Teriyaki is almost always made with chicken thighs in Japan, but with breast meat about half the price of thigh meat here (in Japan), I wanted to see if I could make it work. I used a few tricks:
1. **Use skin-on meat**: the skin acts as a protective blanket from the high heat of the pan, keeping the meat from getting tough. 2. **Marinade**: Marinating in teriyaki sauce isn’t a good idea because it will burn, but I made a marinade with sake, ginger, potato starch, and salt. The ginger adds flavor and contains a proteolytic enzyme called zingibain, which tenderizes the breast. The starch creates a coating that locks in the chicken’s juices. 3. **Start at room temp**: By putting room temperature chicken in a room temperature pan and slowly heating it, you can minimize the temperature gradient between the inside and outside of the chicken so you don’t end up with a tough stringy exterior by the time the center is cooked. 4. **Honey in the sauce**: Honey isn’t a traditional teriyaki sauce ingredient but creates a really nice “teri” (shine). I made this sauce with equal parts sake, soy sauce, and honey.
I refuse to believe that isn’t a pork chop, haha. Looks fantastic!
CatoftheSaints23
It takes a seriously experienced hand in the kitchen to make that cut of chicken turn out that juicy! Good looking teriyaki. One can find teriyaki all over LA and bigger metros but I have seen it presented so nicely as that! Kampai! Cat
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Teriyaki is almost always made with chicken thighs in Japan, but with breast meat about half the price of thigh meat here (in Japan), I wanted to see if I could make it work. I used a few tricks:
1. **Use skin-on meat**: the skin acts as a protective blanket from the high heat of the pan, keeping the meat from getting tough.
2. **Marinade**: Marinating in teriyaki sauce isn’t a good idea because it will burn, but I made a marinade with sake, ginger, potato starch, and salt. The ginger adds flavor and contains a proteolytic enzyme called zingibain, which tenderizes the breast. The starch creates a coating that locks in the chicken’s juices.
3. **Start at room temp**: By putting room temperature chicken in a room temperature pan and slowly heating it, you can minimize the temperature gradient between the inside and outside of the chicken so you don’t end up with a tough stringy exterior by the time the center is cooked.
4. **Honey in the sauce**: Honey isn’t a traditional teriyaki sauce ingredient but creates a really nice “teri” (shine). I made this sauce with equal parts sake, soy sauce, and honey.
You can check out my [honey teriyaki chicken recipe](https://norecipes.com/honey-teriyaki-chicken-breast/) or watch the [video](https://youtu.be/v4WuHITxdzU) if you need more details.
I refuse to believe that isn’t a pork chop, haha. Looks fantastic!
It takes a seriously experienced hand in the kitchen to make that cut of chicken turn out that juicy! Good looking teriyaki. One can find teriyaki all over LA and bigger metros but I have seen it presented so nicely as that! Kampai! Cat