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–+ servings

Garlic Teriyaki Chicken Donburi (Rice Bowl)

Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time25 minutes
Author Yuto Omura
Servings 2 portions

Ingredients 
 

Chicken

Garlic Teriyaki Sauce

Rice

  • 2 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice warm
  • 1 tbsp toasted white sesame seeds optional

Optional Toppings

Instructions 

  • Cut 450 g boneless chicken thigh into bite-size pieces. Combine 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), 2 tbsp sake, 2 tbsp mirin, 2 tsp sugar and ½ tbsp grated garlic in a small bowl, and set it next to the stove for later.
    raw chicken thigh cut into large pieces and placed in a steel container next to teriyaki sauce in a small glass bowl
  • Drop the chicken into a bowl, dust with 2 pinches salt and pepper and 1 tbsp potato starch (katakuriko), and turn the pieces until each carries a thin, even film.
    chicken thigh pieces in a bowl coated with a thin layer of starch
  • Heat a frying pan over medium and add 1 tbsp cooking oil. Once it shimmers, set the chicken skin-side down and leave it undisturbed for roughly 4 minutes, until the skin crisps to a deep golden.
    frying chicken thigh pieces in a single layer in a frying pan, skin side down, to make garlic teriyaki chicken donburi
  • Turn each piece and give the second side about 2 minutes. The centers can stay a little underdone at this stage.
    seared chicken thigh pieces in a pan on the stove top
    • Tilt the pan and blot up the rendered fat with a paper towel so the glaze grips the chicken instead of turning greasy.
  • Pour the sauce over the chicken. Let it bubble down, turning the pieces so they take on the glaze all over. Keep it going until the bubbles swell and slow and the glaze visibly tightens, then lift the pan off the heat a touch early.
    teriyaki chicken in a pan on the stove top
  • Stir 1 tbsp toasted white sesame seeds through 2 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice, then heap it into a donburi bowl and keep one side clear for the chicken.
    white Japanese rice mixed with sesame seeds in a steel mixing bowl with rice paddle.
  • Cover half the rice with 1 sheet roasted seaweed for sushi (nori). Spoon the sauce left in the pan onto the uncovered half of the rice, the side with no nori.
    Cooked rice in a bowl drizzled with teriyaki sauce and topped with roughly torn nori
  • Dress 100 g shredded cabbage with 1 tsp unseasoned rice vinegar (komezu) only at the last moment before serving.
    shredded green cabbage in a steel mixing bowl
  • Mound the dressed cabbage over the nori so it sits on that half alone, then lay the chicken on top.
    Rice in a bowl topped with shredded cabbage
  • Top with whatever you like, scattering chopped green onion, piping a lattice of Japanese mayonnaise, adding kizami nori, a pinch of shichimi, soft-boiled eggs, and a little chopped takuan kept in a pile at the rim rather than stirred in. Serve at once. Enjoy!
    Garlic teriyaki chicken donburi with shredded cabbage, soft boiled eggs, takuan (yellow pickled daikon), mayo and kizami nori on top.

Notes

Watch the glaze, not the clock: Pull the sauce the moment the bubbles turn big and slow and it coats the chicken. It keeps darkening and tightening off the heat, so stop a breath early. Push too far and it scorches bitter or turns too thick.
Blot the rendered fat before saucing: Tilt the pan and wipe up the oil the skin let go before the sauce goes in. That puddle keeps the glaze from gripping, so it pools in the pan instead of clinging to each piece.