Chicken Teriyaki (鳥照り焼き) is a lunchtime staple in Japan, filling bento boxes being carted off to offices and schools alike. Teri refers to the lacquered sheen that teriyaki sauce develops on the surface of the chicken, while yaki means grilled. Almost any cut of chicken can be used, but chicken teriyaki is most commonly prepared with the leg meat (thighs or drumsticks) which is deboned to ensure it cooks evenly. The skin is left on the chicken to keep the meat moist, and it takes on a wonderful caramelized hue while getting slightly crispy as it grills.
Long before sushi became the ambassador of Japanese cuisine to the rest of the world, teriyaki invaded the West, and for better or worse it came to represent the whole of the Japanese culinary repertoire. Perhaps it was the short list of approachable ingredients or the allure of food from the far east. Whatever the reason, it's become so ingrained in American food culture that even Paula Deen has a teriyaki recipe.
So what makes for an authentic teriyaki sauce?
It's simple... equal parts soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar.
It's not that I have anything against those fancy sweet soy marinades with ginger, garlic, chili, green onions, sesame seeds, and or fruit puree in them, but sauces with these ingredients aren't teriyaki sauce, since they cloud the teri. Ginger, sesame seeds, green onions, and chili are garnishes that are occasionally added after the chicken has been cooked.
Traditionally, the unseasoned chicken is grilled over coals, then basted with teriyaki sauce. To tenderize and season the chicken all the way through, I brine it first in soy sauce and sugar, grill it, then shellac a few coats of teriyaki sauce on to finish. This seems to get the best balance of color, texture and flavor. I've written the directions for a broiler, but just reverse the cooking order (skin up, then down) if you are using a grill.
By using maltose or honey in the teriyaki sauce, the sauce gets thick without having to add any cornstarch. If you do use honey, make sure you use one without a strong flavor of its own. By the way, if you prefer making this in a pan, I have a stovetop teriyaki chicken recipe you can check out for the details.
Serve this chicken teriyaki whole, or chopped up on a bowl of steaming hot rice with some extra sauce.
📖 Recipe
Units
Ingredients
for brine
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons mirin
- 4 - 6 boneless skin-on chicken thighs
for teriyaki sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey mild flavored
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons mirin
- 2 tablespoons sake
Instructions
- Combine the water, soy sauce, brown sugar, and mirin in large zipper bag and add the chicken thighs. Press out as much air as you can and seal the bag. Let this sit in the fridge for at least an hour.
- To make the teriyaki sauce, add the honey, soy sauce, mirin and sake to a small sauce pan and boil over medium heat until the sauce is glossy and slightly viscous (it won't get quite as thick as the jarred types). It should take on a caramelized taste but be careful not to burn it.
- When you're ready to grill the chicken, turn the broiler on and move the oven rack up to the upper position. Put a wire rack on a baking sheet (I use the rack out of my toaster oven), and put the chicken thighs skin side down onto the rack (the idea is to keep the meat elevated off the pan).
- Grill until brown, then flip so the skin side faces up. Baste the skin side with teriyaki sauce and continue to broil until the skin is golden brown, with just a few charred spots. Give the chicken one final baste with the teriyaki sauce and serve.
Marc Matsumoto says
Glad to hear you enjoyed it! The main problem with cooking sake is that it tends to include salt, which can make the sauce too salty, but if you were happy with the results, thats the most important thing:-)
Jill C says
Great you have a good recipe. You should get a blog yourself so we can try it. Otherwise your comment above has got no value to people who wants to follow *this* recipe.
Jill C says
Only had Mirin Seasoning and Cooking Sake on hand but still worked. Great flavours that both adults and kids enjoyed. Cannot imagine how nicer it would be when i use real sake and good quality Mirin. Thank you so much for this easy and delicious recipe. I'm currently cooking Chicken teriyaki again, for the second time this week. The kids and hubby couldn't get enough of it. Also for those who wanted the sauce thick, it is possible to make it super thick, just cook on low heat for a long time (dont forget to mix with a whisk) It'll thicken really well, mine got too thick that when it cooled, i had the consistency of thick caramel almost like soft fudge! So yes if you're patient, you can get the sauce thick 😉 Many many thanks again.
Marc Matsumoto says
Sorry for the very late reply, looks like I missed your comment. Unfortunately this not mirin. The first ingredient is corn syrup. Real mirin is sweetened by the conversion of starches in rice to maltose via saccharization. So the only ingredients should be rice and koji (a type of mold). It will also have a deep amber to auburn hue and will probably be quite expensive as it requires some aging time.
Marc Matsumoto says
You're welcome!
Amy says
I just want to say thank you so much for the simple teriyaki sauce: 4 ingredients, same proportion, 1 dirty spoon. I always make extra to use when I make enoki wrapped with bacon in addition to the grilled chicken. A fantastic meal. Thanks you!
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks Kumi, sure:-)
Kumi says
You r absolutely fantastic.can I offer you a job in my house.?
