Teriyaki

A glaze reduced onto the meat in the pan, from four ingredients and no bottle.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

• 4 boneless chicken thighs, skin on
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tablespoons sake
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon oil

Method

1. TERIYAKI IS A METHOD, NOT A BOTTLE. Equal soy and mirin with a little sake and sugar, reduced ONTO the meat in the pan until it lacquers. The thick sweet sauce sold under the name is a different thing and is poured over cooked food; this one is made by the cooking.
2. No ginger, no garlic, no sesame. Four ingredients.
3. SKIN DOWN IN A COLD DRY PAN, then the heat on. Starting cold renders the fat slowly instead of seizing the skin, and the chicken fries in its own fat.
4. Press the thighs flat with a spatula or a weight for the first 2 minutes so the whole skin meets the pan.
5. 8 to 10 minutes skin down over a medium heat, pouring off the fat twice. The skin should be properly brown and crisp.
6. Turn, 3 minutes, then pour the fat off entirely. Fat left in stops the glaze clinging and leaves it sitting in an oily pool.
7. Sauce in, and it will bubble hard immediately.
8. SPOON IT OVER CONTINUOUSLY as it reduces, 2 to 3 minutes. It goes from watery to syrupy quickly and then from syrupy to burnt sugar in about thirty seconds.
9. It is done when the sauce coats the back of a spoon and the chicken is glossy and dark.
10. Rest 3 minutes, slice across, and pour the pan's remaining glaze over.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes