Teriyaki Chicken

One of the best Japanese chicken dishes is Teriyaki chicken. This is a recipe for a delicious teriyaki sauce and/or marinade. Why buy it from the store when you can make your own? This recipe uses a lot of soy sauce, garlic, and rice wine. 

I always like to add a little heat, so of course; red pepper flakes were a must. The chicken should be marinated for at least 12 hours (or 24 for more intense flavor).  The chicken can be cooked in many ways. I chose to grill the marinated chicken breasts but you could bake them, or cut them up into pieces for a delicious teriyaki chicken stir fry with your favorite vegetables. 

This recipe will make enough to marinate about 3-4 lbs of chicken. Even if you are only using 1 or 2 lbs of chicken, I would still stay true to the marinade recipe if you want to use it for sauce. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

3-4lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (or thighs)
2/3 cup rice wine (or sake)
1 cup soy sauce
4 ½ teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/3 cup white sugar
7 garlic cloves (minced)
1 tablespoon fresh ginger (minced)
1 small pinch red pepper flakes
black pepper (to taste)

Cooking Instructions:

Step 1: 

In a sauce pan over high heat, add rice wine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the wine for 10 minutes. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar. Season with garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Allow sauce to cool completely.

Step 2: 

Place chicken in a bowl, pour in teriyaki sauce. Seal and marinade over night in the refrigerator.

Step 3: 

Remove chicken from the marinade (reserve the liquid if you want to use it for sauce). Cook chicken by grilling, baking or cut into pieces and stir fry.

Step 4: 

If using the marinade as a sauce- pour the reserved marinade into a sauce pan or wok and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.