Baked Chiken Teriyaki

Tonight was raid night for my husband (TOC 25 man) so I wanted something that was both simple and fast because I hate being in the kitchen alone. ^_^

Tonight's dinner comes courtesy of All Recipes. I almost passed it by because I'm used to bottled teriyaki sauce that's full of salt. Since this recipe made it's own sauce, I thought I'd give it a shot. I paired this up with some fresh steamed broccoli and some non traditional sticky rice.

Baked Chicken Teriyaki

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

• 1 tablespoon cold water

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 1/2 cup soy sauce

• 1/4 cup cider vinegar

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  

• 12 skinless chicken thighs

Directions:

1.     In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the cornstarch, cold water, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger and ground black pepper. Let simmer, stirring frequently, until sauce thickens and bubbles.

2.     Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

3.     Place chicken pieces in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Brush chicken with the sauce. Turn pieces over, and brush again.

4.     Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Turn pieces over, and bake for another 30 minutes, until no longer pink and juices run clear. Brush with sauce every 10 minutes during cooking.


Akari's Musings

I really didn't do much to this recipe to change it. My bag of skinless, boneless thighs only had 7 thighs in it, so I was five short on chicken. Though with only 2 of us, 12 would have been an insane amount of chicken. I don't normally keep actual cloves of garlic in my house so I rely on my trusty jar of chopped or minced garlic. I definitely recommend that you go with the low sodium soy sauce. You get all of the yummy soy flavor with a ton less salt.  She calls for you to brush the chicken with sauce, baste every 10 minutes and bake for an hour. I so do not have time for that.

The sauce was amazingly simple to construct. I make a killer sweet and sour sauce that is similar in construction. The cornstarch is a great thickener and makes such a smooth sauce. She doesn't give a time frame for the sauce to thicken, but mine was done in about 2 minutes. I didn't have enough time to arrange the chicken in the pan before the sauce was completely done. I just removed it from the heat and dumped the chicken in a foil lined 9X13 pan.

I just poured the sauce on top of the chicken instead of brush it on. At first, I was worried there wasn't enough sauce, but I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I had my oven set to 425, set my timer for 45 minutes and my thermometer to 165 degrees. After it went into the oven, I started on the sides.

Broccoli is my favorite vegetable followed closely by asparagus, fresh corn, and potatoes. If I could have broccoli for every frickin' meal, I would and never get tired of it. My great aunt-in-law gave me my Oster Steamer for my bridal shower two years ago. It's one of my favorite appliances. I've made some of the best freakin' salmon ever in this puppy. I try not to use it for veggies very often because it's a pain in the neck to clean, but I am all out of steamer bags so out came the steamer. It's so simple to use too! I just pour water into the white base, put the clear steam basket on, turn it on, set the timer per the guide on the side and then let it go. The great thing about this one is that once the timer is done, it goes into a warm cycle to keep your steamed food nice and toasty!

My other favorite appliance in my kitchen is my rice cooker. I don't know how Alton Brown feels about rice cookers and their uni-task-ness, but I could not live without mine. I actually bought this one for a friend who moved out on his own after coming home from Japan. Before I could get it to him, he bought one for himself, so I inherited his rice cooker. I love the fact that I can just chuck some rice and some water into my rice cooker, flip a switch and come back in about 20-25 minutes to perfectly cooked rice. I usually do 3 cups of rice to 3 3/4 cup water. Increased the amount of water because the bottom of my rice was getting scorched. The extra water helps prevent that.

When I say non-traditional sticky rice, I mean it. For one thing, some times I don't use short grain rice. Mostly it's because I'm extremely picky with "sushi" rice and won't use anything but Botan Rice and it's rarely in stock anymore. The long grain stuff I can get at Aldi is pretty tasty and inexpensive. Once the rice is done cooking, I dust it with salt and give it a good stir. Then I dust it with white sugar and give it another stir. Then a good healthy splash of cider vinegar and, you guessed, another good stir. Then I let it sit for a few minutes for a good stickiness to set in. The rice is full of flavor and sticks good. I wouldn't do this for actual sushi making, but for a side dish, it's extremely delicious!


The thermometer went off way before the timer this time. The timer had about 15 minutes to go when the alarm went off. Meaning, that if I had let it go for the full 60 minutes, the chicken would have come out like shoe leather. Bleh.

This  how it looked when it came out of the oven. I flipped the thighs over to give the tops a little time to soak up some of the sauce while I plated the side dishes. My tummy was really starting to get rumblely. The smell of the chicken baking and the broccoli steaming had been driving me crazy for the better part of my evening. I could not wait to try this!

Look at how pretty that is! (Wow, I..uh...didn't notice how precariously that plate is perched on my counter there...) The broccoli got a healthy dose of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Mediterranean Blend and some Kosher salt and that's it. I drizzled some of the teriyaki sauce on top of the rice and headed into watch my husband whoop up on some beasts of Northrend.

Thankfully the food went better than the raid. (LOL) The chicken had an amazing flavor...sweet but also savory and not overly salty. Chicken thighs are so much more flavorful than chicken breast, but then they have a bit more fat. The sauce complimented the "dressing" on the rice nicely. With such easy prep and inexpensive ingredients, this is definitely going into my make it again file. My husband went back for seconds and I had to beat him to prevent him for going back thirds! Even though the thighs were tasty and the same price as a bag of chicken breast, I can't get as much milage out of a bag of thighs. I might try this on some chicken breast halves next time just to see how well it translates over.

Baked Chicken Teriyaki so totally gets the Akari Hoshi Seal Approval and then some. I am so in love with this recipe. I can't believe I almost passed it by!

~Akari~