Learn how to cook classic Chicken Teriyaki at home using authentic Japanese cooking methods. You‘ll love the juicy chicken and crisp brown skin glazed in a flavorful homemade sauce. No bottled teriyaki sauce is needed!
Everybody loves some good, juicy chicken in a sweet sticky glaze. This is why chicken teriyaki, a humble Japanese dish, is so popular everywhere in the world! In this recipe, I’ll show you how to make authentic Chicken Teriyaki at home—the way it is done in Japan.
With this foolproof Japanese method, you’ll get the most flavorful meat and the crispiest skin. It’s so good, easy, and a sure win for a weeknight dinner.
Table of contents
What is Chicken Teriyaki
Teriyaki (照り焼き) commonly refers to a style of cooking, but it also refers to the name of a cooked dish or the sauce that is used to brush over the food.
To help you understand better: teri (照り) means “luster,” given by the sweet soy sauce marinade, while yaki (焼き) has a broader definition which can denote “cook or pan-fry or grill.” When translated literally, the dish means “shiny or glossy grilled chicken,” as it describes the lustrous glaze on the chicken created by the teriyaki sauce.
There are a lot of homemade teriyaki chicken recipes online, and to be honest, many of them have been modified or deviated from the original method. Here are a few things you might want to know:
- The Japanese don’t bake the chicken in the oven or cook them in an Instant Pot or cook in a sheet pan with vegetables.
- We don’t grill the chicken either, as most Japanese homes are too small to own a grill.
- There are no bottled teriyaki sauces in Japan. We make our sauce with usually four simple pantry staples.
So, how do we cook chicken teriyaki in Japan? We pan-fry the chicken over the stove until we sear the skin, then simmer it with the sauce until it thickens and caramelizes, leaving the meat with an irresistibly glossy finish.
Ingredients for Chicken Teriyaki
Best Cut of Chicken For Teriyaki
Boneless, skin-on chicken thighs are always preferred because they don’t dry out quickly. We almost always use skin-on because the skin provides a safety layer between the chicken flesh and the hot pan. The chicken skin also acts like a magnet for the sticky sauce, absorbing better and working its way into the meat. As a result, you get moist, flavorful, and juicy meat every time.
Once we’ve cooked the chicken, we slice it into bite-size pieces before serving.
Authentic Teriyaki Sauce
The basic teriyaki sauce is made of only four simple ingredients:
- Soy sauce is the most critical and prominent ingredient, giving teriyaki sauce a rich, dark color. It imparts umami and saltiness. You want to use Japanese soy sauce, not other Asian soy sauce.
- Sake is Japanese rice wine, an essential ingredient in Japanese cooking. Aside from tenderizing the meat, the amino acids in sake also remove any odor of the chicken. Other key reasons to use sake? It adds subtle sweetness and umami to the dish. See my recommended sake brand and substitution here.
- Mirin – This sweetened rice wine adds a natural sweetness that helps temper the sauce’s saltiness. Besides adding a nice shine to the sauce, it also helps the flavor to sink in and fully develop. Read more about mirin here.
- Sugar – Sugar plays a vital role in balancing out the saltiness of soy sauce, lending teriyaki sauce its signature sweet and savory flavor. We also need the sugar to thicken the sauce so it will caramelize beautifully and create a glossy sheen that coats the chicken.
Optional ingredients: Sometimes, you can add aromatics like grated ginger for extra flavor. Each time I make teriyaki recipes, I change things slightly based on the ingredients. In this recipe, I added grated onion and ginger to the sauce for additional depth and zing.
The ratio of my basic homemade teriyaki sauce is two parts soy sauce, two parts sake, two parts mirin, and 1 part sugar. Feel free to adjust the ratio to suit your taste. Easy?! You can even make a big batch and store it in a bottle in the refrigerator.
FAQ – Do I Add These Ingredients in Teriyaki Sauce?
I’ve seen many non-Japanese recipes that called for rice vinegar, honey, brown sugar, sesame oil, apple cider vinegar, or garlic in the sauce mixture. I would not recommend them if you wish to follow the authentic Japanese cooking method.
Some people even use cornstarch to thicken the sauce, but it is unnecessary. As the alcohol from sake and mirin evaporates, the sauce will naturally reduce and thicken with the sugar caramelizing during the simmering process.
