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This teriyaki chicken will be the best that you ever make! The tender, juicy chicken is coated with the most amazingly flavored sauce. Once you eat this, it will become your new favorite!
This teriyaki chicken makes the best entree for any meal! Serve this up with some easy fried rice, some delicious vegetable lo mein, and these amazing egg rolls!
Teriyaki Chicken Recipe
Trust me when I tell you that this teriyaki chicken recipe is the best. Seriously, I love Asian food so much and have tried countless different recipes. This one takes the cake. Plus, it’s simple. Recipes don’t need to be complicated to be delicious! This teriyaki chicken is smothered with the best teriyaki sauce out there, and the chicken soaks it up, making it really flavorful.
I love chicken teriyaki cooked and eaten with rice and broccoli, but the beauty of this chicken is that you can serve it up with a ton of different sides and it will taste good every time. The flavor combination in the sauce is made with ginger, soy sauce, and garlic, and the aroma in the kitchen makes me so hungry every time. This recipe is simple and easy and tastes like it came straight from a restaurant.
Ingredients to Make Teriyaki Chicken at Home
This recipe is simple and easy to make from the comfort of your own home. No more need to dine out to get chicken this good. Now you can make it for yourself whenever you want! See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for exact measurements.
- Chicken: You can use chicken thighs or breasts for this recipe. Whichever type you prefer will work great.
- Salt and Pepper: Use these to your liking to season the chicken.
- Olive Oil: You will use the olive oil to cook the chicken in before adding the sauce,
- Soy Sauce: I like to use low sodium soy sauce to make this a little bit healthier.
- Brown Sugar: You can use light or dark brown sugar.
- Apple Cider Vinegar: You can use rice vinegar in a pinch!
- Garlic Clove: If you don’t have a fresh clove of garlic on hand then you can use minced garlic instead. 1/2 teaspoon equals about 1 clove of garlic.
- Sesame Oil: This is essential to usingin a teriyaki sauce! My favorite one to use is this sesame oil.
- Freshly Grated Ginger: Whenever you use fresh ingredients, the flavor is more potent.
- Water and Cornstarch: This will be used to thicken up the sauce.
- Sesame Seeds and Green Onions: These will be used to garnish the top of your chicken!
How to Make Chicken Teriyaki
This recipe is quick and easy! You can whip it up in no time and have a delicious meal on the table that your entire family will go crazy for! It’s going to fly off of your table fast. If I were you, I would double the recipe.
- Cook Chicken: Cut the chicken into one inch pieces and salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a wok or skillet over medium high heat and add the chicken. Cook until no longer pink and remove and set aside on a plate.
- Whisk: In a small bowl combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, garlic, sesame oil, and ginger. Then, in a separate small bowl whisk the water and cornstarch to make a slurry. Add the cornstarch to the sauce mixture and whisk.
- Thicken Sauce: Add the sauce to the skillet and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and then whisk until it starts to thicken.
- Toss Chicken with Sauce: Add the chicken back to the skillet and toss until coated and heated through. Garnish with chopped green onions and sesame seeds. Serve over rice if desired.
Is Teriyaki Chicken Healthy?
Teriyaki chicken is an excellent form of protein but can also be high in sodium. To help counter that, I like to use low sodium soy sauce in this recipe to lower the sodium intake! It’s an easy thing to do and it doesn’t affect the taste at all. Teriyaki chicken is definitely a healthier choice than some of the fried foods that are on the menus at Asian restaurants.
Helpful Suggestions
There are a few things that you can do to this teriyaki chicken recipe to make it perfect for you and your family! Here are some tips to help you out.
- How to cut your chicken: To make sure that all of your chicken cooks at the same time, it’s importatnt to make sure that you cut all of the pieces to be similar in size. Then they will cook evenly throughout.
- Taste: If you like a saltier taste then add a bit more soy sauce. If you want less of a salt taste then you can replace some of the soy sauce with water.
- Serve it with Rice: If you are looking to serve this teriyaki chicken over some rice then I suggest serving it with white rice or brown rice. But if you want to make this meal even healthier then you can serve it with Cauliflower Fried Rice and it tastes so delicious!
How to Store Leftovers
This chicken teriyaki makes fantastic leftovers. The sauce really soaks into the chicken making it even more flavorful the next day!
- Store in the Fridge: Once your chicken has cooled then you can place it in an airtight container and store it in your fridge. It will last about 3 days.
- To Reheat: When you are ready to reheat your chicken then you can cook it on your stover on medium heat until it is warmed through. If you need to, you can make more teriyaki sauce and add it on top!
