Chicken Teriyaki Recipe
If you love Chicken Teriyaki, this recipe will not leave you indifferent. I was not much of a Teriyaki person for a long time myself, but I had to reconsider my preferences once Omar started liking it. Being a cook-from-scratch lady, I looked for the perfectly tender, delicious Chicken Teriyaki recipe for almost 2 years. After many trials and errors, mixing multiple recipes, the perfect Teriyaki Chicken was born!
In case you want to know what a perfect Teriyaki Chicken should look and taste like, follow me along:
- Tender
- Super tender
- Delicious
- You need to know what your Chicken Teriyaki consists of!
Oh well, it is not such a descriptive list, is it? But you get the idea. I confess! It is not the world's easiest recipe! You need to have some time on your hands to fix it up. You cannot whip it up in 5 minutes. Not even in 5 hours! Thus, I make it only on the weekends. That's when my husband can play "Need for Speed" with our little punks, leaving the premises of the kitchen to its Queen. Yeah, that's me, alright! The marinade should stay in the refrigerator overnight! So, plan everything accordingly. Do not freak out :) It is much easier than it actually looks.
Does anyone like Sakkio, Sarku or Sakura Japan's Teriyaki? This is the closest you can get! Enough talking, shall we get to work?
Yield: 6-8 servings
Ingredients for the chicken marinade:
- 4 lbs of dark chicken meat (if you have a butcher shop near buy, you can get them easily. If you do not, then you have to buy some skinless chicken thighs, bone them, but do not trim off the fat. No swapping to chicken breast, as it is not going to come out good at all!)
- 3 cups of water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 1/2 cup Kikkoman Soy Sauce
- 1/2 cup Sherry cooking wine or a 1/2 cup substitute which I use (which I will explain a little later)
Sherry Wine substitute:
Here is a good Sherry Wine substitute for those who do not want to get their chicken drunk :)
- 1/8 cup vinegar
- 1/8 cup water
- 1 tsp of sugar
Broth/soup for the sauce:
- Bones and trims of chicken
- 1 carrot cut in pieces
- 1 small piece of ginger
- 1 onion diced in four
- 2 cloves of garlic smashed
- 2 Tbsp of Kikkoman Soy sauce
- 2-4 oz cabbage
- 6 cups of water
Teriyaki Sauce:
It is not going to be your average, store bought Teriyaki sauce! Please do not opt for anything different. It is 60% stock based and you can make it at home, from scratch, like I do. If you do not have time, or do not want to deal with it, use pure, unsalted chicken broth instead.
- 3 cups of home made stock or store bought, no sodium chicken stock
- 1/5 cup Kikkoman Soy sauce
- 1/2 Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce
- 4 Tbsp light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp corn starch
- 1/5 cup cold water
Directions for chicken marinade:
Click on the images for a bigger view.
Cut the chicken in bite-size pieces together with the fat. Place the chicken in a large container. Mix the Sherry-Wine-substitute-ingredients, if you are using one.
Add water to the container with chicken, add Sherry Wine (or substitute). Add garlic powder, white pepper, oil and Soy sauce.
Put on a pair of gloves, mix all of the ingredients and start massaging the heck out of the chicken pieces. It usually takes me about 15-20 minutes. Once you are done, cover the container and place it in the refrigerator OVERNIGHT!
Broth directions:
If you are making the stock yourself, add whatever leftovers you have from the chicken. In a medium pot place chicken trims, bones, soy sauce, smashed garlic, carrots, onions, ginger root, cabbage and water. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down to medium-low, cover the pot with the lid and let it simmer OVERNIGHT! The smell is not one of the best smells in the world, but you can live with it for a short while :D
If you are using store-bought chicken broth, measure 2 cups of it, in a small saucepan bring it to boil, add a couple of very small slices of ginger root, tiny bit of minced garlic and cook for about 30 minutes. Fish out the ingredients, creating a nice golden broth.
In the morning, separate the stock from the remaining ingredients. Discard the vegetables and all, leaving the stock.
You should have this amazing smelling soup (even if you are using the ready chicken broth), which is going to get mixed with these amazing Kikkoman sauces.
Measure out 2 cups of broth in a saucepan and bring it to slight a boil. Meanwhile, mix the starch in 1/5 cup of cold water and keep it aside until needed.
Add Teriyaki and Soy sauces, sugar (sorry, not picture of the brown sugar) into the slightly boiling broth, mix everything well and turn the heat down to medium-low.