3 Tips to Make Chicken Teriyaki – The Japanese Method
1. Prick the chicken: It’s important to prick the chicken’s skin with a fork to release the oil and absorb the flavors quickly when cooking. It is an extra step, but it ultimately makes a difference.
2. Pan-fry the chicken: Japanese home cooks prepare this dish by pan-frying the chicken. It’s quick and easy, and you only need a reliable frying pan or large skillet. Make sure the pan is hot before you add the chicken. When you cook the chicken, remember to start with the skin-side down and let it sear undisturbed until the skin crisps up and nicely browned.
3. Patiently spoon over the teriyaki sauce: Once the teriyaki sauce is poured over the chicken, tilt the frying pan to spoon the sauce and pour it over the chicken. Repeat this process until the chicken absorbs the delicious glaze and starts to shine.
What to Serve With Chicken Teriyaki
Simple and bursting with sweet yet savory flavor, I believe anyone can cook this classic Japanese dish at home. Serve the Chicken Teriyaki with rice with a salad or steamed vegetables like broccoli.
Here are some side dish ideas that pair well with chicken teriyaki:
- Quick Blanched Broccoli with Sesame Oil
- Green Bean with Sesame Dressing
- Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing
- Japanese Kani Salad
- Wafu Salad
- Vegetable Miso Soup
Other Teriyaki Recipes You’ll Enjoy
Love teriyaki dishes? Find salmon, tofu, chicken meatballs, and beef in 17 Best Authentic Teriyaki Recipes to Make At Home!
Japanese Ingredient Substitutions: If you want substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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Chicken Teriyaki
Video
Ingredients
- ½ tsp ginger (grated, with juice)
- ¼ onion (1 oz, 30 g)
For the Chicken
- 1 lb boneless, skin-on chicken thighs
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil (for cooking the chicken)
- 2 Tbsp sake (for steaming)
- 1 tsp neutral oil (for crisping the chicken skin)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
To Make the Teriyaki Marinade
- Grate the ginger (I use this grater) and add ½ tsp ginger (grated, with juice) to a large bowl. Next, grate ¼ onion into the bowl.
- To the same bowl, add the teriyaki sauce ingredients: 1 Tbsp sake, 1 Tbsp mirin, 1 Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp soy sauce, and 2 Tbsp water. Mix together well.
To Prepare the Chicken
- Prick both sides of 1 lb boneless, skin-on chicken thighs with a fork so it absorbs more flavor. If the thighs are very thick on one side, flatten them to an even thickness with a meat mallet/tenderizer.
- Cut off the excess skin and fat and lightly season the chicken pieces with Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- At this point, you either can go straight to cooking the chicken or marinate it for 30 minutes (optional). In Japan, we don’t usually marinate the chicken prior to pan-frying, as the sauce can easily burn. Today, I’ll show you how to marinate the chicken and cook it to highlight key points to follow when using this optional method. To marinate, place the chicken pieces in the bowl with the teriyaki marinade and coat well. Let sit for 30 minutes.
To Cook the Teriyaki Chicken
- Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add 1 Tbsp neutral oil. Remove as much of the marinade as possible from the chicken so it gets a nice sear and doesn‘t end up steaming in the sauce. Place the chicken skin side down in the pan; reserve the teriyaki marinade. Use a splatter screen if you have one to prevent oil splatters.
- Cook the chicken for 3 minutes. When the fat renders from the skin and the skin is golden brown, flip the chicken. Add 2 Tbsp sake to the pan and quickly cover with a lid. Steam the chicken over medium-low heat for 8 minutes.
- Open the lid and transfer the chicken to a plate. Wipe off the excess grease from the pan with a paper towel.
- Put the pan back on the stove over medium heat and add 1 tsp neutral oil. Place the chicken back in the pan, skin side down. Brown and crisp the skin for an additional minute.
- Flip the chicken so it‘s now skin side up. Pour the reserved teriyaki marinade into the pan. Cook until the sauce is reduced by about half, frequently spooning it over the chicken. Once the alcohol from the sake and mirin evaporates, you‘ll see the sugar start to crystallize and the sauce thicken. Turn off the heat.
- Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and slice into bite-sized pieces.
