Quick & Easy Teriyaki Chicken Fried Rice

Teriyaki sauce (or often spelled Teriyaki) is a super simple sauce used in Japanese cooking, it’s one of those sauces made up of several other sauces, this is kind of how Japanese cooking today is made easier by using various sauces and broths, simply because these take time to prepare or source, so having the sauce already mixed helps quite a bit, having the sauce ready to use makes cooking much faster and easier while maintaining the great complexity of flavors.

In the case of teriyaki sauce, it’s composed of: soy sauce, sake (Japanese rice wine), mirin (rice wine that’s less fermented, so sweeter and less alcoholic), sugar (if you have mirin you won’t need sugar) and ginger. Traditionally it’s made by combining soy sauce, sake and sugar (or honey), cooked slowly until it reaches the ideal thickness (usually more liquid for brushing on meat or fish for grilling and thicker for adding as a sauce).

The name “teriyaki” comes from “tare” which means to give luster or shine, due to the sugar in the sauce caramelizing and making the meat more shiny and “yaki” which refers to the method of cooking something between grilling or roasting, so this sauce is above all used to season meat and fish for grilling, even though nowadays basically everything with teriyaki in the name means it’s either made with teriyaki mixed in (like burgers or meatballs), is served with a teriyaki sauce or of course is grilled with teriyaki sauce.

In this case I have a fried rice where I add a bit of teriyaki sauce instead of the more traditional soy sauce, obviously as you’d expect it turned out a bit sweeter, but I think it pairs well with the chicken pieces, since teriyaki with chicken is a very typical combination in Japanese cooking especially with yakitori (small skewers with chicken or meat seasoned with teriyaki sauce and grilled over charcoal or wood).

Since this is a fried rice recipe it’s always a good idea to make the rice the day before so you have drier rice when it comes time to make the recipe. I kinda liked it heheheh
this is a really nice fried rice recipe, just shows that a quick tweak here and there you can create completely different versions of fried rice! Gotta love it! Let’s get to it.

Quick & Easy Teriyaki Chicken Fried Rice

Servings: 2
Time: 25mins
Difficulty: Easy
Rating: ★★★★★
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Ingredients

Rice – 250g (Short grain, already cooked, or 90g of uncooked rice that you still need to cook)
Chicken – 1 Breast
Egg – 1
Red Pepper – 1/2
Onion – 1
Garlic – 2 Cloves
Chives – A Pinch
Sesame Oil – A Drizzle
Teriyaki Sauce – 2 Tablespoons
Pepper – A Pinch
Salt – A Pinch

Directions

Start by sautéing the finely chopped onion and garlic in a little sesame oil until the onion is golden brown.
Add the coarsely chopped red pepper, season with a pinch of salt, and cook for another 2 minutes.
Cut the chicken breast into small cubes and season with salt and pepper, add to the pan with a little more sesame oil, fry until the chicken is almost done.
Then push the sautéed mixture to one side and add the whisked egg, season with salt and pepper, cook the egg and then break it up and mix it into the sautéed mixture.
Finally, add the rice, mix well and cook for a few minutes, then season with the teriyaki sauce and cook a little longer until everything is tender and caramelized. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

And that’s it! Serve with a sprinkling of chives or sesame seeds on top. Bon appétit!

Notes & Tips: Do note that sesame oil is normally used as a finishing oil, that means you add it in the end to give flavour, so you can use just cooking oil instead of the sesame oil, because it loses a lot of the flavour cooking.

You can easily add more vegetables and if you’re not used to teriyaki sauce yet, just add one tablespoon, let it cook and then taste, if you find it’s getting too sweet, instead of another tablespoon of teriyaki add one of soy sauce.

The key to great fried rice is using rice that’s been cooked and refrigerated overnight. Cold, day old rice has less moisture and fries up better without getting mushy.

Make sure your pan or wok is nice and hot before adding ingredients. This gives you that signature wok flavor and keeps everything from steaming instead of frying.

If you’re doubling or tripling this recipe, it’s better to work in batches. Too much in the pan at once will lower the temperature and you’ll end up steaming rather than frying.

This recipe is super flexible! Feel free to add whatever vegetables you have on hand, peas, carrots, corn, broccoli, mushrooms, they all work beautifully.

When you add the teriyaki sauce at the end, the sugar content means it can burn quickly. Keep stirring and watch the heat, you want it to caramelize and get sticky, not blacken.

This recipe for Quick & Easy Teriyaki Chicken Fried Rice was originally created on BakeAfter.com. Esta receita de Arroz Frito de Teriyaki foi publicada em português no Iguaria.com.