How do you like your Teriyaki sauce? A Teriyaki Chicken recipe

Though not a Japanese, for sure I have known teriyaki is not a dish but a very common Japanese cooking technique, which foods are marinated, pan-fried or grilled with the mixture of soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Teriyaki chicken is most commonly seen. Besides, pork chop, fish, squid, eggplant and many other ingredients can be teriyaki-ed.

Cooking tips –
1. People have their preference of teriyaki sauce. I like to add plenty of grated onion in the sauce mixture. With onion, meat will turn tenderer when marinating. And onion is a good substitute of sugar. Sometimes if I have Asian pear home, I’d like to add a quarter of grated pear. It is a natural sweetener in many Asian cuisines, Korean use it quite often;
2. Some don’t like marinating the meat before cooking but I do, this is pretty much up to you;
3. Pan-fry and grill are the two commonly used cooking methods of teriyaki;
4. Japanese soy sauce, mirin and sake are three key cooking ingredients of Japanese cuisine. If you make Asian cuisine often, why not keep a bottle of each home? No need to purchase the expensive sake;
5. This recipe is the most typical Teriyaki dish, Teriyaki Chicken. If you are vegetarian, with the same recipe of the sauce, you could make tofu, mushroom, eggplant.

Ingredients –
 Deboned chicken thigh, 500g;
 Japanese soy sauce, 1/4 cup;
 Mirin, 1/4cup;
 Sake, 1/4cup;
 White onion, medium size, half;
 Garlic, 2 cloves;
 Ginger, 20g;
 Sugar, 1/2 tsp;
 Roasted white sesame seeds and spring onion, for garnishing.

How to do –
1. I use deboned chicken thigh. You could remove the skin or use chicken breast or thigh with bones. Cut in big chunks;

2. Prepare the teriyaki sauce. half onion and 2 cloves of garlic grated, 20g of ginger juiced, soy sauce, mirin and sake 1/4 cup each, mixed with chicken, marinated for at least half hour in fridge;

3. Heat a little oil in hot pan, put in the chicken, skin side down, pan-fried in medium-high heat till brown. Chicken was marinated with sauce so be careful not to burn; Flip and pan-fry the other side till golden;

4. Add in the marinating sauce, lid on and cook for 5 minutes. Have a taste and adjust with sugar if needed. Teriyaki sauce should be savoury and sweet. Then turn up the heat to reduce the sauce till thick and sticky;

5. Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds and finely chopped spring onion on top for garnishing, serve with steamed rice.