If you’ve been following this blog for long, you probably remember that I’ve posted about chicken teriyaki before. It was a grilled preparation that involved brining, grilling and basting the chicken, and while delicious, it’s a fair amount of work.
While teriyaki may have originally been a grilled dish, these days in Japan, the chicken is pan-fried more often than not due to busy schedules and a lack of charcoal grills. It doesn’t have the smoky flavor that grilled chicken teriyaki has, but pan frying produces chicken that’s more moist and tender. The best part is that the chicken and sauce can be made in the same pan, which not only makes it fast and easy, it means there’s one less pot to wash.
Since discovering this method for easy chicken teriyaki, I’ve honestly been using it more than the grilled method because it produces great results with much less effort, and so I wanted to share it with all of you.
In case you’re wondering why there’s no cornstarch in the sauce, it’s because the soy sauce and sugar caramelize during cooking, naturally thickening the sauce. If you add cornstarch it not only clouds the sauce, your teriyaki sauce will taste flat in comparison because it hasn’t had a chance to caramelize.
This can be made with any cut of chicken, but in Japan the thigh meat is preferred because it has more flavor. In Japan, “chicken thighs” include both the meat from the drumstick and thigh, so one “thigh” ends up making for a large steak-sized fillet of chicken. In the US, you can either buy whole legs and fillet them yourself, or you can just use more of the smaller chicken thighs. Either way, make sure the fillet is as even in thickness as possible otherwise you’ll end up with parts that are undercooked and other parts that are overcooked.
Ingredients
- 340 grams boneless skin-on chicken thighs
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger (grated)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 tablespoon sake
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sake
Steps
- Rub the ginger and and salt into the chicken and let this sit for at least 30 minutes. After it's marinated, use paper towels to dry the chicken as best you can, removing any excess ginger pulp.
- Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan over medium heat. You don't want to start the chicken off over too high a heat otherwise it will not cook through before burning. Place the chicken skin-side down in the pan and fry until golden brown on one side.
- Flip the chicken, then add 1 tablespoon of sake and quickly cover the pan with a lid. Steam the chicken until it is just cooked through (about 5 minutes).
- Prepare the teriyaki sauce by mixing 1 tablespoon each of: honey, mirin, sake, and soy sauce. Stir to combine.
- Remove the lid, and drain any remaining liquid and oil. Use a paper towel to sop up any excess oil.
- Turn up the heat to high, then add the teriyaki sauce. Let this mixture boil, while flipping the chicken repeatedly to coat evenly.
- The chicken teriyaki is done when most of the liquid has evaporated and the sauce forms a thick glaze around the chicken. Slice and pour the remaining teriyaki sauce over the chicken.
It does look good:-)
Delicious!
Delicious!
Does this recipe actually call for 2 tablespoons sake then? The recipe calls for one, but you have me add it in twice (once with the lidded chicken and one mixed in to the sauce).
Looks great … Interesting how the cuts of meat are different in other places 🙂
Actually the recipe calls for 2, it’s listed twice. When my recipes call for the same ingredient twice, I usually list it twice because people tend not to read and end up adding too much of it in the first time:-)
“2 tablespoons, divided”?
Thanks for the suggestion. The trouble is the platform I use only has a limited amount of space after the ingredient for notes. In this case it would have worked, but sometimes I need the space for other instructions. If I’m going to break with traditional recipe writing style I at least wanted to be consistent about it. Also, I figure that listing it twice for two steps shouldn’t make someone mess up the recipe, while only listing it once and having someone accidentally add too much of an ingredient certainly would.
Yep, I’ve done that before + I read too fast. Your style is a great teaching method. The 1st time I came across what I thought was a misprint (ingredient listed twice), I slowly read the recipe again & understood. Listing it twice saved the meal & my day, thank you!
Is Kikkoman shoyu your preferred soy sauce? It was the brand my mother always kept in her pantry.
That looks both easy and amazingly tasty – I’ll definitely be trying it!
Yep, absolutely. I’ve spent some time in various ryotei kitchens in Japan, and they almost all use plain old Kikkoman, not some fancy small batch brand as you might expect.
