Teriyaki chicken is a popular and flavorful dish that brings together the perfect balance of sweetness, savory umami, and a slight tang from the soy and vinegar-based sauce. The chicken is tender and juicy, while the glaze adds a lovely shine and a satisfying sweet-savory flavor. It pairs perfectly with steamed rice or stir-fried vegetables, making it a complete and delicious meal. Whether you’re cooking for a busy weeknight or preparing something special for a family gathering, this dish will surely become a go-to favorite. It’s simple, tasty, and guaranteed to impress!
Ingredients
Method
- Heat the oil in the saucepan over medium-high heat and brown the chicken wings for 8–10 minutes, turning, until deep golden all over.
- Add the onion, green onion and garlic and fry for 2 minutes.
- Pour in the wine and boil for 2 minutes to cook off the alcohol.
- Add the mirin, soy sauce and sugar and boil hard for 15 minutes, until reduced by about a third, to roughly 300 ml.
- Mix the cornstarch with the cold water and stir it into the boiling sauce.
- Cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring, until the sauce is glossy and coats a spoon.
- Strain the sauce through the sieve, discard the solids and let it cool completely.
- Lay the thighs skin side down between two sheets of cling film and pound the thick parts until each thigh is an even 1.5 cm thick.
- Put the chicken in a bowl with 150 ml of the cooled sauce, turn to coat and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 4 hours; keep the rest of the sauce separately for glazing.
- Soak the bamboo skewers in water for at least 30 minutes, so they don't burn.
- Thread each thigh onto two parallel skewers so it stays flat, with a pepper triangle on each end.
- Throw away the used marinade.
- Heat the grill pan over medium-high heat, or heat the oven grill with the rack about 10 cm (4 in) below it.
- Cook the skewers skin side first for 6–8 minutes, until the skin is crisp and charred in places.
- Turn the skewers and cook for 5–7 minutes more.
- Brush the chicken with some of the reserved sauce and cook for 1 minute on each side, until sticky and glazed; watch that it doesn't burn.
- Check that a thermometer in the thickest part reads 74°C (165°F).
- Rest the chicken for 3 minutes, then slide it off the skewers and cut it into strips.
- Bring the remaining sauce to the boil in the saucepan and let it bubble for 1–2 minutes, until thick like a caramel.
- Spoon the sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with steamed rice.
- Teriyaki Chicken:
- Take the meat from the bone, but don't take off the skin from chicken leg quarters.
- Flatten and handle with steak-master or small hammer.
- Marinade chicken in teriyaki sauce (100g of meat for 50ml of sauce)
- Pierce chicken pieces along with bamboo skewers, put triangles of sweet pepper at both ends.
- Grill till ready.
- Cook Teriyaki sauceuntil caramel-like in a steepen.
- Slice cooked chicken meat, pour sauce and sprinkle with sesame.
- Teriyaki sauce:
- Roast the bones until completely dried.
- Put the wine on fire and evaporate alcohol.
- Add greens and vegetables to the bones, fry everything together.
- Put all the ingredients together and boil on high heat for 15 minutes.
- Mix starch with cold water and continuously stirring pour the mix cooked into the sauce (it is necessary for its thickening)
- Mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes more.
- Than sift sauce and cool.
What we changed for home
- Chicken leg quarters boned by the cook replaced with 6 boneless, skin-on thighs The thigh is the part of the leg that is easiest to buy boneless; if you can only find bone-in thighs, cut along the bone and lift it out. Keep the skin: it crisps and holds the glaze.
- Sauce made in a third of the batch, with 2 chicken wings browned in the pan instead of 500 g of roasted bones The chef's batch makes about 1.5 litres for a restaurant. Browned wings give the same roasted chicken depth without a tray of bones.
- Grill replaced with a ridged grill pan or the oven grill (broiler) Both give the charred edges of a grill in a home kitchen.
- Marinating time set at 30 minutes to 4 hours in the fridge The original gives no time. Much longer than a few hours, the soy starts to cure the meat and makes it firm.
- Used marinade thrown away; a separate portion of sauce kept for glazing Sauce that has touched raw chicken must not go onto cooked meat unless it is boiled again.
- Glaze brushed on only in the last 2 minutes The sauce is rich in sugar and burns if it goes on at the start.
- Chicken cooked to 74°C (165°F) in the thickest part The original says only 'grill till ready'; a thermometer is the safe test for poultry.
- 'Semi-sweet white wine' can be any off-dry white, such as Riesling, or sake The wine is boiled off; what matters is a little sweetness and acidity.
The dish in the photograph was cooked by the restaurant for this story. Photo: Oleksandr Slyadnyev.
Screen stays on while you cook