Featured Comment:
“Finally, the perfect teriyaki recipe! It’s AUTHENTIC, simple teriyaki without any extraneous ingredients and with the perfect ratio. It’s absolutely delicious! Thank you so much, we’ve made this many times now and love it.”
– Laura
What is Teriyaki Chicken?
Teriyaki chicken (照り焼きチキン) is one of the most beloved Japanese dishes worldwide – and for good reason! But here’s what most people don’t know: you don’t need to spend hours marinating chicken to achieve that perfect sweet-savory glaze your family loves.
Forget everything you thought you knew about making teriyaki chicken. In Japan, authentic teriyaki chicken is actually a quick, one-pan dish that comes together in just 15 minutes! That’s right, from fridge to table in less time than it takes to order takeout.
This recipe has been one of the most popular on my YouTube since 2020 and many of my readers and watchers have successfully made it at home.
In this step-by-step guide, I’ll walk you through exactly how to make Japanese teriyaki chicken. I’ll also share easy substitutions and time-saving tips that make this perfect for hectic weeknights when you’re juggling work, kids, and everything else life throws at you.
Let me show you how!
Key Ingredients & Substitution Ideas
- Boneless chicken thigh (skin-on): Don’t worry if you can only find skinless – they’ll still be delicious. Chicken wings, drumsticks, and chicken breast with the skin on can also be used as substitutes.
- Potato starch: This makes your chicken crispy and helps the teriyaki glaze adhere better. Regular cornstarch or tapioca starch from your baking aisle also works fine too!
- Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu): This standard Japanese soy sauce provides the foundation of authentic teriyaki flavor. Chinese light soy sauce (but not Chinese dark soy sauce) makes an acceptable substitute.
- Mirin: While Hon Mirin is the best option, mirin-style seasoning (like aji mirin) is a more commonly available substitute worldwide. Alternatively, cola makes a surprisingly effective substitute that most families already have at home!
- Sake: Adds depth and helps tenderize the meat. Dry sherry or dry white wine make excellent alternatives. For a non-alcoholic version, use water with a pinch of dashi granules to maintain the umami flavor.
- Dashi stock: Use leftover dashi if you have it, but you don’t need to make a whole batch just for this recipe. A pinch of dashi granules in water works perfectly, or simply use plain water – the dish will still be delicious.
- Sugar & Honey: The recipe is slightly on the sweeter side, but feel free to adjust to your family’s taste. Any type of sugar works well, so use whatever you already have on hand. I often opt for light brown cane sugar.
Visual Walkthrough & Tips
Here are my step-by-step instructions for how to make The Ultimate Teriyaki Chicken at home. For ingredient quantities and simplified instructions, scroll down for the Printable Recipe Card below.
If you prefer to watch the process in action, check out my YouTube video of this recipe for a complete visual walkthrough!
Chicken thighs are naturally uneven in thickness, so some parts might get overcooked while others remain undercooked. To make sure everything is cooked evenly, make horizontal cuts on the thickest parts of the chicken and fold them out.
Flip the chicken so the skin is facing down, and cut the thickest parts of the underside to make flaps you can pull out. Using a diagonal or horizontal cut lets you open each flap and flatten the chicken thigh so it’s all the same thickness.
This makes sure the chicken cooks evenly, and it gives the teriyaki sauce more surface area to stick to, so every bite has more flavor!
The skin acts as a barrier that can stop flavors from getting into the meat. To solve this problem, stab the skin side all over using a fork. This simple step makes sure the flavor reaches the chicken meat, resulting in juicier, more flavorful chicken.
After piercing the chicken, sprinkle a pinch of salt on both sides.
In addition to allowing more flavor into the chicken, the tiny fork holes allow fat to render more effectively while cooking and prevent the skin from shrinking and curling up. You end up with some nice, flat, crispy skin that’s browned evenly.
If you’re looking for that perfect, crispy skin every time, there’s one little trick you’ll want to keep in your back pocket. Be sure to pat the chicken dry before cooking, and use paper towels to get rid of any extra moisture.
It might seem like a small detail, but moisture is the enemy of crispy skin. Plus, a dry surface helps the sauce stick better.