More Asian Recipes to Try
If you loved this teriyaki chicken then you are in for a real treat because I have a lot more delicious Asian recipes for you to try! They range from chicken, to shrimp to starters and even some better than takeout rice recipes! These are so good that you won’t ever need to get take-out again!
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Best Ever Teriyaki Chicken
Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds chicken thighs or breasts
- salt and pepper
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- Sesame seeds and green onions for garnish
Instructions
- In a small bowl combine the soy sauce, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, garlic, sesame oil, and ginger. In a separate small bowl whisk the water and cornstarch to make a slurry. Add the cornstarch to the sauce mixture and whisk.
- Add the sauce to the skillet and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and whisk until it starts to thicken.
- Add the chicken back to the skillet and toss until coated and heated through. Garnish with chopped green onions and sesame seeds. Serve over rice if desired.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I noticed that this teriyaki recipe doesn’t actually have teriyaki sauce in It even though you showed your favorite sauce. Does It or doesn’t have teriyaki sauce??
It’s made with homemade teriyaki sauce! All of the ingredients are included in the recipe card. 🙂
So easy to make and soo tasty. My new favorite dinner
Delicious and way healthier and tastier than at a restaurant. I was craving Teriyaki chicken and will never use the bottle again. I thought the saltiness was enough…but I did make it with Brown Rice and Boc Choy, so I guess that absorbed it.
This was DELICIOUS! I made this to add to my salads for lunches at work. Perfect and tender and so easy! Much better than a restaurant, in my opinion. This will be great with rice and veggies, too!
I agree with most comments here– very easy to follow, but a little too salty. I’ll try this recipe again for sure, but with some adjustments to the salt.
Love this recipe. I grilled the chicken on the BBQ then cut up chicken and added it to the
Sauce. I suggest paparic onion and garlic powder ant
The recipe was very easy to prepare. I do recommend low sodium soy sauce as it was very salty. Other than that it was perfect. I used cauliflower mashers instead of rice as we are on diet
For those saying way too salty, maybe just dont pre season the meat, and make sure you use low sodium soy sauce, but most teriyaki sauces are salty.mine got all gobbled up!
Oh my goodness! This was delicious!! I added some broccoli and served it over jasmine rice. So good!
Looks delicious
Very simple and really easy!!! With three young kids and working from home I need quick recipies! I did cook the chicken the day before and put in fridge to make it even faster 🤣 had this with your fried rice and a aubergine dish and prawns fried in batter!
Not terrible, but not the best. I love how the ingredients are things most people have which is why I used this recipe. It’s just way to salty. I used everything listed (including the low sodium soy sauce). The recipe needs to be adjusted.
Hi Kris,
I made this last night and it was very good, but I agree it was VERY salty. Hoping for suggestions to tone it down……
My lovers for me a good choice use Coconut Secret organi soy free
Less72 sodium n came OUT delicious!Gbu
My husband and I were joking that this was the “best teriyaki chicken,” yet only had one rating. After I made this recipe he demanded I leave another review. This recipe is super easy. It uses items that are in most pantries and is delicious! I added a little mirin because I like the flavor. Thank you for sharing. My family really enjoyed this.
Haha THANK YOU!!
What are the measurements for ingredients if you are cooking 2lbs of chicken?
I would probably just bump it up to 3 lbs of chicken and just double the recipe. Adding only 1/2 pound more of chicken gets a little tricky on the measurements!
Can you freeze
Yes! After you cook it up and it has cooled then you can place it in an airtight container. It will last about 3 months in the freezer. Let it thaw in your fridge overnight and then reheat it on the stove until it is warmed through! Cook some extra teriyaki sauce to add fresh to the chicken after you warm it up!
Trying this tonight. I didn’t have apple cider so I used white vinegar instead. Is that okay?
Hi Alyssa,
It looks really nice and I would love to give this recipe a try.
Can I substitute the brown sugar for something else without losing the flavour, as my wife who absolutely lives for her food has just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and it calls for a sudden lifestyle change? 🙁
Cheers,
John
John, try the sugar replacements used in keto diets. I use erythritol or xylitol. Also, monk fruit & allulose are widely used & easily found in grocers & online. Should help greatly in managing diabetes. Good luck!
Hi Charlotte,
Many thanks for those suggestions, we shall look into them, and thanks for the good luck as her world is spinning madly at the moment.
This was amazing! We used the extra teriyaki sauce over roasted carrots & green beans
What a great idea Becca! I’m going to try that tomorrow!