Grilled Teriyaki Chicken is grilling perfection. The sweet and salty glaze caramelizes over the slightly charred, tender grilled chicken in a marriage made in food heaven! (Bonus – you can use your homemade teriyaki sauce on everything you grill!)
Grilled Teriyaki Chicken:
This Grilled Teriyaki Chicken is seriously amazing! It’s sweet, savory and salty glaze pairs so well with the slightly charred, tender grilled chicken. Teriyaki is a Japanese term that refers to broiling or grilling foods with a glaze of soy sauce, mirin (rice wine) and sugar. I’ve added garlic, ginger and chili paste for extra oomph!
Teriyaki is obviously big in Japanese restaurants, but it has become so popular you can find it everywhere. When we visited Hawaii, where there is a huge Japanese influence, teriyaki was on most menus, and here in Phoenix there are little Hawaiian and Japanese restaurants that have delicious teriyaki too. You can even find it at fast food restaurants! To keep myself from ordering teriyaki take-out every week, I thought I should learn to make it myself.
First Things First:
I like to make the teriyaki sauce ahead of time. This makes things easier on the day I’m grilling the chicken. Bottled teriyaki sauce used to be a staple in my cupboard until I figured out how easy it was to make it myself! There aren’t a lot of ingredients, and you can control what and how much of each ingredient is going into your homemade sauce.
Teriyaki is a sauce that appeals to all taste buds, even picky ones. My husband and son both love it, as do I. You can make the sauce spicy too, if that’s your thing. You can add crushed red pepper flakes or chili garlic sauce to give a nice undertone of heat without changing the flavor of the teriyaki sauce.
The Ingredients:
As I mentioned, the basic components of teriyaki sauce are soy sauce, mirin and sugar. The soy sauce and mirin are added in equal parts, and the sugar is usually half the amount of liquid. Mirin is a sweet rice wine which is sold in the grocery store, sort of like a cooking wine. I had trouble finding it, and I ended up going to an Asian market. You can also order it online. Or, you can just substitute sake! Sake is less sweet, but readily available and it will also taste great.
The Preparation:
I think adding garlic, ginger and a little spice make the teriyaki sauce even better. To make things easier, you can cut the ginger into coins, you don’t even have to peel it. Mix up all the sauce ingredients, then simmer it for 10 minutes or so until the sugar dissolves and the sauce thickens. Once the sauce is done, you can remove the ginger coins and discard them. You can either use the sauce now, or keep it in the fridge overnight.
Once your sauce is made, you are mere minutes away from enjoying some grilled teriyaki chicken! I would say the hard part’s done, but making the sauce is easy too, so there really is no hard part to this recipe.
Prepare your chicken by cutting off any excess fat and sprinkling with salt and pepper. Gather everything you need for grilling, including a clean plate to put the cooked chicken on.
I like to serve the teriyaki chicken with rice. White rice cooks in just 15 minutes, so you can have the rice cooking away while you are out on the patio grilling. You can also make the rice the day before and reheat it in the microwave before serving. If you aren’t familiar with cooking rice, this link will help you out.
Ready, Set, Grill:
The first thing you’ll want to do it preheat your grill and set to medium high. I used chicken thighs for this recipe because they tend to stay more moist and tender, but you can use chicken breasts too. If you want to use bone in chicken, I would suggest baking the chicken in the oven first, then reheating it on the grill to get the grilled flavor.
Grill the chicken for about 5 minutes per side to start getting some color. Now you can start basting with your delicious homemade teriyaki sauce. You don’t want to start basting with the sauce immediately because the sugar in the sauce will start to burn if it’s on the grill too long. I use my silicone basting brush because it is made to withstand high heat, making it perfect for grilling. Baste the chicken, turn it over and let it start caramelizing. Do this two or three times. You want the chicken to be well coated in sauce.
The Payoff:
It’s going to hard to resist, but let the chicken rest for 5 minutes or so before you dig in. I like to slice it up and serve over rice. If you really want to get fancy, sprinkle it with sesame seeds and slice green onions too.
It’s also nice to have extra sauce at the table so everyone can add it as they like.
Try some sweet, savory, tender grilled teriyaki chicken, it’s going to become one of your favorite grilling recipes!
Disclaimer: any links to products in this post may be affiliate links. This means I would get a small commission if the product was purchased. I only link to products I like and use myself, or are similar to what I use.
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Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
- Yield: 4-6 1x
Description
Grilled Teriyaki Chicken is grilling perfection. The sweet and salty glaze caramelizes over the slightly charred, tender grilled chicken in a marriage made in food heaven! Use the leftover sauce on fish, veggies, ribs, everything!
Ingredients
Teriyaki Sauce
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 3/4 cup mirin or sake
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 inch piece of fresh ginger cut into coins (no need to peel)
- 1 tablespoon corn starch (for thickening)
- 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes or 1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (optional)
Other Ingredients:
- 3–4 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted in a dry pan
- 6 green onions (scallions) sliced, white and light green parts
- Chili paste or Sriracha for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Add all of the teriyaki sauce ingredients to a saucepan and heat over medium low heat. Simmer for 10 minutes or so to combine all ingredients and thicken the sauce. The sauce can be made the day before and stored in a covered container in the fridge overnight (this is usually what I do).
- Preheat your grill. Prepare the chicken by removing excess fat and sprinkling both sides with salt and pepper. Place on a plate to bring to the grill. Bring an extra, clean plate with you to put the cooked chicken on after grilling.
- Grill the chicken over medium heat for 3-5 minutes per side, depending on your grill. You want the chicken to have grill marks and be almost cooked through.
- Once both sides have grill marks, you can start basting with the teriyaki sauce. Be generous, but not sloppy with the sauce as too much might cause your grill to flame up. Baste and turn 2-3 times, allowing the teriyaki sauce to caramelize.
- Remove chicken from grill and set aside to rest for 5-10 minutes. Slice each piece into 1/2 inch slices and serve over rice. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, scallions and extra sauce!
Notes
You can use chicken breasts too, just pound them about 1/2 inch thick so they grill more quickly and evenly.
