Copycat recipe
Copycat Steakhouse Seasoned Rice
Restaurant seasoned rice tastes better than home seasoned rice for two boring reasons: the grains are toasted in fat first, and it is cooked in broth rather than water.
Do those two things and you are most of the way there. The seasoning blend is genuinely secondary.
Ingredients
- 300g long-grain white rice, rinsed until the water runs clear
- 45g butter
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 700ml chicken or beef broth
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- ½ tsp dried parsley
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp turmeric (for colour, optional)
- Salt to taste, depending on your broth
Method
Rinse the rice
Rinse until the water runs clear. This removes surface starch and is the difference between separate grains and a sticky mass.
Soften the aromatics
Melt the butter over medium heat, then cook the onion 4–5 minutes until translucent. Add the garlic for the final 30 seconds only — it burns fast and turns bitter.
Toast the grains
Add the drained rice and stir for 2–3 minutes until the grains look opaque and smell faintly nutty. Do not skip this. It is the step that makes it taste like restaurant rice.
Simmer
Pour in the broth, soy sauce, parsley, pepper and turmeric. Bring to a boil, stir once, then cover and reduce to the lowest heat for 18 minutes. Do not lift the lid.
Rest, then fluff
Take it off the heat and leave it covered for 5 more minutes before fluffing with a fork. The residual steam finishes the grains — skipping the rest gives you wet rice.
Notes & troubleshooting
- Stir once when the broth goes in, then leave it alone. Stirring during the simmer releases starch and turns it gluey.
- Broth quality is the biggest single lever. A good stock makes an obvious difference.
- Turmeric is purely cosmetic — it gives the pale golden colour without changing the flavour meaningfully.
- Reheats well with a splash of broth, covered, in the microwave.
Questions
Can I use brown rice?
Yes, but increase the broth to about 850ml and the covered simmer to roughly 40 minutes. The toasting step works the same way.
Why is my rice mushy?
Usually too much liquid, or lifting the lid mid-simmer and losing steam so it needs longer. Rinsing the rice properly also helps more than people expect.
Can I make it vegetarian?
Yes — use vegetable broth. Add an extra ½ tsp soy sauce to make up the savoury depth the meat stock would have provided.
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