What about my high blood pressure which directly increasing with concentration of sodium in my diet? Are you trying to kill me? Why can’t I just eliminate the soy sauce by adding some balsamic vinegar? If I do, can still call it Chicken Teriyaki?
I read this No Recipe yesterday & raced out to the store to pick up what I needed. I had some issues: I couldn’t find Sake, so sub’d with a white wine & rice vinegar mix; I added too much soy sauce; & I over caramelized the sauce (almost burnt it). Even with all that it was AMAZING!!!! The sauce/glaze was thick and a perfect texture, it looked just like the last photo! The chicken was tender and moist and flavorful!Things I learned:1) I found it saltier than I prefer, partly my fault from adding too much soy sauce, but… Read more »
looks like perfection, even in such a short time!
DELICIOUS and makes my mouth water for more! Easy to follow instructions and terrific step-by-step photos. I followed the recipe to a T, and it looks just like your photo. I’m so glad I found your site.
I read this No Recipe yesterday & raced out to the store to pick up what I needed. I had some issues: I couldn’t find Sake, so sub’d with a white wine & rice vinegar mix; I added too much soy sauce; & I over caramelized the sauce (almost burnt it). Even with all that it was AMAZING!!!! The sauce/glaze was thick and a perfect texture, it looked just like the last photo! The chicken was tender and moist and flavorful!Things I learned:1) I found it saltier than I prefer, partly my fault from adding too much soy sauce, but… Read more »
DELICIOUS and makes my mouth water for more! Easy to follow instructions and terrific step-by-step photos. I followed the recipe to a T, and it looks just like your photo. I’m so glad I found your site.
Can you substitute rice wine vinegar for the sake? I don’t think we’d ever need a whole bottle of sake. Thanks! Recipe looks great very much want to try it!
No, that would not be good substitute. Sake is not acidic and teriyaki sauce should not be sour. Rice wine vinegar (like wine vinegar) has undergone the last stage of fermentation where the alcohol turns into acetic acid and doesn’t taste anything like sake. Sake makes for a great cooking wine because of it’s low acidity and abundance of umami so it shouldn’t be hard to use a whole bottle, but if you must use a substitute, use water. It’s obviously not going to taste the same, but it will taste a lot closer than using rice vinegar or regular… Read more »
Hey Mark, what brand of Mirin do you recommend? I’ve heard things like Kikkoman Aji-Mirin is not really Mirin, I see some MIrin with added sugar etc. Quite frankly I’m lost when it comes to Mirin.
Thanks for the advice. Maybe I will get a little bottle of sake and try and use it just for cooking. Will it last in the fridge like a white wine would? I don’t mean to sound daft, but I would love for this recipe to taste as good as it looks. 🙂
Great question! Unfortunately many of the brands in the US are just sake with sugar or corn syrup mixed in. Your best bet is to go to Japanese grocery store (or somewhere they have a large selection of mirin) and read the labels (they should have translated english labels with a list of ingredients if you’re in the US). The one I’m using right now, I bought in Japan, so it probably wouldn’t help you much even if I could read the label and tell you the name:-)
Thank you Mark. I’m in Dallas, Texas and I have looked around, the closest I have found without additives is Eden Foods Mirin from whole Foods. Most of the Asian markets here stock Aji-Mirin.
I’ll keep looking.
If you go to Japanese grocery they should sell little 350ml bottles of sake. Yep if you keep it in the fridge it will last indefinitely. It will start taking on different flavors as it ages (kind of like whiskey), so it might not be good for drinking, but it will be fine for cooking.
There are two online grocery stores that sell Japanese ingredients in the US, Mitsuwa and Marukai, they both have a selection of mirins, but unfortunately they don’t list the ingredients online. One way to get a pretty good idea of whether it’s real mirin or not is by the price as real mirin is aged and costs a lot more to make than the fake stuff.
While real mirin definitely makes things taste better in this particular recipe, you may not notice a huge difference because the soy sauce is pretty intense.
