Chicken Teriyaki
I found this recipe in a Japanese Cookbook, and have modified and played with it. I like to serve this with steamed rice and wok-stirred veggies, which is included below. It's not your usual Chicken Teriyaki on skewers, but it is soooo goood please enjoy!
I found this recipe in a Japanese Cookbook, and have modified and played with it. I like to serve this with steamed rice and wok-stirred veggies, which is included below. It's not your usual Chicken Teriyaki on skewers, but it is soooo goood please enjoy!
- for chicken:
- 2 large chicken breasts slice in thick strips or bite sized chunks
- 2-3 tbl soy sauce -depending on how much sauce you want
- 2-3 tbl mirin -gourmet cooking sake, optional if you have regular sake-
- 2 tbl sake
- 2-3 tbl sugar this makes the sauce thicken, don't skimp on the sugar!
- 1 tbl sriracha or hot chili paste (optional for a tad bit of spiciness)
- 4 tbl corn meal or grits i use bob's red mill corn grits (aka polenta)
- 3 tbl cornstarch
- 2 tbl flour
- 3 tbl peanut oil (or another oil good for high heat stir frying, such as safflower or coconut, or vegetable shortening
- veggies:
- 4 large bok choy (pak choy) leaves washed and rinsed, chopped diagonally
- 1 large carrot cut in half diagonally, then cut halves lengthwise. next, slice the halves lengthwise to create slender, small carrot sticks
- 3 tbl peanut oil same rule as above applies for the oil.
- Carbohydrate 53.9291549944248 g
- Cholesterol 136.88 mg
- Fat 43.8271000173694 g
- Fiber 1.83239998873404 g
- Protein 59.4075000000067 g
- Saturated Fat 7.67726500293544 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (441g)
- Sodium 1669.34000000023 mg
- Sugar 52.0967550056908 g
- Trans Fat 2.85730600085104 g
- Calories 869 calories
Step-by-step
- First, start with your rice since it takes the longest. {NOTE: if you are using a rice cooker, then disregard these first two paragraphs.} Wash your rice by using a fine mesh colander or seive, and rinse several times, saving the first couple of rinses to clean out your Wok, since using soap on Woks are bad for them. (The starch from the rice cleans the wok and breaks up the food without having to use soap, which means you have to re-season your wok.) If you're not using a Wok, don't worry about saving the starchy-water, but still rinse the rice.
- Once this is done, put your rice, always using the 1 C rice to 2 C of water ratio, into a pot with the water. Be sure you have a pot that has a tight fitting lid, and not too large of a pot, you want at least a 1/4 inch of rice completely covering the bottom of your pot! Heat the water on med-high heat. Once the water and rice begins to boil, I like to take a wooden spoon and stir it, so the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot as bad. Let the water boil down until you see small craters on the top of the rice, let it boil down a bit more until you don't see anymore water on the sides of the pot. Then cover it with your lid, turn the heat down to LOW, and let it just sit for 20 minutes. By the end of the 20 minutes, you may turn the heat off or keep it at low, depending on how close you are to serving your food.
- Stir together the soy sauce, sake, mirrin, and sugar, and chili oil if you choose. Set aside.
- Cut chicken, then mix together the cornmeal or grits, corn starch (tapioca starch works just as well), and flour. Coat the chicken pieces evenly with this mixture, being aware that they WILL stick together if you pile them up after coating. Which is OK, but once you start cooking them you will need to seperate them while stir frying. Or you could just keep them separate. Set the chicken aside.
- {NOTE: I like to stir fry my veggies first, so that the coating and sauce from the chicken doesn't keep the veggies from moving around smoothly and making them stick to the sides of the Wok.} After washing and chopping your carrots bok choy, heat your Wok (or a medium sized skillet you can move around easily) on high, add 3 Tbl. peanut oil. Once the oil is hot, quickly and carefully add the veggies, using metal tongs or a large wooden spoon to move the veggies around in a circular motion, shaking your wok or pan back and forth as well to stir fry. Continue for about 3-4 minutes, until bok choy has reduced in size and carrots are cooked and somewhat crispy on the outside, but still crunchy on the inside. Sometimes while stir frying I like to add garlic powder and ginger powder to season the veggies, but this is optional. Once the Veggies are done, scrap them all out onto a plate or a bowl and cover to keep warm.
- Leaving your stove on HIGH, put the wok or pan back on the burner and add the other 3 Tbl. of peanut oil. Once this is hot, carefully place coated chicken in oil, being careful not to splash oil on you. One trick to do this is placing the chicken on the side of the wok or pan and letting it slowly slide into the oil. Keep chicken moving around by stirring in a circle and moving the pan back and forth quickly while adding the other pieces, or your chicken will burn on one side.
- Once all the chicken is added, stir fry like you did with the veggies until chicken is MOSTLY cooked, about 4 min. or so. Make sure there isn't a bunch of excess oil in the wok or pan, if there is then drain it quickly and replace the pan back on the burner. Then turn heat down to MED-HIGH and add your soy sauce mixture. Since this has been sitting for awhile now, you may want to stir it up a bit before pouring it in. Stir the mixture around the chicken, making sure each piece is coated. Continue this for about another 3-4 min, the sauce should start to thicken, let it set and simmer for a minute or two, and when the sauce is the thickness you desire (I like mine to be still a bit liquid-ey so I can mix it with my rice a bit ^-^) you're done! Turn the heat off and remove wok from burner.
- Fluff your rice with a fork, and serve up equal portions of rice, veggies and chicken. Enjoy!!
Crowding the wok is the single fastest way to turn crisp chicken teriyaki into steamed rubber. When preparing this dish, home cooks routinely dump all the coated meat into the pan at once, dropping the oil temperature instantly and trapping moisture instead of encouraging a hard sear. High-heat stir-frying demands thermal mass, meaning the pan must retain its heat to crisp the exterior starches properly.
Scaling and High-Heat Technique
Adapting this two-portion recipe for a larger group requires working in batches rather than buying a bigger pan. Residential burners simply lack the BTU output to recover temperature quickly if overloaded with cold meat. Cook the chicken in single layers, maintaining a high flame for the initial four-minute sear, and transfer finished pieces to a warm oven while subsequent batches cook. For the sauce, remember that the sugar and cornstarch combination thickens rapidly once it hits the hot surface; reduce the heat to medium-high immediately after pouring the liquid to prevent the sugars from burning before the soy and sake have reduced.
- If the sauce becomes too thick before the chicken finishes cooking, loosen the mixture with one tablespoon of water at a time.
- Store leftover chicken and vegetables in an airtight container for up to three days, keeping the rice separate to avoid moisture transfer.
- Substitute tapioca starch directly for cornstarch at a 1:1 ratio if dietary preferences require it.
