Teriyaki Chicken

★★★★★

Asian, Main Entree

Ingredients

1 cup soy sauce

1 cup granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

6 garlic cloves, crushed in a press

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 3-inch cinnamon stick

1 Tablespoon pineapple juice

8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions

In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients except cornstarch and chicken. Bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and stir until sugar is dissolved, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Discard cinnamon stick and mix in 1/2 cup water.

Place chicken in a heavy-duty resealable plastic bag. Add a small amount of soy sauce mixture, seal bag, and turn to coat chicken. Refrigerate for at least an hour, ideally overnight. Save remaining sauce in the refrigerator.

Remove chicken and set aside, discard marinade.

Pour reserved sauce into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low. Mix cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water and add to pan. Stir until mixture begins to thicken, and gradually stir in enough water (about 1/2 cup) until sauce is the consistency of heavy cream. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat a broiler or grill. Lightly brush chicken pieces on all sides with sauce, and broil or grill until done. While chicken is cooking, place sauce over high heat and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a bare simmer, adding water a bit at a time to keep mixture at a pourable consistency. To serve, slice chicken into strips, arrange on plates, and drizzle with sauce.

Notes

Used Breasts instead. Marinated overnight. Was excellent. P3 and Hudson liked it. Adjusted the recipe to double the brown sugar get it closer to where we like it. Jill hasn't tried it yet.

Spicy: 1st try: I added 2 Tbsp of Sambal to about 1/3 cup of sauce and it was good but not quite hot or flavorful enough.

2nd try: added 1 Tbsp of Sriracha to the overnight marinade and about 1 T to 1/3 of the sauce when reheating to thicken. Was better. Hot, but still not a lot of spicy flavor. Need to experiment to get the spicy sauce down. I feel like Chili oil might help. Should look at other recipes.

Nutrition

Trans Fat: 0 grams
Fat: 32 grams
Calories: 557
Saturated Fat: 9 grams
Unsaturated Fat: 20 grams
Sodium: 1908 milligrams
Sugar: 26 grams
Fiber: 1 gram
Carbohydrate: 31 grams
Protein: 35 grams