Teriyaki Chicken

This Teriyaki Chicken is soooo much better than take-out and exactly what you want tonight! And you be eating it in about 30 minutes :)

Sometimes, it’s just amazing how simple and easy it is to make something so good.

Teriyaki Chicken is one of those things. You simply mix up ingredients for a teriyaki sauce. Then you sauté some chicken and stir in the sauce. You can’t get much easier than that.

But what a wow for so little effort. The chicken is juicy and tender, the sauce is bursting with sweet and sour flavors, and the whole thing is both faster and more delicious than calling for takeout.

Ideas For Altering Your Teriyaki

In fact, this teriyaki chicken is so easy to make, I can’t resist suggesting some ways you can adjust it.

First and foremost, if you want to you can skip making the teriyaki sauce altogether and use store bought. For this recipe, you’ll need about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons in place of the first 8 ingredients in the recipe (also omit the first step of the instructions). Because store bought sauces differ in thickness, if the one you buy is very liquid-y, whisk in 2 teaspoons of cornstarch before adding it to the skillet in step three. If the one you buy has some thickness, but not as much as you’d like in your final dish, whisk in 1 teaspoon of cornstarch before adding it to the skillet in step three.

Two, you can skip the sauce in this recipe, and make my even simpler, totally-from-the-pantry homemade teriyaki sauce here. It makes about 1 cup, which is close enough for jazz for this recipe.

Three, I like dark meat chicken because I think it has the most flavor, but you could totally use boneless skinless breasts if you prefer. They’ll have about the same cooking time.

And four, you can substitute the chicken with beef, pork, shrimp, or even your favorite vegetables. Just adjust the cooking times as needed to cook your base ingredient(s) before adding the teriyaki sauce.

About The Asian Ingredients

The teriyaki sauce in this recipe calls for a few Asian ingredients that you might not have on hand. But they’re totally available in the ethnic or Asian section of most major supermarkets.

Mirin, sometimes called aji-mirin or sweet cooking wine, is just that—a sweet cooking wine. It’s a common ingredient in Japanese cooking and a great addition to almost any stir fry sauce.

Rice wine vinegar can usually be found seasoned or unseasoned. The seasoned version has just a bit of both salt and sugar and is ideal for making sushi rice. Because it’s a relatively minor player, either type will work in this recipe.

Finally, toasted sesame oil. It’s typically used as a condiment or flavoring oil, versus plain sesame oil, which is used more for cooking. It gives my teriyaki a deeply nutty sesame flavor. I like to keep it around to drizzle over stir frys and steamed vegetables.

Once you have these ingredients on hand, you can also use them to make Shrimp Fried Rice.

Enjoy! – Christine

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