Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs in Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

I was all psyched to make chicken in teriyaki sauce, opened my cupboards and what did I find? I didn’t, no teriyaki sauce! Aargh, how frustrating. Okay, I decided it was high time to just learn to make my own. Now I knew the basics, soy sauce, ginger, garlic etc. but I figured I would scout about and see what I could find.

I try to be scrupulous about giving credit for recipes where it is due but this is really a hodge podge of a number of different ideas and ultimately, I played it by ear. It’s surprisingly easy to do and ya know what, I don’t think I will be buying it so fast anymore, I kinda like my own. A note, while you can fool around a bit with the addition of extra garlic or a bit more ginger (beware the spiciness!) do NOT up the soy sauce or you will make it so salty it will be inedible, just sayin’, don’ say you weren’t warned.

So gather the ingredients together and you are simply cooking them up together except the cornstarch thickener, which you add almost immediately. Easy peasy, no worries.

In fact it was so easy I was kinda shocked, for real. Take a 2 quart (smallish) pot and put in the soy sauce, orange juice, water, grated or crushed ginger and garlic, sesame oil, vinegar (rice or apple cider, just not wine vinegar, it’ll skew the flavors) and the brown sugar. Stir all together in the pot and bring to a low boil.

While it’s coming to the boil, in a small measuring cup put 4 tablespoons of water and the cornstarch on top and whisk whisk whisk (with fork or whisk) till smooth and make sure no glumpy bits of cornstarch are stuck on the bottom.

Then add slowly to the low boiling mixture in the pot, stirring for a few more minutes till the cornstarch kicks in and starts to thicken your mixture.

This doesn’t take long, a few minutes. When it starts thickening, remove pot from heat and let stand to cool down.

While it cools, prepare your rimmed baking sheet by place parchment paper on it or aluminum foil. Take your rinsed chicken (boneless, skinless thighs, aka pargiot) and place on sheet.

These are quite large since they are both thigh and drumstick skinned and boned so it’s the equivalent of more like 10 portions, rather than 8 but you have enough sauce for more if you choose.

I’m adding a picture to show you how it looks slightly thickened and done.

Now you see above that I have some sauce in a small bowl with a brush for brushing the chicken thighs. So as not to contaminate the teriyaki sauce, I pour some into the bowl, you can always add more sauce to the bowl. So brush the tops of the chicken with the sauce, turn over and brush again. Let sit till you preheat the oven to 400 F/205 C and since it takes 15-20 minutes approximately to come to temp, your chicken gets to marinate a bit. All good.

When oven is to temp, brush chicken on top once more and pop into oven for 15 minutes. Remove and turn over and brush again and put back in for about 15 more minutes. Depending if your oven runs hot or a bit cold, you will bake a bit more or less. If need be, cut one thigh in half to be sure it’s fully cooked.

These are outstanding hot but really good room temp as well, and make a terrific sandwich too.

Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs in Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

Sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons grated ginger
2 cloves garlic chopped finely or crushed
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons water
8-10 boneless chicken thighs

First prepare your sauce. Mix together soy sauce, juice, water (don’t switch out more soy sauce for less water or the result will be super salty), grated ginger (I used frozen, shhh), garlic, sesame oil, vinegar and brown sugar in a 2 quart (smallish) pot. Bring to a low boil. While this is cooking, mix cornstarch into the water (water first, it “opens” the starch) and whisk till smooth with whisk or fork. Add this mixture to the pot slowly, whisking all the while for a few minutes till sauce thickens up a bit. It’s not super thick and that’s correct. Let sauce cool.

Preheat oven to 400 F/205 C. Take a rimmed baking sheet and line with foil or place a sheet of parchment paper on it to save a massive cleanup and lay your rinsed chicken on it and take a bowl and pour out some teriyaki sauce (you will have leftover sauce for another time so don’t contaminate it by sticking brush into container) and brush sauce on tops of chicken, turn over and brush other side with sauce as well. Let chicken sit and marinate till oven comes to temperature. When oven is hot, brush chicken tops again and place in oven for 15 minutes. Remove and turn chicken over and brush again with sauce (adding more sauce to bowl if need be) and return to oven to bake another 15 minutes or till browned and cooked through. These are terrific served with rice or equally delish in a sandwich.