Healthy Teriyaki Chicken Recipe

Share

Have you ever thought that Japanese food is quite overpriced? I always thought so, and once you cook them at home, it will definitely convince you so. At least for those dishes that you can easily prepare at home like teriyaki chicken.

I am recently attacked by the Japan bug. It all started with a fusion appetiser I made for my family one weekend which saw me having left over shisho leaves and fish roe. This is an appetiser with scallops done 2 ways. You can click on the link to find the recipe. Here, I would like to share a delicious and much easier to make teriyaki chicken recipe. Since you will also learn how to make the teriyaki sauce here, you will get to make teriyaki tofu, teriyaki fish, teriyaki everything!

Japanese food is actually really easy to prepare as the Japanese believe in fresh ingredients and simple techniques. So sometimes I do feel so painful paying to eat these simple Japanese dishes outside, especially if it tastes bad. Really, after making this teriyaki chicken (and other Japanese recipes I share), you may think twice about paying for this outside. =P This is a dish loved by both kids and adults and is fine even when it is eaten at room temperature, so will be a great lunch box as well.

Equipment needed:

• Frying pan with cover
• Thongs
• Chopping board
• Knife
• Fork
• Small bowl
• Container to hold chicken as it marinates

THE SAUCE

This recipe does not use ready mixed teriyaki sauce from the supermarket. I suppose you can use that if you have it at home, but I suspect most of us do not. The sauce is simply a mixture of soya sauce, mirin and Japanese cooking wine with honey. Well, I know a lot of people may not have mirin and Japanese cooking wine at home. But I must take the opportunity to encourage you to have these at home as they are great marinades  for all sorts of meats and can be added to Chinese or Western cuisine easily.

Mirin is a sweet tasting sake that balances salt and gives a nice fragrance and flavour to meats, fish and sauces. Japanese cooknig wine or cooking sake or ryorishu (料理酒） and is very similar to the wine wine used in cooking for western cuisine and so can be used to replace that. Plus, it is not as strong tasting as hua diao wine, the Chinese cooking wine. So it is great in instances when you do not want the wine to be too prominent. These are 2 Japanese staples in marinating and cooking and foundation for making many other Japanese sauces like soba noodle sauce so if you like to prepare other Japanese dishes at home, instead of getting many bottles of sauces, these are the fundamental 2 you will need. What is great about preparing your sauce from scratch is that you can always adjust it according to your preference. Furthermore, you understand what makes up these sauces! =)

THE PREPARATION

This is a really simple recipe that you can whip up in an hour from marinating to cooking with rice and soup or a vegetable. Start with 2 boneless chicken thighs with skin. I am usually not a fan of chicken skin, but in this case, the skin will be so thin and crispy, I am fine eating it and it helps to keep the thigh moist while having a little texture.

Remove any excess fats and tendons. Then pat dry and place in a tupperware to marinate with grated ginger and salt. I use ginger juice from a bottle that you can get from Sheng Siong or Guang Xiang Tai store at Geylang. It is a pretty handy thing to have especially if you sometimes run out of ginger like me or likes to marinate with ginger. If you don’t have it, then fresh grated ginger works just as well. I usually use a fine grater to grate a about a thumb sized ginger for 2 thighs. For salt, I will usually just season skin side more generously and only a little on the meat side.

Let this sit in the fridge for 30 minutes while you prepare the other things you will be eating with the chicken. This can be rice, soba noodles, porridge, pasta, etc. In this instance, I had it with Japanese short grain rice (high in sugars, but oh so starchy) and complemented it with quinoa (low in sugars, soft and nutty notes). A very delicious and healthy combination I must say. Some friends recommended me to try brown short grain rice. I went to Mustafa and bought a bag and it costs the same as ordering from iherb.

I also blanched some cai xin and carrots as a side. If you are feeling even lazier, go or a simple cabbage and cherry tomato salad (just slice up cabbage very thinly and wash with salt water) with fish roe and mayonnaise and a drizzle of lemon juice.

Once marinated, pat dry the chicken and heat up a pan with some oil over high heat. Once hot, place the chicken skin side down to sear the skin first. Lower the heat to medium and let it sear till golden grown and crispy. This should take about 3-5 minutes.

Then flip the chicken with a pair of thongs and add 1.5 tablespoon of Japanese cooking wine and cover the pan, letting the chicken steam in the vapours of the wine. This should take about 3-5 minutes depending on how thick is your meat. Mine took close to 5 minutes on medium heat.

Once cooked, remove the chicken and wash the pan. In the clean pan, add the teriyaki mixture in the recipe below. Allow the mixture to boil and place chicken back into the pan on low heat, coating it in the thickened sauce. Flip the chicken with hte thongs a few times to coat it evenly. Once chicken is well coated, turn off fire.

Place chicken on a clean chopping board skin side down and slice it with a fork and a sharp knife. Then plate the chicken over your bowl of carbs and sides. Top with chopped spring onions, roasted sesame seeds and spoon any excess sauce over the chicken and even over the vegetables if you wish. Add some prawn or fish roe for added taste and colour.

SUMMARY OF TIPS:

• Use thongs to handle the meat over fire. It is easier.
• Marinate the chicken overnight if you want to cook it in the morning. The dish will only need 12 minutes or so to prepare then.
• Roast a container of sesame seeds to standby.
• Use a clean pan to prepare the sauce and coat. You don’t want burnt bits sticking to your chicken.
• Slice chicken with skin side down so that skin does not slide around while slicing.

Hope you will enjoy this Teriyaki Chicken Recipe. And do feel free to comment or share your experience preparing this recipe. Another Japanese recipe I would like to share is a simple vegetarian Soba noodle that you can whip up for a healthy breakfast or for vegetarian days. This is a colourful, delicious and easy dish to prepare and enjoy.

Feel free to also visit our homepage or click on our menu to find other tasty and usually easy to prepare recipes.