Updated on February 1st, 2021
One of the best Japanese chicken dishes is Teriyaki chicken. This is a recipe for a delicious teriyaki sauce and/or marinade. Why buy it from the store when you can make your own? This recipe uses a lot of soy sauce, garlic, and rice wine. I always like to add a little heat, so of course; red pepper flakes were a must. The chicken should be marinated for at least 12 hours (or 24 for more intense flavor). The chicken can be cooked in many ways. I chose to grill the marinated chicken breasts but you could bake them or cut them up into pieces for a delicious teriyaki chicken stir fry with your favorite vegetables. This recipe will make enough to marinate about 3-4 lbs of chicken. Even if you are only using 1 or 2 lbs of chicken, I would still stay true to the marinade recipe if you want to use it for a sauce. Enjoy.
Teriyaki Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 3–4lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (or thighs)
- 2/3 cup rice wine (or sake)
- 1 cup of soy sauce
- 4 ½ teaspoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 7 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger (minced)
- 1 small pinch red pepper flakes
- black pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- In a saucepan over high heat, add rice wine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the wine for 10 minutes.
- Add soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar. Season with garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Allow sauce to cool completely.
Place chicken in a bowl, pour in teriyaki sauce. - Seal and marinate overnight in the refrigerator.
- Remove chicken from the marinade (reserve the liquid if you want to use it for sauce). Cook chicken by grilling, baking or cut into pieces and stir fry.
- If using the marinade as a sauce- pour the reserved marinade into a saucepan or wok and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
I love Teriyaki Chicken and I will surely make it again after Lent. I love the addition of sesame on top.
Very sorry, yes, if you are using the marinade for a sauce you need to cook it first.
That looks delicious! I do agree that marinating stuff for as long as you can possibly wait does give it a much better flavor and taste! The hard part of course is being patient, most of the time we don’t think to make dinner until maybe 30 minutes or so before we’re ready to eat!
Yum! Your pics make this dish look absolutly delicious and mouth-watering! I will have to bookmark this for sure. Thanks for sharing!
That chicken teriyaki looks really tasty!
This looks amazing. I’m going to make this after Easter. Can’t wait!!
teriyaki chicken is one of my most fave dish thanks alot for the recipe 🙂
Where might I find Rice Wine? Sorry, I’m unfamiliar and have never attempted to make something like this. My mouth is watering and I want to make it very soon!
J – You can try the asian section of your local super market or sherry will work as well.
I made this for lunch today, and my boyfriend loved it! However, I added a little bit more sugar to my sauce because the rice wine over empowered everything else in the sauce. Quick question, isn’t the teriyaki sauce supposed to be thick??? I’ve eaten at many Asian restaurants, and their teriyaki sauce is usually thick…is it okay if we add corn starch to the sauce while we’re cooking it???
Vanz – sometimes teriyaki sauce is thick, sometime its not. I have had both. As you stated, to make it thick just add cornstarch. Make sure to mix it with a bit of cold water and stir it into the sauce.
Thank you so much, Bobby! Ever since I found your recipe site, I am so ADDICTED to COOKING now! I got my friend addicted as well:) Again, thank you!!!
Vanz- I am glad you are enjoying my site!!
This looks great! Can someone who’s made it give me any idea on prep time for this recipe? I like to write the prep and cooking times up the top of all my recipes because if I like them I keep them on hand and its good to know that stuff 🙂
Tash – Not including the time marinating in the refigerator the only prep work is making the marinade. This includes mincing garlic and ginger and boiling. I would say the prep time would be about 25 minutes.
Thanks 🙂 I estimated about that. I’ve got it marinading now and will be cooking it for dinner tonight. Cant wait!
hi, can i know how much cornstarch & coldwater to add?
cel – mix 2 teaspoons cornstarch with 2 teaspoons cold water. Just add and stir until it has become as thick as you want.
I have no BBQ and have to cook in oven..in order to get the small strips should i bake, let cool, cut and reheat? i dont think i could get those cuts with warm chicken…howd u do that?
DC- Not necessary to allow cooling. You may get some shredding but they should come out decent. Just make sure to use a sharp knife.
So when re-using the marinade… does bringing it to a boil prevent salmonella from the raw chicken that was soaking in it??? im scared to try it… lol
DC – Yes, boiling will kill any bacteria. It is perfectly safe.
so when you say “fresh ginger” do you mean ginger root? or what?
DC – Yes, ginger root.
ok last question lol sorry about this…I WAS planning on making a stir fry dish out of this so i cut the chicken raw into strips kinda like in the picture …now there is a change of plans… what would be the ideal way to cook the strips now..should i cook them in the oven and for how long…or how should i do this???
DC – hmm, you could still stir fry them but I would say the oven is a good way to go. You could try baking them in a dish right with the sauce. I don’t have an exact oven time but try 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Of course, slice one of the thicker strips in half to make sure it is not pink inside.
I am excited to try this recipe tomorrow… however, I really don’t like sesame seeds. Can I just leave out the sesame oil?
Laura- Yes you could. I hope you enjoy the recipe, let me know how it turns out.
Since I live in Fairbanks AK there is not a lot of choices for great food. I love this kind of chicken. I will be trying this tomorrow!
How would this do in a crock pot? Has anyone ever tried it that way?
Okay I have the chicken marinating right now, but I didn’t have garlic or ginger to put in the marinade. Can/Should I add it when I get home before I bake it?
Laura – Sorry, this you should add it.
Did you grill the chicken shown above on a BBQ?
Did you slice the chicken after it was cooked or did you slice it before and cook as slices?
Thanks for helping settle a debate.
Judy – Chicken was grilled, yes. Sliced chicken after it was cooked,.
I forgot to boil the sauce and just marinated it, will it turn out alright? What’s the point of boiling it?
Alex- It will be okay. The boiling dissolves the sugar.
Had been trying lots of Teriyaki recipe for 3 years now. It has been a long time since i cooked one since i did not really like what i have found so far.
This recipe however is the best so far. I was really hungry so i was only able to marinade it for half an hour. Cooked the chicken in two batches- adding a few tablespoon of Olive Oil on the second batch. Keep the flame low because it tends to darken the sauce maybe due to the sugar.
Garnished with green onions and sesame seeds. My brother almost devour half of the chicken. Even better than our local Japanese resto.
Thank you so much for sharing this
Have been trying different recipes over the last several weeks…..and….THIS RECIPE ROCKS! This is not a “glaze” like many others but actual sauce. I cut the suger down to a little less than 1/3 of a cup and used low sodium soy sauce. I Also peeled the ginger before cutting. I took regular chicken thighs and removed the skin and bone myself (the cost savings is worth it). Served with Jasmine rice, asian asparagus and decent sake.
Not sure how I found your blog, but I just tried your Teriyaki recipe. I cooked the chicken on the BBQ and used chicken thighs. It looked great! It did taste great too although it was very salty. Was I supposed to add water to the marinade? I am wondering if it would be better with the low sodium soy sauce. Thanks for your recipe, your pictures are wonderful. Can’t wait to try more.
How many people would this recipe serve? ^_^ thankyou!
Julia- 6-8
This was an amazing dish… I did not have the time to marinate the chicken over night, however the next day when I tried the chicken it was delicious. I paired the chicken with a Japanese cucumber salad. Thank you for the recipe, everyone in my family enjoyed this.
I used your recipe as the base, I altered some according my family’s preference…
but all in all, I am keeping this recipe…wish I could post a picture of how mine turned out,…Thank you..
This is great Thanks for the recipie