Teriyaki Chicken

Restaurant Style Teriyaki chicken

If you love Teriyaki Chicken, this is the recipe for you.  It’s as good as any restaurant recipe I have ever had.  In fact, I think it’s even better than the recipe at my favorite Sushi House in town.  My kids won’t usually eat anything but a California roll, so I usually order them a Bento Box that comes with a combination of things.  One of which is Teriyaki Chicken.  And their recipe is really good but this recipe is definitely better.  The beautiful thing is that you get the wonderful flame flavor from the grill and then a nice thick syrupy sauce on the stove that can be spiced up if you’d like.

Teriyaki Chicken with Stir Fry

I like to have my Teriyaki Chicken with Stir Fry or even by itself served with white or brown steamed rice.  After the chicken is cooked on the grill and cut into bite size pieces, I like to add the chicken to a hot pan on the stove with more Teriyaki Sauce.  This is the best time to add vegetables if you plan to make a Stir Fry.  It only takes a few minutes to cook as you thicken and caramelize the sauce.  My original Teriyaki Sauce post can be found HERE so you can watch the video but I’ll add the ingredients down below.

Teriyaki Chicken Ingredients:

4-8 Boneless Chicken Thighs
1/2 cup Teriyaki Sauce

Teriyaki Sauce
1 cup Soy Sauce
1 cup Mirin
1/2 cup Sake
2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Ginger Powder

Combine all of the Teriyaki Sauce Ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and reduce for approximately 20 minutes until you’ve reached desired thickness.  Then follow the directions in the video to make the Teriyaki Chicken.

Teriyaki Sauce – Asian Restaurant Cooking Secrets

The Best Teriyaki Sauce

This is a fantastic Teriyaki Sauce recipe.  I’ve taken my knowledge and experience from my professional Asian American training and brought you something that you’re really going to love.  Usually I show you recipes that you can dumb down a bit to keep it simple, and you can do that with this if you prefer, but I highly recommend you add every ingredient I’ve listed down below so you can share in the excitement I have when ever I make an Asian dish using Teriyaki.  It’s bold and full of flavor yet not overpowering and with this perfect balance you can make it thin or reduce it down to make a thicker sauce.

I use Teriyaki Sauce in the following recipes: Teriyaki Beef Jerky, Teriyaki and Mesquite Shish Kabobs and my Beef and Broccoli with Teriyaki recipe.  I’ve also got a Teriyaki Chicken recipe on the way.  So if you’re interested in any of these recipes, just click each one and it will take you straight the original posts.

Restaurant vs Store bought Teriyaki Sauce

In case you don’t know, my Mongolian Beef recipe is #1 on YouTube and it’s very similar to this Teriyaki Sauce recipe.  In fact, I often get comments on m video from people that claim it’s just Teriyaki Beef but that’s not true.  True Teriyaki has Mirin and Sake in it and those two ingredients aren’t in my Mongolian Beef recipe.  That’s like saying Ketchup is just Cocktail Sauce even though it needs horseradish to make it so.  The truth is there are a hundred different Asian recipes that have a combination of many of these same ingredients but they all vary, quite a bit, from one another in flavor.  It just depends on the amounts you add of each ingredient and different tweaks here and there.  Restaurant Sauces, however, always go big and bold and they don’t have to worry about preservatives.  Bottled sauces do and it changes the dynamics tremendously.  That’s why it’s hard to find a real good Teriyaki Sauce in a bottle.  I would recommend that you go for the thicker sauces if you’re going to buy one, however.  They’re usually the best all around.

Be sure to check out some of my other Asian Sauce recipes like Potsticker Dipping Sauce, Chinese Barbecue Sauce and my Sweet and Sour Sauce.

Teriyaki Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup Soy Sauce
1 cup Mirin
1/2 cup Sake
2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Ginger Powder

Combine all of the Teriyaki Sauce Ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and reduce for approximately 20 minutes until you’ve reached desired thickness.

Teriyaki and Mesquite Shish Kebabs

Shish KabobsGrilling Shish Kabobs!

I love Shish Kabobs!  It’s all in the marination.  Okay, so the meat cut matters too, but if you have a great Teriyaki or Mesquite marinade, you’re already half way there.  Here I’m using Yoshida’s and McCormicks for the Meat, and a little Olive Oil and Herb blend I like to whip up for the vegetables.  Oh, you don’t normally marinate the veggies?  No big surprise.  Most people don’t even think about it.  But, if you do, kuddos!  If not, you’re going to want to pay attention to this little tutorial, because this recipe is off the hook!  ðŸ˜‰

Shish Kabobs MarinadesIf you’ve had Yoshida’s before, then you know they make a real fine Teriyaki sauce that just melts anything you put in your mouth.  And if you didn’t know, well, you do now.  I like it best with beef and chicken, but in my opinion, it’s better with chicken.  The McCormicks I’m using here is the Mesquite I mentioned.  But on the back of the package it gives a suggestion to mix ketchup and honey with the standard ingredients.  McCormicks is just one of those 98 cent dry rubs you mix with water and oil so the other two ingredients were a no-brainer because I was planning on using the Mesquite on the pork Shish Kabobs.  The Olive Oil marinade I mentioned has several different herbs in it, both dry and fresh.  Just a little something I picked up from my Italian studies.  In fact this marinade is great with bread.  I only recommend you add Balsamic Vinegar to it if you’re going to use this for that; what ever you decide. Just remember to use it for the Vegetables in this recipe.  The tip of the day is Wrights Liquid Smoke.  If you’re not able to grill outside but you still what that Hickory flavor when you are cooking indoors, just add a few drops of this Liquid magic to your marinades and no one will be able to tell the difference, I promise!

 

Olive Oil and Herb Marinade for Shish Kabobs:

1/2 cup Olive Oil
3/4 tsp Salt
3 chopped Garlic Cloves
1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
1 tbsp Oregano
1 tbsp fresh chopped Parsley
1 tbsp fresh chopped Basil
a few shakes of Black Pepper

Mix thoroughly and poor over the cut vegetable chunks before you skew the Shish Kabobs, and marinate for 20 minutes.