do not recommend this as it always ends up tasting more like teriyaki chicken than hibachi style chicken.
• Brown Sugar: Not only does this balance out the saltiness but it adds a nice caramelization and slightly sweet glaze to the cooked chicken. You could swap this for regular granulated sugar if you wanted to as well. 
• Lemon Juice: Lemon juice might not sound like it belongs in the sauce ingredients but it just wakes everything up and I always see the hibachi chefs do it - so we're doing it too!
• Salt and Pepper: We'll be adding kosher salt and black pepper to really bring out all the flavors. 
• Optional Ingredients: Although these are not a part of my hibachi chicken dinner, you could always add toppings like sesame seeds or sliced green onions. If you want to add fresh vegetables, try adding in thinly sliced bell peppers or red onions to the mix.  

How to make this Easy Hibachi Chicken Recipe

With my simple recipe, you don't have to go to a Japanese restaurant to enjoy it - you can easily make this hibachi meal in the comfort of your own home. 

Prep Chicken:  Cut chicken into small, bite sized pieces. Then toss them with kosher salt and black pepper.

Sear Chicken: Heat a wok, large skillet, or nonstick skillet (or your flat top griddle if using one) over medium-high heat. Once it’s hot add 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and let it start to bubble. Immediately add the salt and pepper chicken and space it out so that it can evenly cook. Once it starts to brown, carefully flip it over to brown the other side.

Make Savory Sauce & Glaze: Next, add minced garlic (or garlic powder), soy sauce, butter, brown sugar, and the remaining sesame oil and stir. Turn the heat down to medium and let the mixture simmer and bubble until it’s thick and sticking to the chicken; about 3-5 minutes.

Add Finishing Touches: Finish by squeezing the juice from half a lemon. Then taste and add more salt and black pepper to taste if needed.

How to make Homemade Yum Yum Sauce

Making my go-to creamy yum yum sauce is also super easy! You'll need:

• Kewpie Mayo
• Sesame Oil
• Sriracha
• Garlic Powder
• White Sugar

Once you have everything out, just mix all the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl and stir. After that, it's ready to go!

If you're not serving it right away, store in an airtight container for up to two weeks. 

And if you're not into homemade yum yum sauce, you could also buy it from the store or on amazon. You could also swap it for a ginger sauce or a spicy mustard sauce - whatever you prefer. 

What to Serve with it

A traditional hibachi dinner is served with quite a few components. 

Fried rice is pretty standard at most Japanese steakhouse restaurants. You could obviously swap this for other cooked rice recipes such as brown rice, white rice, coconut rice, jasmine rice or even cauliflower rice.

You'll also find Hibachi Noodles which I've created a quick and easy recipe for, too.

And no hibachi meal is complete without soy sauce seared, bite sized pieces of veggies like zucchini, onion, mushrooms and broccoli.

If you want other ideas, you could try making my asian avocado salad, this thai noodle salad or some spicy tuna rolls with spicy mayo sauce.  

Recipe