After drying the chicken, coat the underside (not the skin side) with a thin layer of potato starch or cornstarch.
This might seem counterintuitive, but it serves several important purposes: it improves the color and flavor development, helps the sauce stick better, and creates a protective barrier that keeps the meat moist.
If potato starch isn’t in your pantry, don’t worry! Regular cornstarch (or tapioca starch) from your baking cabinet works perfectly fine. There’s no need to make a special trip to the store.
Instead of preheating your pan, start with a cold pan. Drizzle a bit of oil into the pan, then place the chicken in with the skin side facing down. Move it around in a circular motion to coat the skin evenly with oil, then place the pan over medium heat.
Cook for 7 minutes, moving the chicken occasionally to ensure even browning. This slow rendering process is the secret to perfectly crispy chicken skin.
Starting with a cold pan allows the fat to render out slowly and evenly. If you put chicken skin into an already hot pan, the outside sears immediately, trapping moisture inside and preventing the fat from rendering properly.
The cold pan method basically lets the chicken “fry” in its own fat, resulting in skin that’s uniformly crispy!
Time-saving is key for busy weeknights, so while the chicken is cooking, prepare your teriyaki sauce. In a small bowl, mix soy sauce, mirin, sake, brown sugar, dashi, and honey until well combined.
The classic ratio for authentic teriyaki sauce is 2:2:2:1 (soy sauce:mirin:sake:sugar). This recipe follows that traditional approach, but it adds a touch of honey for extra sweetness and gloss.
If you can’t get all these ingredients or don’t want to use alcoholic seasonings, check out my Easy Mock Teriyaki Without Using Sake and Mirin recipe!
After cooking the chicken skin-side down for 7 minutes, flip it over and cook for an additional 2 minutes on the other side. Then, use a sheet of kitchen paper to carefully wipe up the excess oil in the pan.
This crucial step prevents the oil from mixing with the teriyaki sauce, which would make it greasy and dilute the flavor.
Removing excess oil ensures that your teriyaki sauce achieves that perfect glossy consistency without becoming diluted or greasy. This step is often overlooked, but it makes a big difference in the end result. Your sauce will coat the chicken beautifully instead of sliding off.
Turn up the heat to medium-high and pour the sauce into the pan. Continuously baste the chicken by spooning the sauce over the top until it thickens and becomes glossy. This repeated basting not only flavors the chicken but also creates that signature teriyaki shine.
Every now and then, give the chicken a little spin to make sure the underside gets a good coat of sauce, too. You’ll see the sauce thicken in about a minute or so, and it’ll turn into this gorgeous glaze that’ll stick to the chicken like glue.
Your sauce is ready when it coats the back of a spoon and leaves a clear path when you run your finger through it. If the sauce bubbles with big bubbles rather than small ones, it’s getting too thick. Just add a splash of water to thin it out a bit.
Remove the chicken from the pan and allow it to rest for 3-5 minutes before cutting. This resting period allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat, ensuring each slice is moist and tender.
Then, cut the chicken into equal slices against the grain for maximum tenderness.
If you cut into chicken immediately after cooking, the juices will run out onto your cutting board instead of staying in the meat. It just takes a few minutes to let the juices settle in, and that’s the key to getting juicy chicken every time.
Serve your teriyaki chicken with freshly cooked Japanese rice and a simple side salad for a complete meal! If you’re interested, check out my “how to cook Japanese rice” guide.
Essential Tips & Tricks
- Even thickness is critical: Make horizontal cuts in thicker parts of chicken thigh to ensure even cooking and prevent parts from being undercooked or dry.
- Dry thoroughly before cooking: Pat chicken completely dry with paper towels before cooking.
- Cold pan method: Start with a completely cold pan for skin-on chicken. This slowly renders fat and creates perfectly crispy skin without burning.
- Don’t rush the skin: Allow 7 full minutes for the skin to cook properly. Resist the urge to flip early.
- Remove excess oil: Wipe out extra oil before adding sauce to prevent greasy, diluted teriyaki glaze.
- Watch the sauce carefully: Once sauce is added, it thickens quickly (30-60 seconds). When it coats the back of a spoon, it’s ready.