The starch is added to the chicken to give it a saucy look. That's how Japanese and Chinese get the consistency of the sauces they use for different dishes. Without starch our sauce is going to be watery and not much flattering. Add the starch mixture (give it a stir one more time before you add it). Mix the sauce very, very, very well to prevent any type of lumps! Give it thirty seconds or so to accept the starch and thicken up. Your sauce should ONLY be thick enough to leave a glaze on the spoon, or stick to the side of the pot if you splash a little bit of it - no thicker. Behold, you have a small piece of heaven in your kitchen!!! Remove the sauce from the heat and start working on the chicken.
Take out the chicken marinade from the refrigerator. This is the not the so much fun part! Oh, was it much fun all along though? :) But if you really like a challenge (please, do like a challenge) start mixing the chicken with the whisk. I do so by hand, since I do not have a standing mixer. But if you are lucky enough and have a mixer with a dough hook, let it do the work for you. The chicken/marinade mix needs to run at least for 30 minutes. You will know it is done because all of the fat will be separated to look almost like a fatty white snow. This step cannot me omitted! To have the perfect chicken, it has to be done this way, trust me!
Once you are done with mixing the chicken, it is time to start cooking it. There are two ways you can cook this chicken:
- Using a grill
- Using a skillet
Both cooking methods are good and the procedure is the same for both. Turn the heat up to maximum, spread just a little bit of oil on the surface, dump the portion of the chicken and let it cook 5 minutes on each side. Do not disturb the chicken while it is cooking. Once 10 minutes are up, slice the chicken with your spatula in bite size pieces. Pour some of the sauce over it, toss the chicken with the sauce once or twice...aaaaaaaand you are done!!!
Serve the chicken with rice and steamed vegetables. Pour some of the sauce on top of the chicken once you start serving. Believe me, this chicken is sooo good that the taste will stay in your mouth for a long time! Our whole family loves this Teriyaki Chicken and I'm sure yours will too!
Related posts:
02/01/2010 - 03:44
this seems to be soo complicated, never tried teriyaki dish but when i get more time, will have to try. just getting things ready to bake the apple pie now :D
02/01/2010 - 09:18
Irosh, it is actually not that complicated at all. I try to explain everything in smallest details, so that there are no problems later. This by far my longest recipe. Read it and visualize. What I do is, I marinate the chicken and put out the soup on the stove top at the same time. In the morning both of them are ready.
If you are making it in the middle of the working week, prepare both of them at night. Put the soup in the refrigerator before you go to work. When you come back, fix the sauce and mix the chicken as it is shown above and cook it. It will take you literally 30 mins to whip up that dinner :)
02/01/2010 - 09:28
OK, again ask your hubby to watch your babies and at the same time whisk the chicken :P then you will be done in 30 min :P
You are a super multitasker! You can do it!!!!
02/01/2010 - 09:03
I need some clarification: ◦1,5 Tbsp corn starch – is this 1/5 or 1 to 5 tbsp?
Another one: ◦Coupe of pices of cabbage – :-) – 6 cups or anything else?
Thanks :-)
02/01/2010 - 09:15
KL, lol. It was pretty darn late when I was writing this. But thank you for asking me. It is 1 and a half Tbsp of corn starch. As for the cabbage, I literally use couple of pieces. How about like 2 oz?
02/01/2010 - 09:19
One more thing about the corn starch, you do not want to use more than 2 Tbsp on any sauce or gravy you want to thicken. It will be too jelled otherwise.
02/01/2010 - 09:21
KL,
I think she meant 1 and 1/2 tbsp corn starch and few chopped green cabbage leaves.
Lola,
Chicken Teriyaki looks yummy. I’m definetly going to try your recipe, DH is a huge teriyaki fan :)
02/01/2010 - 09:25
Aha, thank you Camellia :D I do rely on my girls like you help me out a bit :P Honestly, though, I am so happy that people come to my blog and check the recipes out! I will take any criticism and/or help you can give me :D
02/01/2010 - 09:59
Special thanks from my husband :)! He LOVES chicken teriyaki, so it’s gonna be cooked very soon in this house :)
02/01/2010 - 10:16
Ksumka, you are welcome, honey! Let me know if you need any help :)
02/01/2010 - 10:10
Hilola,
receptlar uchun katta rahmat.
Yengi rasm va receptlardan ispire qilish uchun deyarli har kuni blogizga kirib turaman.
tepada clarification soragan odam sozma soz qilib tarjima qilgan bolsa kerak, shunga “couple” sozini tushunmagan. 2ta joyga misprint bolib “coupe” ketib qolibdi (coupe = 2 door car), bolmasa ma’nosidan tushunvolsa boladi… :)
Ishlarizga omad, yangi receptlar kutib qolaman!