- Serve on a plate and drizzle the remaining pan sauce on top.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 3 days or in the freezer for a month.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on Mar 22, 2012. The new images and video are added and the content is updated in September 2017.
Hi, Nami,
Today I tried teriyaki chicken and apple salad, it work. My family all liked it. Thanks again. I will try the other fish recipe.
Hi Lf! Thank you for trying the teriyaki chicken recipe. I’m so happy to hear you liked it! 😀 Hope you like the fish recipe too. Thank you for your feedback!
Hi Nami,
This is the first time I visit your blog, thanks for your Japanese food recipe and full detail preparation procedure. I loved Japanese food very much, and now I can try myself. Can we use the teriyaki sauce again to cook the chicken? Thanks.
Hi Lf! Welcome to my blog! I’m happy to hear you like Japanese food, and hope my recipes are useful. 🙂 About re-using the sauce, I don’t recommend re-using the marinade/sauce from cooking the meat. Plus, most of the liquid/marinade should be evaporated while cooking. Hope that helps. 🙂
If Sake it not available in my region , by which ingredient I may replace it? Thanks
Hi Marie! You can omit sake if you cannot find it. We only need small portion, and it is not worth buying a new bottle if you only make this dish. 🙂 You can use dry shelly as a substitute. If you plan to cook other Japanese food, sake is in many of recipes so you might want to get one. You can find it in Japanese or Asian grocery stores. Hope this helps. 🙂
https://www.justonecookbook.com/pantry/sake/
Made your chicken teriyaki recipe tonight. I normally broil my chicken in the oven and tried your method of using the fry pan and must say that it was very good. It was my first time that I grated onion and it brought a different flavor to the dish. Grating the onion was a bit of a challenge since it is quite slippery(not like daikon). Any feedback to make the grating process easier?
Thank you.
Hi Mae! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I hope you enjoyed it. Adding grated onion gives nice texture to the sauce and when it’s cooked it gives sweet flavor.
Agree, it’s a bit challenging to grate onion. Some brand of grater works better than others, as well. I have one grater that has a handle for vegetable so I can grate without worrying about my finger. To avoid onion getting separated, you can also keep the core (don’t chop off) when you grate, so it won’t be separated… I hope you understand what I mean… 🙂
Hope this helps!
this looks a-mazing!!!! about to head to the asian store to get me some sake and mirin. my mom would be so ashamed to know i don’t have soy in the house… anyway, got rice cooking away. gonna serve with a side of bok choy. can’t wait to try this!!!! thank you so much for your blog ;o) happy holidays!!!
I’m happy you decided to try this recipe, and thank you so much for stopping by to leave your feedback. I hope your Chicken Teriyaki turned out well. 🙂
Well, when I think of Japanese food, the 1st things that come to mind are chicken teriyaki (hehe), Japanese style creeps, and okonamiyaki.
I can’t wait to make this tonight! I am making real teriyaki for the 1st time and not using the mixture that I’d use with the store bought stuff. I’m so excited! I hope there’s leftovers so I can put it in tomorrow’s bento!
Well, time to put on some Nico-nico and cook! （＾ω＾）
Hi Alexa! I hope your Chicken Teriyaki turned out well. 🙂
In case you don’t know, I have the crepe and okonomiyaki recipes on my blog:
Crepe:https://www.justonecookbook.com/recipes/simple-crepes/
Okonomiyaki: https://www.justonecookbook.com/recipes/okonomiyaki/
Hope you enjoy them!
I was wondering if I could substitue Chicken Wings for chicken thighs for this recipe
Yes you can, however, wings take a longer time to cook over pan fried (and need to cover and cook for a longer time) so I would probably bake the wings instead of cook in the fry pan. I would marinate for a longer time. While baking the wings, I may reduce the marinade in a frying pan till the sauce gets thicker and then brush it on the wings when they are being baked. I hope this helps. 🙂
Hi,
I would like to make your chicken teriyaki. I am just wondering when you use the sake for steaming? Because I already read through the instruction and I can not find the steaming step. Thanks a lot
Hi Tania! It’s step #5. You add sake and close the lid. I hope you enjoy this dish! 🙂
Hi Nami
I have tried this recipe once already and my husband love.
If i have double the qty of meat, does that mean that I increase the seasoning by 2 times?
Thanks and best Regards
Esther
Hi Esther! If you double the amount of meat, you can get by by the same amount of seasoning, however, it doesn’t hurt to double or maybe just add 1/2 of seasonings for extra sauce, especially if you need to pan fry twice. Hope this helps. I’m happy to hear your husband likes it! 🙂
Hi Nami, you’re recipes are fabulous! I just want to ask what’s the difference of this recipe to a previous teriyaki chicken you posted almost a year ago? Is this one the perfected one?
Thank you
Hi Rhea! Thank you for writing and I’m happy to hear you enjoy my blog! We call the dish “Teriyaki Chicken” so my original post was how we say in Japanese. However, I noticed that people in the world search “Chicken Teriyaki” so I created another recipe. Taste wise, it’s pretty similar. The first one has butter in it so it’s more mild (love the combination of soy sauce and butter!). To be honest with you, I like them both. I made the second one with skin on, so the purpose was to make it nice and crispy. In Japan, each family makes the seasonings slightly different and I also change the seasonings every time for fun. So you can play around and find your favorite sauce. As I mentioned in the post, “teriyaki” is the cooking technique and not the sauce name. I hope you try both and adjust to your liking!
hey Nami thanks so much for the recipe!
I just cooked this tonight and my 2 year old loved it!
Hi Barenziah! Yay! I’m so happy your 2 year old enjoyed this dish! Thank you so much for letting me know! 🙂
Made your Chicken Teriyaki with skin. Awesome! As soon as I read chicken thigh with skin, I just had to make it. My daughter said she was in Heaven when she tasted it. The skin was crispy and the chicken meat was so juice and tender. The Teriyaki sauce was fantastic. I did add 2 cloves of garlic, grated. This will be my go to Teriyaki sauce.
Thanks,
Fung
Hi Fung! Yay! I’m so glad you and your daughter loved this recipe. It’s my go-to Teriyaki recipe too. I also like to play with the recipe sometimes, adding more ginger, or garlic like you did. No matter how I change, it still tastes really delicious. 🙂 Thank you so much for your feedback Fung!
Love your blog! Could you tell me please what you put on top of the rice as shown in the picture? Thanks so much.
Thank you Alyson! It’s called Furikake – bonito flakes, nori, and other seasonings. You can buy all kinds of (MSG-free) Furikake in Asian/Japanese stores. 🙂
This is how I remember my mother (who is Japanese) making her teriyaki chicken and it’s the way she passed it on to me. The dish is definitely a process and not just about the sauce. I’ve never used jarred teriyaki sauce only because it never tasted right to me. Going through the steps you’ve outlined guarantees great color, great taste and great aroma in your kitchen!
I forgot to mention that cooking chicken teriyaki this way is oishii!!
Arigato! ^_^
Hi Tina! Thank you for your comment. 🙂 It’s different from a jarred sauce and I’m glad you have been making your own chicken teriyaki. Thanks for your compliment.
Nami, I love all the recipes here. I never though Japanese cooking can be so easy. One thing I learnt, there are 4 essential ingredients that can do up many beautiful and easy Jap dishes. Soya, Dashi, Mirin and Sake. Once I equip myself with these 4, I can whip up anything I want.
I got a question in mind. I don’t like to pan fry chicken as the oil splatters everywhere. Can I just dump this marinated teriyaki chicken into the oven to grill it?
Hi junelb! Thank you for following my blog. 🙂 You will be using those 4 items a lot, so don’t worry about wasting them – it won’t happen. 😉
As for the oven bake, sure you can use the oven, but I am not sure if you can create the same luster as you make in a frying pan. In Japan, most of the dishes are made in a frying pan instead of oven, so I have never used oven to make chicken teriyaki before.
The chicken may not be as shiny and glaze may not appear when you use oven. Maybe you can try and let me know. When you use pan fry, you reduce the sauce so the sauce becomes more syrupy, but with oven, I assume it’s very hard to do it. If you don’t care about details, I think it’s okay.
Another option is to bake the chicken only, and reduce the sauce in a saucepan to make it syrupy and pour over the grilled chicken. What do you think?
Please do not shorten Japanese the way you did – it is demeaning, even if you did not intend it to be so – thanks.