I bought the Eden foods mirin, and it’s much cleaner flavor than kikkoman. Thank you MARC (I apologize for butchering your name in the previous post)
I always buy either Yamasa or Kikkoman by the gallon tin. Do you ever buy it by the drum? I’ve always wondered if it’s possible, even when cooking with it constantly, to use it all…
You can buy low sodium soy sauce, I had high blood pressure when pregnant and used it then.
Love all your recipe. You are making it so simple to cook it. THANK YOU for sharing itwith us.
God Bless You Mark, we haven’t had Katsudon and a good
teriyaki chicken since we lived in Phoenix,AZ. and that was 20 years ago,just got my first computer,only on line 2 weeks and I found you!
Glad I could help! Welcome to the Internet:-)
hi Marc,
can I use chinese cooking wine instead of sake? or can I use the ready to use Teriyaki sauce like Lee Kum Kee brand? I tried once but the meat isn’t tender although I’ve cooked it for half hour. What’s the problem? thanks
Hi Kirstine, Chinese cooking wine is not the same thing as sake and will give the sauce a different taste. You can certainly use it, and I’m sure it will taste fine, it just won’t taste like teriyaki sauce. As for the pre-made sauce I’m not really sure what you are asking? I put this recipe up so people can make an authentic teriyaki sauce from scratch and without unnecessary additives, if that’s not a concern for you then you should use whatever sauce you like. As for the meat not being tender, what kind of chicken are you using?… Read more »
thank you Marc for your respond. I will buy the sake then, as I want to try all of your other recipes as well. In regards to the meat problem, yeah you were right Marc. I bought the frozen one and sometimes defrosted it for too long before start to cook it. Could you please give me the guidance then? Thank you again & I will definitely try to make it.
Really, the best thing to use is chicken that’s never been frozen, but if you must use frozen chicken, leave it in the fridge overnight to defrost. If you find there’s a lot of water that comes out of the chicken after it’s defrosted it’s possible the chicken wasn’t frozen properly to begin with. Frozen meat should be flash frozen (very rapidly), otherwise, ice crystals form that rupture cell membranes, and so when you defrost it all the moisture leeches out of the meat, making it tough. Also, make sure you’re using chicken thigh meat. Breast meat is especially prone… Read more »
Low sodium Soy sauce, or you could even try Tamari, which is wheat free and generally lower in sodium also
Marc, I’ve just tried this recipe today and it’s working. I follow all the instructions and it turns out to be the best teriyaki chicken I’ve ever made 🙂
thank you for your advise and helpful feedback, am so lucky to have found your site accidentally and I will definitely try your other delicious recipe as well.
thanks again !
You are ridiculously emphatic about people attempting to kill you on a food blog. Get a life!
Tried this recipe and wow I didn’t think chicken could taste this good
This is the best recipe ever! So easy to make and absolutely scrumptious! Thank you.
Then Dont cook it Or Just Use Balsamic Vinegar…….
Or Just Use Low Sodium No count Soy Sauce
i tried this and my god im inlove with you! lol
Hahaha, glad to hear you enjoyed it:-)
would u please tell me how to made teriyaki sauce and is there have any ingredients to use instead of sake? I search in Google the mining of sake. its saying the mining is wine. I don’t drink alcohol. that’s why I m asking. thank u
The alcohol in the sake burns off during cooking so there should not be any alcohol in the finished sauce. You can substitute water for the sake if necessary, but it will not have the same taste.
I substituted honey with regular sugar and my sauce was still runny even all the liquid has almost evaporated. What am I doing wrong? I added equal parts of water with soy sauce to reduce the saltiness. Could this be the reason why?
Did you substitute water for the sake or another liquid or did you add extra water on top of the liquids called for in the recipe? If you added extra water, that’s most likely the cause. Otherwise, you just need to boil off more liquid, there should only be a few drops of sticky sauce clinging to the pan when this is done.
Thanks for the reply! I used sake in place of mirin since I don’t have it. But yeah I did add a couple of tablespoons of water to reduce the saltiness. It was a tad too salty for my palette. So the problem lies with the extra water? Not because I replaced honey with plain sugar?