Luke says
This recipe sounds and looks delicious, but why so complex? For my grilled teri chicken, I rub both sides of the thighs w/ dried ginger pour on a little bit of sesame and safflower oil, alot of black pepper, soy sauce and agave nectar to taste and grill until I feel it's done
cyrille says
thanks for this recipe 🙂 i hope my boyfriend will like it because i will cook chiken teriyaki just a goodluck food for lunch for his interview tomorrow 😀
Marc Matsumoto says
Mirin is a sweet wine made from rice and koji (a type of mold that converts the starches in rice into sugar), Good quality mirin will only contain these two ingredients and should not have salt, sugar or corn syrup added. Unfortunately it's difficult to find real mirin in the US. If you have a choice of a couple brands, check the ingredients label and buy the one with the least additives. My guess is that "Sweet Cooking Rice Seasoning" and "Sweet Cooking Rice Wine" are both Mirin, but check the ingredients. As for anything with "vinegar" in the name, it's rice wine that's undergone the last stage of fermentation where the alcohol has turned into acetic acid (vinegar). It's a totally different ingredient and should not be used in place of mirin. Hope that helps!
yca says
Mirin?
yca says
Is this the Mirin you use?
yca says
Hi Mark, I have a doubt, What is the difference between Sweet Cooking Rice Seasoning, Sweet Rice Vinegar, and Sweet Cooking Rice Wine?
yca says
Thanks! I do live in California so I'll go ahead and look for these!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Jessica, that's a great idea, but in the case of mirin and sake, it probably wouldn't help much as the labels are in Japanese. Sake is a Japanese wine made from rice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sake), and mirin is a sweet rice wine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirin). I'm not sure where you live, but most supermarkets in California carry both. If you can't find them at a store near you, you can get them online just head over to Google and do a search.
yca says
Hello Mark I love your recipes! But I would really like it if maybe you posted pics of the ingredients you use. Some ingredients I just don't know what they are. For example Mirin and sake. I would appreciate it Thanks!!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Oliver, thanks for the note! The skin doesn't full crisp, just a bit around the edges. Getting the skin crispy would involve a bunch of additional steps of drying the skin and oiling it and it wouldn't really be chicken teriyaki at that point. Even if you did go through the trouble of fully crisping the skin, it would not stay crisp for a more than a few minutes because the steam rising off the meat would quickly saturate the skin as it cooled. If you're okay with the skin not being crispy, you could do this ahead of time, but it will lose it's shiny glaze as the moisture coming off the cooking chicken will water down the glaze. You could reglaze it just before serving by making just the sauce in a pan as described here: https://norecipes.com/blog/teriyaki-chicken-recipe/
oliver weagle says
Hi Marc - GREAT site - and super photography too! Can this be prepared ahead of time - for 8 - 10 people? Howw would one keep the skin crispy?
Marc Matsumoto says
Wow, that's a lot of thighs! Glad to hear it went well!
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ikedatao says
I ran out of time, so I ended up de-boning 30 thighs, not easy! Just wanted to update you that I grilled them on my gas stove on medium setting and it was the BEST Teri chicken ever!! Thanks again for your recipe and tips, my 4th of July BBQ was a success!
Marc Matsumoto says
You could just buy the bone-in skin-on variety and debone them yourself. Then use the bones for chicken stock. Otherwise try Mitsuwa, they usually have bone-less skin on thighs specifically for Chicken Teriyaki.
ikedatao says
Great, thank you so much! Now I just have to start hunting down boneless thighs with skin, I couldn't find any here yesterday in San Jose. They either had boneless/skinless or bone in...
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi beebeelove, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. How high you set the temperature really depends on how much BTU your unit outputs, but I'd start by preheating the grill at medium heat. Put the chicken skin side down first until it has some nice grill marks and then flip and finish by basting with the glaze. If the temperature is too hot, the sugar will burn before the chicken is cooked. Cooking times will vary on the size and temperature of the chicken when it hits the grill, but it should be about 4-8 minutes total. You can cut into the meat to check and see if it's done.
ikedatao says
Hi Marc, I love your recipes, thank you! I have made this for 2 people with yummie success and now I am planning to make this for about 15 people for my 4th of July party using our gas grill. My question is: how high should I set the temp on the grill and about how long will it take to cook using thighs with skin on? Thanks.
tucancantu247 says
Thank you so much my family loved this recipe! sorry I'm so late on the reply ,but this recipe was a keeper!
Marc Matsumoto says
It could have to do with the ginger, but it could also have to do with the thickness of the sauce. Try reducing the sauce further on the grilled version so it's as thick as the pan version. As for the ginger, it would be fine to add some to the marinade (just don't add it to the sauce or it will cloud the sauce).
--
Marc Matsumoto
https://norecipes.com
https://wanderingcook.com
Twitter: @norecipes
The Chicago Prophet says
Hi Mark, I've tried several of your recipes including the pan and grilled version of this Teriyaki Chicken. Though I love both, I prefer the pan version because, to me, it taste better. The way I know a teriyaki should taste. Is this because of the grated ginger on the pan version that 's not on the grilled recipe? Does ginger taste good on grilled foods? Thanks!
Guest says
Boo Yao! I followed your recipe and came out tasting like a PRO did it. Thanks Dr. Matsumoto.
Marc Matsumoto says
Lucky boyfriend:-) Chicken teriyaki is usually eaten as a lunch item and is often included in bento boxes, so there's not really any traditional sides have to be served with it. You could serve it with some miso soup, and vegetables such as kinpira gobo ( https://norecipes.com/blog/kinpira-miso-gobo-burdock-with-miso/), or maybe a seaweed salad (https://norecipes.com/blog/seaweed-salad/)? You can see all my Japanese recipes here: https://norecipes.com/blog/recipe/japanese/ and pick some things that look good to you.
Mistey says
thank you....is there anything else you could tell me it Is mine and my boyfriends anniversary and I am trying to create an authentic Japanese meal to serve him...