- Keep basting: Continuously spoon sauce over chicken while it reduces for even coating and to prevent burning.
With these simple tips in mind, you’re set for success every time you make Teriyaki Chicken.
Serving Suggestions
Meal Prep & Storage
Teriyaki chicken can partially work for meal prep, especially for busy weeknight dinner solutions!
- Component Prep: Prepare the chicken (cutting, piercing, and drying) up to 24 hours ahead and store covered in the refrigerator.
- Batch Cooking: Double or triple the recipe and portion into meal prep containers with steamed rice and vegetables for ready-made lunches or dinners.
For storage, cooling the chicken completely before refrigerating is essential to prevent condensation that could make the skin soggy.
When refrigerated in airtight containers, teriyaki chicken is good to eat for about 2 days. For longer storage, freeze for up to 3 weeks. Freeze individual portions on a baking sheet first, then transfer to freezer bags to prevent sticking, and thaw overnight in the refrigerator or using the defrost function on your microwave before reheating.
Once it’s thawed, reheat it in a frying pan until piping hot. You can also reheat in an air fryer or oven, but I recommend covering it with foil to prevent the teriyaki glaze from burning.
FAQ
Here are answers to frequently asked questions I have received across all platforms, including here, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to me anytime! It will be a big help for everyone in this community!
Mirin and sugar both add sweetness, but mirin’s got different sugars (like glucose and oligosaccharides) in it, which give it that nice, shiny look. When you heat it up, the sugars in mirin react with the amino acids in soy sauce and meat, and that starts the Maillard reaction. All of this, plus the natural glaze from mirin, makes a deeper flavor than you can get just from sugar.
For authentic teriyaki, you should definitely use sake. Sake’s alcohol evaporates when you cook with it, getting rid of unpleasant odors. The ethanol in the sake dissolves and releases those compounds, making the dish taste better. Sake also aids flavor penetration and contributes umami (amino acids, organic acids), making the sauce deeper and more complex. If you can’t access sake and are looking for alternatives, refer to my Sake 101 post for more info. However, if you want to avoid using any alcohol in your cooking, please check out my Easy Alcohol-Free Mock Teriyaki recipe.
You can use Shaoxing wine instead of sake, but keep in mind that their flavors are quite different. I’d suggest using half the amount of Shaoxing at first. Another option is to use dry white wine or dry sherry!
Chicken thighs are juicier and more forgiving, but chicken breast works too. If you’re using breast, try lightly coating both sides with potato starch to help keep the moisture in. For the juiciest results, start the glazing process as soon as the internal temperature reaches 75°C (167°F).
Yes, if you can’t get all these ingredients or don’t want to use alcoholic seasonings, check out my Easy Mock Teriyaki Without Using Sake and Mirin recipe!
I realize using pre-made teriyaki sauce or marinade to make teriyaki chicken outside Japan is common. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with it. However, the authentic way does not use pre-made sauce or marinade because teriyaki is not considered a sauce but a cooking method. The four vital ingredients in the “teriyaki method” are soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar.
I hope you enjoy this Teriyaki Chicken recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers. Thank you!
More Delicious Teriyaki Recipes
- Pork Chop Teriyaki with Lemon
- Pan Fried Japanese Teriyaki Salmon
- Teriyaki Beef Rice Bowl with Wasabi Twist
- Quick and Easy Teriyaki Cod
Hungry for more? Explore my teriyaki recipe collection to find your next favorite dishes!
15-Min Japanese Crispy Teriyaki Chicken (No Marinating Required)
Ingredients
- 300 g boneless chicken thigh skin-on
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ tbsp potato starch (katakuriko) or cornstarch
- ½ tbsp cooking oil
- 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 2 tbsp sake
- 2 tsp light brown sugar adjust to taste
- 2 tbsp dashi stock or water with a pinch of dashi granules
- 1 tsp honey
Instructions
- First, place 300 g boneless chicken thigh on a chopping board with the underneath facing up (skin-side down) and make horizontal incisions on the thickest parts to make small flaps. Pull out the flaps so that the chicken thigh is more or less an even thickness all the way through.
- Flip the chicken over and pierce the skin with a fork all over, then sprinkle with 1 pinch salt on both sides and rub it over.
