Chicken Teriyaki (Grilled)

July 16, 2009 · 235 comments

Chicken Teriyaki Recipe

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 filleted 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, chicken 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 exoticism 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.

Grilled Teriyaki Chicken

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 flavour. I’ve written the directions for a broiler, but just reverse the cooking order (skin up, then down) if you are using a grill.

Teriyaki Sauce
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 flavour of its own.

Serve this chicken teriyaki whole or chopped up on a bowl of steaming hot rice with some extra sauce. The leftovers make great oyako donburi which will be a topic for another post.

Note: I also have an easy pan-fried chicken teriyaki recipe

Equipment you'll need:

Chicken Teriyaki

for brine
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons mirin

4-6 skin-on filleted (boneless) chicken thighs

for teriyaki sauce
2 tablespoons mild flavored honey (or maltose)
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons sake

Combine the water, soy sauce, brown sugar and mirin in large ziploc 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, just 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.

  • Pingback: Simplicity « Cooking, eating and student living in London

  • Lara

    Could you elaborate on how long you cook the chicken? Grill vs. broiler. Thanks!

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      To use a grill instead of a broiler, just reverse the cooking order (i.e. cook the skin side up first, then flip and cook the skin side down).

  • Cynthiamejia_roma

    What is mirin? Can I use any white wine instead of sake?

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      Mirin is sweet Japanese rice wine. You can substitute extra sake and extra sugar for the mirin, but substituting white wine for sake will change the taste substantially.

  • http://hfeel.org/cheap-prednisone-online-en.html Buy Prednisone

    You have a very good blog that the main thing a lot of interesting and useful!

  • Luzaki

    i learn about teriyaki sauces i know it sweet not only just that the pefect thing is that by adding the food is being grill it smell good but but if we boil the salmon fish and put teriyaki  sauces i thing it will be fantastic ko 

  • Jackr

    Looks and sounds delicious! 

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/7LQOYL4FJF4ZQVX5YUX5AXWXSM Carla

    I’m gonna try it! The two things I miss more from Japan is teriyaki chicken and yakiniku.
    Your blog is absolutely perfect… I’m trying to begin in food photography too :)

  • http://bankruptcyanddisabilitylaw.com/marietta-bankruptcy-attorney/ Marietta bankruptcy attorney

    Your foods are looking yummy! I think all of them are so delicious.

  • http://ntaf.info/emagrecer/emagrecer/ emagrecer

    I am a food lover and I liked your blog like hell.

  • http://www.reinventingaging.org/general-health/make-your-teeth-whiter/idol-white/idol-white/ Idol White

    I have to say surprisingly I liked all the Item you shared here. Waiting for some more. 

  • Kinako

    I made it as described but I added snow peas, carrots and parsnip when broiling.  I basted the veg with the marinade to begin and clazed them after with the teriyaki sauce before putting it all over rice.  Delish!  Super recipe!!

  • Anees4

    this is hard looking for the recipe

  • Pingback: Week 24: Trigun and teriyaki | Sophie's Japan Blog

  • Anon

    thank god I found this, I was searching for about 3 hours all over the recipe. Thank you so much.

  • Tucancantu247

    how many people does this serve?

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      It depends on how many chicken thighs you use and how hungry the people are. If you make 6 medium chicken thighs you should figure 1.5-2 thighs per person, so that would be 3-4 people. If you make 4, it would feed 2 people. 

  • Rachael

    can you bake the chicken instead?

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      You can bake the chicken, but the lower temperature won’t get you the same results. If you don’t have a broil setting on your oven, you could also pan-fry it in a hot skillet with some oil.

  • Eric

    Just made this according to your recipe (but using dark brown sugar dissolved in water in place of maltose or honey, neither of which were on hand). Really delicious!

  • sla guna

    Hi Marc, I just found your site b/c I was looking for a no-fail authentic chicken and beef teriyaki recipe for my dinner tomorrow. Can I just say, your site is a goldmine! I can’t wait to try out more recipes! That being said, could you also use the same brine and glaze recipe on beef? And what cut of beef would you recommend for beef teriyaki? Thank you so much! I look forward to hearing from you!

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      Thanks! You could definitely use it with beef too. As for the cut, I’d recommend something tender with a lot of fat, hangar steak would probably be my #1 choice for a good balance of fat, flavor and price.

      • sla guna

        Marc your recipes were a hit! What a difference real sake makes as well. I tried the recipe on both chicken and beef and both were well received. I did end up adding a bit of garlic and ginger to the beef batch and made them as teriyaki kabobs on the grill. All in all, great simple but tasty recipe! Can’t wait to try out your others and hopefully learn how to cook w/o a recipe. :)  

        Sidenote– do you have any video clips when you were on “Chopped” or “Grill It w/BF?” I can’t find a clip anywhere and would love to see you in action!

      • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

        The Bobby Flay episode isn’t online anywhere, but I found the Chopped episode on youtube. Just do a search for “Thyme Flies Chopped” on youtube and it should come up.

  • saeko

    Dear Marc,
    My first SUCCESSFUL attempt at teriyaki…domo arigato gozaimashita. I am a third generation Japanese American and you are helping to bridge the gap. I can’t wait to try the next recipe….Sincerely, thank you. Saeko

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/D7QLTUBG42KD5LJDMHIH7WYNDM Ana Maria C

    this is the type of teriyaki chicken that is best for Asian taste… I tried this cooking in my resort in Mindoro Bali Beach Garden Resort and my guests like this!!! thumbs up !!Thank you

  • Mike Gargano

    Hi, I was wondering how long you can marinate for, possible to leave over night?

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      Overnight would be be fine, it just means more flavor will soak into the meat.

  • Jamie

    I tried this for the 2nd time tonight, still can’t quite get the sauce right it always turns out too runny. How can I make it so that the sauce is thicker or more glossy as you would say??

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      It’s not going to get as thick as the bottled sauces, but you should still be able to get it thick enough to coat your chicken. I know I said saucepan in the recipe, but try doing it in a fry pan or something with more surface area so you burn off the liquid faster. I included a time progression of what the sauce should look like in this post on PBS: http://www.pbs.org/food/fresh-tastes/salmon-teriyaki/

  • vrouwtje

    what is sake?

  • Recipe tried

    We just had this for dinner and it was a big hIt. This is the second recipe I’ve tried of yours. The first was the nikumon which are the best ever I’ve tried. I’ve made it a bunch of times and will make this one regularly too. I never liked teriyaki chicken either until now. This is not too sweet like at most restaurants.

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      Thanks! Glad you liked it:-)

  • ching

    hi! what’s the best substitute for sake?

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      There is no substitute that will emulate the flavor of rice wine (sake). You can make the sauce with water, but it will taste like sweet soysauce. Using grape based wines won’t work well either because they are acidic. If you’ve searched all over and really can’t find sake, you could use a 1 to 4 mixture of sherry and water, but it will taste different.

  • fe

    can i use salmon for this teriyaki sauce?

  • Stacy

    wat is siren

  • Stacy

    i mean mirin

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      It’s a sweet cooking wine made from rice. You can substitute extra sake and sugar to replace it.

  • Danica

    any suggestions on what vegetables I could serve on the side of this?

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      It will go with whatever you have. Spinach, swiss chard, snap peas, sugar peas, green beans, zucchini and summer squash are all good choices.

  • Kara

    How do I pan fry this? Don’t have a grill/broiler:( And will pan frying this make the chicken less tasty and dry?

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      I’m actually working on a pan-fried version of this recipe, so stay tuned. In the mean-time if you want to try it out, check out my beef teriyaki recipe (http://norecipes.com/blog/beef-teriyaki-recipe/) for the process. The only difference with chicken is that it takes longer to cook through, so you’ll need to cover the pan with a lid to steam the chicken for a bit before adding the sauce ingredients.

    • Ernest

      I always do mine in a skillet. Brown the chicken, then cut it into strips while I reduce the sauce in the same skillet. Then place the chicken strips back to the skillet with the sauce to finish cooking it.
      Takes a few minutes longer but it works just fine.

  • Skye

    Does this go well with bean sprouts?

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      I honestly can’t think of a vegetable this wouldn’t work with. Bean sprouts should be great!

  • Victoria

    Love your teriyaki sauce recipe – so simple and great tasting. This will be my go to recipe from now on. Thanks!

  • Marga

    Hello! How should I grill this on a stove top grill? Please elaborate. Thank you!

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      By stove top grill, do you mean a griddle or something like a Japanese stove top grill (with a ceramic heat diffuser and mesh)?

  • Tom

    How close do you have the chicken to the broiler?
    Thanks

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      With the oven rack in the upper middle position.

  • MikeG

    The recipe looks fantastic and I’m eager to try it. I have found Sake and Rice wine, but the label doesn’t mention Mirin. Should I add sugar to the Rice wine?

    • http://norecipes.com Marc Matsumoto

      Yea, you could make a substitute for mirin by using 1 cup sake to 1/3 cup sugar.

      -Marc

  • Pingback: Recipe: Chicken Teriyaki | Panini Happy®

  • http://www.facebook.com/rdph1 Rowena Dph

    this is a delicious recipe… i served it with steamed cabbage and broccoli and rice.

  • Pingback: Cedar Planked Teriyaki Chicken

  • Pingback: Orange Honey Teriyaki Chicken Recipe

  • Pingback: Chicken Teriyaki Recipe (Pan-fried)

Previous post:

Next post: