Chicken Teriyaki
Skin-crisp chicken thighs glazed in a reduced soy-mirin-sake-sugar tare.
Ingredients
- 500 g Chicken thighs
- 3 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- 3 tbsp Mirin
- 2 tbsp Sake
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 10 g Ginger
- 1 tbsp Neutral oil
- 1 tsp Sesame seeds (optional)
- 1 Scallions (optional)
Method
- Pat the chicken dry. Score the skin lightly. Grate the ginger.
- Mix the soy, mirin, sake, sugar, and grated ginger to make the tare (a sweet-soy glaze).
- Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high. Lay the chicken skin-down and press flat with a spatula. Cook until the skin is deep mahogany.
- Flip the chicken and cook through, then pour off the excess fat.
- Pour the tare over the chicken and reduce the heat to medium. Tilt the pan and spoon the sauce over the chicken until it thickens to a glossy glaze that coats it.
- Lift the chicken to a board and slice across the grain. Pour the pan sauce over and scatter sesame and scallion.
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About Chicken Teriyaki
Teriyaki refers less to a specific dish than to a Japanese cooking method — teri meaning glaze, yaki meaning grilled or pan-cooked — in which meat is cooked and then coated in a reduced sweet-soy sauce. This home version builds a proper tare from scratch, mixing soy, mirin, sake, sugar, and grated ginger rather than reaching for a bottle, which is what separates real teriyaki from the cloying takeout kind. Skin-on thighs are cooked skin-down and pressed flat until deep mahogany, so you get genuine crispness before the sauce ever touches the pan.
The eating experience turns on that glaze: as the tare reduces over medium heat and you tilt the pan to spoon it back over the chicken, it thickens to a glossy lacquer that clings in a savory-sweet coat with a warm ginger edge. Rendering off the excess fat before glazing keeps the sauce from turning greasy and lets it concentrate properly. Sliced across the grain and finished with sesame seeds and scallions, it's built to sit over a bowl of rice with the extra pan sauce poured across. At around twenty minutes it's genuinely quick, and the from-scratch tare makes it taste like far more effort than it is.
Chicken Teriyaki: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Chicken Teriyaki?
A serving has about 717 calories — 43.7g protein, 13.5g carbs, 48.6g fat, 0.3g fiber. Figures are estimated from the ingredient amounts and will shift with your portions and brands.
Is it high in protein?
Each serving has about 43.7g of protein, roughly 24% of its calories.
Is Chicken Teriyaki gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu). You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for that ingredient to make it gluten-free.
Do I need every ingredient to make Chicken Teriyaki?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out sesame seeds, scallions — they're optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Chicken Teriyaki make?
This recipe makes 2 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.