I wonder if you know, how they drift in Tokyo?

Feb 2, 2017
3 min read

I'm gonna share one of my faves - Teriyaki chicken. Its simple, delicious, and dead easy to make. Let's crack on, shall we?

INGREDIENTS (serves 2)

350 - 400g chicken thighs
200g white rice of your choice
60 ml soy sauce
15 ml rice wine vinegar
15 ml water
1 tablespoon raw brown sugar
1/4 chicken stock cube
corn starch, 1 tablespoon for the slurry + 60 g approx. for coating the chicken
cooking oil (sunflower, canola, any kind of vegetable oil)
1 spring onion, chopped
roasted sesame seeds

Start out by placing a pot of water on medium/high heat, allowing it to boil so you can cook your rice according to package instructions, That way, you can get on to the chicken while the rice is cooking.

Now at this point, you have several options. You can either cook the meat as it is, (traditionally, the meat is grilled to ensure that the thigh is tender and charred on the outside), or you can coat it in some corn starch and fry it. I usually do it like this, I find that it adds another textural element to the dish.

*Don't worry, if you can't find corn starch, you can replace it with plain white flour instead.

A tip for having a little less mess while coating the chicken in the starch/flour is to use a ziplock bag to coat it, instead of dunking it on a normal plate. Simply place the chicken and starch/flour in a ziplock bag, close, and shake. Before you fry it though, make sure you remove the excess starch/flour by dusting it off.

Next, lets prep the ingredients for the sauce. Mix your soy sauce, water and rice wine vinegar in a container and set aside. Also in a small bowl incorporate a tablespoon of corn starch and a small amount of water so that you create a slurry. Mix thoroughly and set aside.

Heat up some cooking oil in a non-stick frying pan, enough to cover around 1cm of the frying pan's volume. A good way to check if your oil is ready, is by inserting the bottom of a wooden spoon/chopstick inside the oil. If small rapid bubbles start to appear around it -

its ready. Do make sure its wooden, not plastic :)

Cook the chicken for approx. 10-12 minutes, making sure to flip sides in between. Once its cooked, set on a plate covered with paper towels to remove the excess oil.

Get rid of your oil from the pan, and pour in the liquids for the sauce. Follow it with the sugar and crumbled up chicken stock cube, to ensure it cooks off quickly. Allow it to come to a simmer, and cook for 1-2 min before adding the starch slurry. While adding the slurry, make sure you stir continuously until the sauce thickens.

Once the sauce has thickened, return your chicken to the pan and coat it in sauce evenly on both sides. Drain your rice and serve it on a plate with the chicken, garnish with roasted sesame seeds and chopped spring onion, and BAM.

You my friend are done, and you served yourself some damn good chicken.

I also recommend trying this out with crispy pork belly, as shown on the second picture!