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« Japanese Pickled Ginger (Gari) Recipe |Main| Homemade Mirin Recipe »
September 18, 2013True Chicken Teriyaki RecipeI have a friend who is a Japan and China scholar. (What anover-achieving combination, eh?) One time she invited us to her home and servedwhat she called chicken teriyaki – it was cooked in a skillet, just the way shelearned to do it in Japan, she said. I was incredulous because it wasn’t likethe versions I’d eaten at Japanese restaurants in the United States. Thoserenditions, which I considered definitive, where grilled and brushed with asticky sweet brown sauce.
I shelved that experience for years until last week, when Isuddenly had a hankering for chicken teriyaki. Maybe it was because I’d madethe batch of pickled ginger that I had Japanese food on my mind, which wanderedto what I figured was an iconic dish of Japanese cuisine. I learned someinteresting things.
One, teriyaki is not as popular in Japan as it is outside ofJapan, according to my friend Hiroko Shimbo in her amazing book, TheJapanese Kitchen. I amokay with that because chicken teriyaki probably sold well with Japanese restaurant owners outside of Japan. Call it the kung pao chicken syndrome. Moreover, she explains that “teri” means gloss and “yaki”means to broil or grill. Made from mirin, sake, soy sauce and sometimes sugar, teriyaki sauce is a finishing sauce meant to glaze.That made sense but why cook it in a skillet?
Shizuo Tsuji went into further details in JapaneseCooking: “Many foods that are grilled also can be pan-broiled over highheat in their own fat or with a film of oil in the pan, or quickly browned andsauteed. Since the use of a pan or grilled also is defined by the verb yaki,such cooking is part of the wide yakimono (“grilled things”) category.”
So it’s a language thing. Tsuji goes on to say that whilecooking over charcoal is the orthodox Japanese approach, a pan is oftenemployed, even though it’s a stepchild kind of technique. He notes that certain things arecooked in a skillet only. While neither Tsuji or Shimbo say so, both of theirrecipes for chicken teriyaki call for cooking in a skillet, then finishing thechicken with the sauce to coat it with color and flavor.
I tried it out and there was a nice chicken flavor in themeat that was cooked in a skillet; the chicken juices were recooked into theflesh. The color is gorgeous. I cooked two thighs but call for four in therecipe below to scale the recipe up for a regular-size family.
For fun, we tried grilling the chicken with the skin on andbrushing on the teriyaki sauce at the end like a glaze. My husband liked itgrilled, I liked it cooked in the skillet. We ate most of it up. Try both outand make up your own mind. Either way, make the teriyaki sauce yourself. It’sridiculously easy.
Recipe
True ChickenTeriyaki
Yields: 4 servings
Ingredients:
1/2 cup mirin, storebought or homemade1/4 cup sake1/4 cup Japanese soy sauce2 tablespoons sugar4 large boneless skinless chicken thighsKosher saltBlack pepperCanola oil1 green onion, green part only, cut into ringsand/or ground sansho pepperInstructions:
Combine themirin and sake in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low for 5 minutes, thenadd the soy sauce and sugar. Stir until dissolved. Adjust the heat to simmerfor 20 to 25 minutes, until reduced by about a third and thickened. Thereshould be a very generous 1/2 cup. Set aside to cool and concentrate. Use orstore in a jar in the fridge for a week. Return to room temperature beforeusing.Rinse and patthe thighs dry with paper towel. Poke it with a toothpick or fork to letflavors penetrate. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat a medium skillet overmedium heat. Add a small splash of oil. Cook the thighs, smooth side down, for3 minutes, or until a little golden underneath. Turn each piece over, lower theheat to medium-low or low, then cover; you want a gently hiss. Cook for 8minutes, or until just cooked through. Add about 2tablespoons of the sauce. Turn to coat the chicken, increase the heat tomedium. Let the chicken cook in the bubbling sauce for 3 to 5 minutes, turningoften, until the sauce has coated the chicken with a reddish-brown gloss. Thepan will be have some fat from the chicken as well as the cooked downdark-colored teriyaki sauce. Transfer thechicken to a plate and let cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Cut across the grain,arrange on a plate and garnish with a sprinkling of green onion and/or sanshopepper. Serve with rice. Do you have a favorite way of making chicken teriyaki? In a skillet or on the grill? What kind of teriyaki sauce? Maybe I've been in the dark for too long about this. Posted in Recipes: All, Recipes: Fast and Easy, Recipes: Gluten-Free , Recipes: Grilled, Recipes: Japanese, Recipes: Poultry and Eggs | Permalink | |
| Comments True Chicken Teriyaki Recipe I have a friend who is a Japan and China scholar. (What anover-achieving combination, eh?) One time she invited us to her home and servedwhat she called chicken teriyaki – it was cooked in a skillet, just the way shelearned to do it in Japan, she said. I was incredulous because it wasn’t likethe versions I’d eaten at Japanese restaurants in the United States. Thoserenditions, which I considered definitive, where grilled and brushed with asticky sweet brown sauce.
I shelved that experience for years until last week, when Isuddenly had a hankering for chicken teriyaki. Maybe it was because I’d madethe batch of pickled ginger that I had Japanese food on my mind, which wanderedto what I figured was an iconic dish of Japanese cuisine. I learned someinteresting things.
One, teriyaki is not as popular in Japan as it is outside ofJapan, according to my friend Hiroko Shimbo in her amazing book, TheJapanese Kitchen. I amokay with that because chicken teriyaki probably sold well with Japanese restaurant owners outside of Japan. Call it the kung pao chicken syndrome. Moreover, she explains that “teri” means gloss and “yaki”means to broil or grill. Made from mirin, sake, soy sauce and sometimes sugar, teriyaki sauce is a finishing sauce meant to glaze.That made sense but why cook it in a skillet?
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