Teriyaki Chicken


    3 boneless chicken thighs
    A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
    4 tbsp light soy sauce
    4 tbsp sake
    3 tbsp mirin
    2 tbsp honey
    Oil, for frying


Preparation

1. First off, prepare your teriyaki sauce. Peel your piece of ginger with a teaspoon, and then roughly chop with a sharp knife or cleaver. Separate half of the chopped ginger to be saved for later, and place the other half into a small mixing bowl or ramekin followed by all of the light soy sauce, sake, mirin and honey. Mix well, and adjust to taste.

2. Now, move on to your chicken. Butterfly your chicken thighs, and then slice them into large, thin escalopes. Place these sliced chicken pieces into a large bowl and pour the teriyaki sauce over the top, massaging the flavour well into the meat before leaving it to marinade - ideally overnight, but at least for 5 minutes.

Cooking

3. Set a frying pan over a high heat and a tablespoon of oil, swirling it around the pan to get an even coating. Add the second half of your chopped ginger straight into the pan and fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes.

4. At this point, use tongs to place your marinated chicken carefully into the pan, being careful not to overlap the different pieces and leaving the rest of the sauce in the bowl for later. (Hint: you may have to cook in batches - if so, make sure to divide your sauce into the same number of batches as your chicken!). Keeping your high heat, allow the chicken to fry on one side for approximately 3 minutes, until the base is crispy and charred. Flip and repeat on the second side, frying until all the chicken pieces are over halfway cooked and both sides are a deep golden brown.

5. Finally, cranking up the heat so your pan is smoking hot, pour in the sauce. Leave the sauce to boil and caramelise for approximately 2 minutes before turning the chicken pieces over, cooking for another 30 seconds, or until you reach a dark brown, syrupy sauce. Repeat the whole cooking process for further batches, and simply serve alongside a bowl of steamed rice and your choice of vegetables. Enjoy!