Teriyaki Chicken

Teriyaki Chicken is one of the dishes I love to order when I dined in Japanese Restaurant. I was really keen in finding out how to cook this dish. Though I have 2 bottles of Teriyaki Sauce in my fridge however the taste was not quite right. Somehow it tasted very different from the one you had at the Japanese Restaurants, I reckon the restaurants must have made it on a daily basis to maintain the freshness of the sauce. I was in need of this recipe, I searched through the internet and realized that it is actually easy to make Teriyaki sauce. Basic ingredients are Mirin, Sake, Soya Sauce and Sugar. I have heard alot about Mirin and Sake, just that I don't know how to use them. Now that I know that they are used to make my favourite Teriyaki Chicken, it is time for me to get them and learn to cook my favourite Teriyaki Chicken. 

What is Teriyaki? It is a way of Japanese cooking. The word, Teriyaki is a combination of two Japanese words "Teri" and "Yaki." Teri means luster, and Yaki means grill or broil.

To make a Teriyaki dish, ingredients are broiled, roasted, or grilled after being marinated in or basted by Teriyaki sauce. It is the Teriyaki sauce that brings the shiny look (Teri) to the ingredients.

Tonight I cooked Teriyaki Chicken, it was really delicious and yummy even Tony said it was fantastic. It is a dish worth cooking, kids will love it and you will love it too.

Recipe Adapted from japanesefood.about.com

Ingredients:

Sake and Mirin

 350g Deboned Chicken Thighs or Breast Meat

2 Tablespoon Sake (You can only purchase it at Liquor Shop in NZ)

4 Tablespoon Soya Sauce

4 Tablespoon Mirin (You can purchase it at New World Supermarket-Japanese section)

2 Tablespoon Sugar

1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil

1. Poke chicken using a fork.

2. In a bowl, put in Sake, Soya sauce, Mirin and Sugar.

3. Marinate the chicken in the mixture for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

4. Heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan. First, fry the skin side of the chicken on medium heat until the skin is browned. Turn the chicken over to fry the other side on low heat.

5. Pour the sauce used to marinate chicken in the pan. Cover the pan and steam cook the chicken on low heat until done. Remove the lid and simmer until the sauce becomes thick.

6. Remove the pan from heat. Slice the chicken and serve on a plate.and pour the thickened sauce from the frying pan over the Teriyaki Chicken.

7. Serve the Teriyaki Chicken with boiled rice or on a bun.