- Dry the surface with kitchen paper and thinly coat the underneath with ½ tbsp potato starch (katakuriko). Make sure to brush off any excess.
- Add ½ tbsp cooking oil to a cold pan and place the chicken thigh inside with the skin side facing down. Move the chicken around the pan in a circular motion so that the skin and surface of the pan are evenly coated in oil.
- Place the pan on the stove and turn the heat on a medium setting. Fry for 7 minutes, rotating the chicken from time to time to ensure that the skin is evenly browned.
- While the chicken is cooking, take a small bowl and add 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), 2 tbsp mirin, 2 tbsp sake, 2 tsp light brown sugar, 2 tbsp dashi stock and 1 tsp honey. Mix until the sugar and honey are dissolved.
- After 7 minutes have passed, flip the chicken thigh over and fry for 2 minutes on the other side. Use kitchen paper to wipe up excess oil in the pan.
- Once 2 minutes have passed, turn up the heat to medium-high and pour the sauce into the pan. Continuously spoon the sauce over the chicken until it thickens and becomes glossy, about 30-60 seconds.
- Remove from the heat and rest for 3 minutes to allow juices to redistribute before cutting into strips.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Use chicken thigh for best results.
- I recommend serving this teriyaki chicken with some freshly cooked Japanese rice and a side salad. If you’re interested, check out my “how to cook Japanese rice” guide.
- For maximum crispy skin, start with a completely cold pan – this slowly renders the fat and prevents the skin from curling up.
- Make sure to wipe excess oil from the pan before adding sauce to prevent a greasy, diluted glaze.
Love the recipe but I don’t have access to mirin, sake, or dashi any suggestions on substitutes?
Thank you! Dashi is just a bonus ingredient that can be replaced with water. To replace sake and mirin, most people recommend dry sherry or rice wine vinegar with extra sugar (maybe an extra tsp for this recipe?) but I haven’t tried it myself so I can’t guarantee the taste. Good luck!
for the mirin and the sake I have used sherry wine (sake) and muscat (mirin) un many recipes with good results.. for the dashi, if you can’t even order it online, maybe u can use dried shitake mushrooms water, it’ll give u the unami taste….
This recipe taught me to cook chicken in a way I had never thought to do before. I have cooked chicken this way using a long list of variations in sauces/marinades. Our favorites include this teriyaki version, as well as BBQ (Korean BBQ) and my own take on a Lemon (and orange!) marinade. Anything you can really think of cooks up perfectly and is really good over rice!
Hi Amy!
I’m so happy to hear you’ve enjoyed this recipe in so many ways, Korean BBQ and lemon chicken sound delicious. I should definitely try that, thank you for sharing!
All the best,
Yuto
Finally, the perfect teriyaki recipe! It’s AUTHENTIC, simple teriyaki without any extraneous ingredients and with the perfect ratio. It’s absolutely delicious! Thank you so much, we’ve made this many times now and love it.
Hi Laura,
Thank you very much for your compliment and making this recipe many times! 🙂
Even though your recipe for the teriyaki sauce has less sugar than most of the traditional recipes I’ve come across, I still find it too sweet. My only conclusion is that the Japanese palate gravitates towards sweet dishes. Will tweak the recipe to my taste. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Diane,
Thank you for the comment!
I think you’re right! When I returned to Japan from England after being away for 5 years, even I found some dishes a bit intense, which I had never thought about before.
I’ve been back in Japan for about 8 years now, but I will keep that in mind and try to adjust the dishes that I feel might be too intense for people outside of Japan, while still maintaining authenticity!
Yuto
Thank you for this recipe! I made it after school for my parents and they loved it! The sauce is hands down the best I’ve ever had.
Hi Lev,
Thank you for trying this recipe and sharing your experience! I’m very happy to hear you and your parents enjoyed it! 🙂
Yuto
What is yoyur recommended sides with this dish
A bowl of freshly cooked Japanese white rice (https://sudachirecipes.com/perfect-japanese-rice/) paired with a light, crisp salad makes an excellent meal. For more satisfying spread, you can add a bowl of miso soup (https://sudachirecipes.com/homemade-miso-soup/) too!
Yuto