Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Difficulty: 1/5

Ingredient Availability: 4/5

While orange chicken is my go to main when I get Chinese food, teriyaki chicken would be my second choice. Although the group of recipes this comes from is Hawaiian bbq, I full expect this recipe to have a similar set of attributes to typical teriyaki chicken from hibachi and Chinese restaurants. The ingredients look pretty simple and reminiscent of teriyaki flavors, so I don’t think it should be too different.

Key Ingredients & Omissions:

The only ingredient I couldn’t find was dark soy sauce, so I just used regular soy sauce. I think the dark version is thicker than regular soy sauce, but I’m not sure what effect it will have on the flavors. Other than that, everything else is pretty simple and straightforward. I almost forgot that I also substituted Serrano peppers for the Thai chiles, which I couldn’t find either.

Tools:

• Wok or Large Pan

• Sharp Knife

Cooking Review:

Marinade: 23 minutes

After cutting up my chicken thighs into smaller pieces and slicing the Serrano peppers, I began mixing the ingredients for the sauce. Once I was satisfied that all the sugar had been dissolved, I added the chicken to the bowl. The recipe didn’t say to do this, but I decided to peel the ginger before adding it along with the peppers. I covered the bowl and let it marinate overnight.

Cooking: 11minutes, 4 minutes per batch

Before cooking the chicken, I chopped my garlic and strained the chicken to septic from the sauce. I put a pan on the stove over high heat and added enough oil to coat the bottom then added another half of the chicken, tossing and cooking for about 4 minutes before removing and repeating with the rest of the chicken (I didn’t add anymore oil).

Sauce and finishing: 13 minutes

Once the chicken was done, I added the sauce to the pan and brought it to a boil before reducing the heat slightly to let it reduce for about 4 minutes. I made the cornstarch slurry and added all of it to the sauce and cooked it for another 2 minutes. At this point, the sauce wasn’t as thick as I would’ve hoped, but I was thinking it might set up a little more as it cools. Another thing I noticed is that it looked like there was some scum or other forming on the top, which I tried to skim as much as I could off. I added the chicken back to the pan and mixed everything to coat the chicken. Finally, I added the garlic and stirred it through.

Analysis:

This tastes pretty much exactly as I expected it to. It tastes just like any other teriyaki chicken I’ve had from a restaurant, which is a good thing. I was a little disappointed that the sauce wasn’t thicker, but perhaps I just didn’t let it reduce enough or the dark soy sauce really was needed. Also, I think that using a wok may have helped a little with the color and the sauce, but I really don’t think it should be necessary. The chicken was tender, as expected from cut up chicken thighs, and the sauce wasn’t too sweet. I mean, it tastes like teriyaki sauce and chicken really. Here and there, you get a little heat from the peppers, but other than that it’s pretty mild. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t say that this recipe is anything special. It’s good, but maybe a little more work than necessary to get these flavors. With that being said, I’d give it a 7/10. I think it could’ve had more depth and or complexity of flavor given an overnight marination. I feel like if I just cooked some chicken and finished it in teriyaki sauce, I’d be 80 to 90 percent to what this recipe got me.