What's the secret to great teriyaki chicken?

[tuftears]

I tried making teriyaki chicken last night - for the sauce, I mixed black vinegar, OJ concentrate, some lemon juice, soy sauce, honey, powdered ginger, some chili garlic paste - but then I pan-fried it and it just wasn't as flavorful as I was hoping.

What I want to do is to make a really good teriyaki chicken, the kind they serve in restaurants. Not breaded chicken, per se. Could be baked, could be pan-seared, whatever! Do you have a good recipe for it? If so, share it with me, please!

Comments

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

If you're making your own teriyaki sauce, I *do* have a recipe for that! I've just not done in since I lived in Michigan. It's just easier to buy your own sauce these days. :) But if you want to try:

1 cup soy
1 tsp sesame oil
lots of garlic (6-7 cloves)
fresh ground black pepper (about 1tsp)

2/3 cup sweet rice wine
4 tsp. rice vinegar
1/3 cup brown sugar
(if you don't like/can't get rice wine: leave it, add a little more vinegar, water and sugar instead)

optional: red (hot) pepper flakes, a pinch
optional: 1tbsp ginger (minced or pulped)

Bring the ricewine to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes. Add soy, vinegar, sesame oil and sugar, stir it all in. Now add the seasonings (garlic, ginger, red pepper and blck pepper) and simmer 5-10 mins. Let cool, then put in a bottle and keep in the fridge.

---

As far as a good chicken recipe, I just cook it teppan-style on a flat griddle and then sauce it about one minute before I pull it from the heat; not much of a recipe, but teriyaki chicken isn't something I've tried to expand on. Revar loves it far more than me. :) (I'm more into tonkatsu w/katsu sauce!)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Hmm, can you elaborate on teppan style cooking and application of sauce? Do you marinade it beforehand as well?

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

I rarely marinade things; sometimes for BBQ, but not often of late.

Teppan is just cooking on a flat grill (or in my case, a flat griddle or usually a wok if I'm lazy; I'd love to have a real teppan but my kitchen has no room for that). Veryvery hot, using a little olive oil, a little rice-wine vinegar. Much like stir-fry. Let it sear, pry it free quickly, flip/stir/flip. Add some minced garlic and mushrooms if I'm in the mood for that.

Just before it's done, drench in teriyaki, stir/flip a few more times, serve over rice and aside veggies. Nothing really special or fancy at all, sorrysorry...

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

How do you make sure it's cooked through? Just really small or thin pieces, or...?

Non-intuitive, but....

[traveller-blues.livejournal.com]

Cooking the chicken through is the vital part. I'd go with a two-phase approach--

1) cube and marinade chicken with garlic and soy in a container overnight. You stir fry this until it's nearly done.

2) -then-, as Tug says, add sauce and toss at the last minute. If you overcook the sauce, it kinda denatures. Think about the frozen kits you get at Price Club -- they make you toss in the sauce at the last minute, too!

-Trav

Re: Non-intuitive, but....

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Huh! Okay. I haven't used the frozen kits, but I guess that could be the 'why isn't it working' bit.