Speedy Teriyaki Sauce and Teriyaki Chicken
This teriyaki sauce and teriyaki chicken dinner are a quick meal to make on those busy nights The sauce takes minutes to prepare and the chicken is cut small so it’s a speedy recipe indeed!
Meal Prep Alert: make the sauce ahead of time, cut up the chicken ahead of time and keep both in the fridge, have rice or quinoa cooked to just reheat and you will have dinner ready in a flash!
Making your own sauces lets you adjust the taste to your own liking and you know the good ingredients that are going into what you are cooking and eating!
As always, when you make this recipe, please post a photo of your Teriyaki Sauce and Teriyaki Chicken goodness and tag my IG account #RenataCollective or leave a comment with your thoughts!
Prep Time: 5 minutes / Cook time: Sauce – 5 minutes, Chicken - 20 minutes / Makes: 1 scant cup of Teriyaki Sauce and 4 Servings of the Teriyaki Chicken
Ingredients: Teriyaki Sauce
3 Cloves Garlic – minced
1½ teaspoons Fresh Ginger – grated or minced
½ Cup Tamari - Alternate: Soy Sauce
1½ Tablespoons Sesame Oil
3 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
¼ Cup Coconut Sugar – Alternate: Brown Sugar
2 teaspoons Arrowroot Powder - Alternate: Corn Starch
1/3 Cup Water
Ingredients: Teriyaki Chicken
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Grape Seed Oil
8 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs or 3 Large Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts – cut into bite-sized pieces
Herbamare, or Sea Salt
Grinds of Fresh Pepper
How It’s Made
Let’s make the sauce first. Mince the garlic and set it aside to release its nutritional magic as you measure out the other ingredients.
In a small pot, combine all the ingredients, except for the arrowroot powder and water. Stir.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and allow to simmer for 2 minutes.
In a small bowl, mix together the arrowroot and water, stirring or whisking to mix it together well. Add this mixture to the sauce simmering in the pan, stir to mix in the arrowroot/water mixture well and continue to simmer for 3 more minutes. The sauce will thicken slightly and become almost gloppy. Season with a few grinds of pepper if you wish.
Remove from heat. Use right away, as in this recipe, or once cooled, transfer the sauce to a jar. Label it with the name and date and store it in your fridge. It will keep for 2 weeks in the fridge.
Next on to the chicken! Cut the chicken into bitesize pieces. I like chicken thighs for this dish but you can use chicken breasts if you prefer.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the chicken pieces and sauté until there in no visible pink in the chicken – about 10 minutes. If the pan becomes dry, add a bit more olive oil or a splash of water.
After 10 minutes, reduce the heat to medium-low and add the teriyaki sauce. How much you add depends on you. Some prefer to just coat the chicken in the sauce and others prefer to have a lot of sauce. I like some sauce so I use ½ cup to start and then add more as I see it needs it. Stir the chicken in the sauce and allow to simmer gently (you may have to reduce the heat under the pan) for another 10 minutes to let the chicken absorb the flavour. Watch the pan, stirring occasionally, to make sure it doesn’t get dry – if you didn’t add a lot of sauce. If it does, add a splash of water or additional sauce.
Season with Herbamare, or sea salt, and a few grinds of fresh pepper.
Remove from the heat and serve with your choice of sides – quinoa, brown or red rice, rice noodles, veggies. In the photos is a quinoa veggie pilaf.
Enjoy!
Variations:
If you wanted to add fresh veggies to cook with the chicken and sauce, cup up the veggies in smallish pieces so they will cook in the time with the chicken. Frozen veggies work too – just make sure they aren’t cut too large (broccoli sometimes can be) so if they are, cut them smaller. Add additional sauce to cook the veggies with the chicken.
