Teriyaki Chicken

Teriyaki Chicken is a very popular Japanese dish, and it is so easy to make. The sweet soy-based sauce goes so well with the chicken.  Just sauté the chicken and cook it in the sauce.  You don’t marinate the chicken in the sauce and the sauce does not contain garlic or vinegar. That’s the Teriyaki Chicken the Japanese way. It only takes 15 minutes!

Teriyaki chicken is one of the most popular Japanese dishes among Aussies and I presume it is popular in other parts of the world as well. At almost every Japanese restaurant in Sydney, you will find Teriyaki Chicken on the menu.

I often find that the flavour of the Teriyaki Chicken at restaurants is slightly Westernised, and I can sometimes even taste garlic in it. But the recipe I am sharing today is the traditional Japanese way of making Teriyaki Chicken. The sauce is a mixture of soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar.

Teriyaki Chicken (照り焼きチキン) is more commonly called ‘tori no teriyaki’ (鶏の照り焼き or 鳥の照り焼き) in Japan. Both Kanji characters 鶏 and 鳥 mean chicken in this context, but to be exact, 鶏 means chicken and 鳥 is a generic word for bird.

Teriyaki can be made not only with chicken but also fish (see my Teriyaki Salmon recipe as an example), pork, and beef.  However, chicken is by far the most popular ingredient for Teriyaki.

What’s in My Teriyaki Chicken

You will be surprised to know that there are only 5 ingredients involved in making such a delicious, well-loved Japanese dish (vegetables in the photo below are just for serving):

• Chicken thigh fillets

Teriyaki sauce

• Soy sauce
• Cooking sake
• Mirin
• Sugar

To Serve

• Shredded cabbage
• Finely julienned carrot
• Finely julienned capsicum

I use chicken thigh as it is juicier than chicken breast and best suited for Teriyaki Chicken. You can use chicken breast if you prefer, but you will find that the cooked chicken is slightly dry.

I know the skin is fatty, but I use chicken thigh with the skin on. I think that the chicken looks nicer with the skin on when cooked, especially nicely browned.

ABOUT TERIYAKI SAUCE

You can’t talk about Teriyaki Chicken without mentioning Teriyaki Sauce.

This is a very simple sauce that is made up of only 4 ingredients. But once you know the proportion of ingredients, it becomes so easy to cook flavoursome dishes in 5-10 minutes. Any dishes called ‘teriyaki’ something use this Teriyaki Sauce.

The Teriyaki Sauce is made with 1 part soy sauce + 1 part cooking sake + 1 part mirin + about ½ part sugar. I say ‘about ½ part sugar’ because you can adjust the sweetness to your liking. Note that there is no garlic and no ginger in the traditional Teriyaki Sauce.

Here is the sample photo of the soy sauce, mirin and, sake (from left to right) I use. At supermarkets in Australia, you might find different brands of mirin and cooking sake such as Bento brand. They are fine to use too. Please visit Pantry Essentials for Japanese Home Cooking – Part 1 and Pantry Essentials for Japanese Home Cooking – Part 2 for more details about them.

Combine them together and mix well to dissolve the sugar. You can heat the mixture slightly to speed up the process of dissolving the sugar if you like.

This sauce is a very good sauce to have on hand. It keeps for weeks in the fridge, and you can sauté or grill fish/meat/vegetables and pour the sauce over it. You could add grated garlic/ginger to vary the flavour too.

How to Make Teriyaki Chicken (See the video)

1. Butterfly chicken thigh fillets to make the fillet an even thickness (photo above).
2. Using the tip of a knife, poke the skin randomly.
3. Heat a frying pan and cook the chicken, skin side down.
4. Turn the chicken over and cook further.
5. Add the Teriyaki Sauce to the pan and cook until the sauce thickens.
6. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and cover with a sheet of foil.
7. Cut the chicken into bite-sized strips.

Poking the skin will allow the teriyaki sauce to penetrate into the flesh better.

The step-by-step photo does not show it, but I steam cook the chicken for about 30 seconds after adding the teriyaki sauce (see the video). This ensures that the chicken is cooked through.

To nicely coat the cooked chicken with the teriyaki sauce, there are a couple of important things you need to adhere to.

SECRET OF MAKING GREAT TERIYAKI CHICKEN

Have you ever experienced the teriyaki sauce not sticking to the chicken evenly and the sauce is somewhat mixed with oil? This is because you had too much oil in the frying pan before adding the teriyaki sauce to it.

The chicken is covered with oil and the excess oil and the sauce splits because they do not mix well. To prevent this from happening:

• Do not add oil to the frying pan when cooking the chicken.
• Wipe away any excess oil in the frying pan just before adding the teriyaki sauce (see the photo below).

When you do the above, you will find that the sauce sticks to the cooked chicken and you will have a saucy Teriyaki Chicken.

Serving Teriyaki Chicken

Most Japanese meals are served in such a way that you can pick up and eat the food with chopsticks without needing to cut it. In this recipe, I sliced the chicken after it was cooked so that you can still see the whole fillet of chicken, and it is easier to pick up a piece with chopsticks.

But if you are eating Teriyaki Chicken with a knife and fork, you don’t need to slice the chicken.

I served my Teriyaki Chicken with shredded cabbage, but any green salads or boiled vegetables are OK. If you are using a dressing, I’d suggest a light one. I don’t use a dressing on the vegetables.

If you place sliced Teriyaki Chicken over the rice with extra sauce poured on it, you get a Teriyaki Chicken Don (Teriyaki Chicken on Rice).

I hope you like my version of Teriyaki Chicken.

Yumiko

Watch How To Make It

Originally published in August 2017, rewritten in June 2019 with new photos and Meal Ideas added. Republished in April 2022 with improved contents and video. No changes to the recipe.