Easy teriyaki chicken
Say goodbye to jars and packets of processed chicken teriyaki marinade, because from now you’re making your own! This is my home-cook-friendly recipe and it’s a cracker. I reckon skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs are the best for this recipe (or equally as good is the maryland, which is the drum with the thigh attached). If you like, you can remove the skin from the chicken but it adds great flavour and I’m a big fan, so mine always stays on. If you want to use boneless thighs, reduce the cooking time to 30 minutes – but the bone-in cuts stay juicier and they’re tastier.
If you have time, you can add the cooled marinade to the chicken in a container or snaplock bag, and marinate overnight for maximum flavour.
Prep time – 20 minutes
Cooking time – 50-60 minutes
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1kg – 1.5kg chicken thighs – bone-in & skin on (or use chicken marylands)
½ cup soy sauce (use GF if necessary)
½ cup water
¼ cup brown sugar
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp oil (peanut or rice bran)
3 tsp white or malt vinegar
2 tsp cornflour mixed 2 tbsp water
4 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp finely ground black pepper (or just go mad with the pepper grinder)
Fresh chopped chives or, spring onions, parsley or coriander, to serve
Cooked rice or noodles and steamed green, to serve
Japanese mayonnaise (Yum Yum Sauce), to serve (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180c fan bake and line a large roasting dish (something with sides, even if only shallow – as there’s quite a bit of liquid) with baking paper or foil.
To make the teriyaki sauce, add the soy sauce, water, brown sugar, oyster sauce, oil, vinegar, cornflour mixture, garlic, ginger and pepper to a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer for a couple of minutes until it has thickened. Remove from the heat.
If there are any outrageous flappy bits of extra chicken skin coming off the edges of the chicken, you can trim this.
Slice each piece of chicken a few times through the skin and a little way into the flesh. This helps the flavour of the sauce infuse while cooking. Arrange the chicken skin-side up in the prepared tray. Pat them nice and dry with paper towels so the marinade holds on better.
If you have time, you can add the cooled marinade to the chicken in a container or snaplock bag, and marinate for a few hours or overnight for maximum flavour (and still baste as per the recipe while cooking).
Arrange the chicken in the roasting tray. Using a pastry brush, coat each piece of chicken with the teriyaki sauce (at this stage the coating won’t look impressive – but by the end it will be dark and shiny and delicious). Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, brushing the chicken with more sauce 3-4 more times during the cooking time.
Serve the chicken with cooked rice, steamed greens and a scattering of herbs/spring onions if you like. It’s pretty good with a squeeze of Japanese Mayo, too!
If you have any leftover sauce, you can give it a quick boil (add a splash more soy sauce and water to make it go further – and any cooking juices in the pan) and spoon it over the chicken and rice as you serve up.