02/01/2010 - 10:16
Spell check mani miyyam bilan in tune bo’magani chatoq de :P
02/01/2010 - 17:52
you mean inspire:)
02/02/2010 - 13:09
yep, you got it )))
02/01/2010 - 11:34
ha-ha, i just cant visualize until i try though. I was actually reading comments for Lagman recipe and someone said it was difficult. I was thinking to myself, how can it be so difficult lol. Only because we have grown up with mums making lagman in our homes we dont seem to think it is difficult at all. So, we just get up and make it. Likewise, this recipe looks complicated to me, because this is something new to me. I am a little suspicious and unsure if it will taste the same as yours. Like I said, never tried teriyaki before :D
But I know once I try to make it a couple of times then it gets easier than it actually looks.
02/01/2010 - 17:54
Awesome job, LolaM:) Chicken looks so yum!
02/01/2010 - 23:20
Thank you!!!!!! Why are you lost4good? What happened to your old screen name? :(
02/01/2010 - 19:43
Im sure my husband will love this if i make it for him!! Just a quick question : I am a vegetarian, so while I make this wit chicken for my husband, can you suggest something for me to substitute chicken with?
02/01/2010 - 23:18
Thank you for dropping by my blog :) I am sure your husband will love it!
The sauce is very rich and tasty. Believe me, you will have a lot of it :) It goes well with multiple combination of things.
You can substitute the chicken with virtually any protein or meat substitute. Seitan (Wheat gluten) and tofu would be ideal. While I do not recommend marinating the tofu, Seitan can be marinated like you marinate the chicken. It is not going to take up the whole night of marination though. 20 minutes or so is more than enough. Stir fry it with a little oil and pour the sauce.
If you are getting tofu, get it extra firm. Coat the tofu with egg substitute, sprinkle with a little corn starch and fry it on medium high heat on both sides. The tofu is going to have some nice crispiness to it. Pour the sauce on top of it, as you would do on the chicken.
You can also prepare steamed vegetables additional to the seitan or tofu. It is one of the best things that can go with this sauce. If you have a steamer, steam up (for 10 minutes) pieces of cabbage, thinly sliced carrots, broccoli, baby corn, bean sprouts. Serve with scallions and pour the sauce on top of everything.
If rice will sound boring to you, swap it to Udon noodles or Lo-mein noodles. You can buy them in the grocery stores nowadays.
I am not sure if you eat shrimp. Some vegetarians do eat a little bit of seafood. If you do, go for shrimp! No need to marinate it. Heat the skillet, drop the shrimp, pour over the sauce and in medium heat cook with the lid closed for couple of minutes.
I hope my suggestions will help you on deciding which substitute to choose :) Please let me know if you have any questions.
02/01/2010 - 19:53
Wow. This is one intense recipe…so intense, that I’m very tempted to try it. I’m bookmarking this recipe. Thank you so much for all the work you put into these posts. I really appreciate it.
02/01/2010 - 23:19
Dear Memoria,
I am sure you can rock this recipe :) I am dying to find out how it turns out in your kitchen! Please let me know!
02/04/2010 - 10:11
Holy cow….I don’t think I have ever countered any teriyaki’s recipe that involves so much work!!! With that saying, I am pretty darn sure this is one GREAT recipe to have on hand. I will probably be brave one of these days and tackle this project, really! With so much work putting into this, I’m sure there’s a reason it! I know I shouldn’t question…but you actually simmer the broth “overnight”?! wow….. Okie, okie, okie….I heard you….!
Thanks for sharing and for posting! Truly I know you put a lot of time into writing this post for us!
02/05/2010 - 09:59
LOL! You cracked me up. Indeed, it comes out heavenly! I put recipes which worked for me well. Oh, believe me, if my 3 year old loved it, it is worth trying without any hesitation :)
It does take some effort. You can always go with chicken broth. But if you are feeling adventurous, go for simmering the broth overnight :P
Thank you very much for visiting my blog!
Kisses
03/06/2010 - 17:10
Delicious! My boyfriend and I started making it last night and had it for lunch today. It was a lot of work but well worth it. The chicken was amazingly tender and had great flavor even without the sauce.
03/08/2010 - 00:13
OOOO, Congratulations on mastering this recipe! :) It certainly does involve a lot of work but isn’t it really worth it? :) It is 12:11AM down in Denver and am so craving for this Chicken Teriyaki that I can’t explain!
I am glad you liked it! You can marinate the beef the same way, add mushrooms to the saute, steam the vegetables and enjoy! Yuumm!!!