I am back in the kitchen and I am starting the New Year off with a quick, easy, light and tasty meal, chicken teriyaki! Teriyaki is a Japanese style of cooking where meat is grilled and served with a sweet and salty sauce that traditionally consists of soy sauce, sugar, mirin and sake. The basic sauce is super easy to make and really good but you can of course play with it and some additions that I enjoy are garlic and ginger. You can also change the sweetener using a number of different options including replacing some or all of the plain white sugar with cane sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc. The sake is optional and I often like to replace it with a fruit juice like pineapple juice and adding chunks of pineapple to the dish is also nice! Once you have decided on the sauce ingredients this chicken teriyaki is as easy to make as cooking the chicken and simmering the sauce until it reduces and thickens. I like to go with chicken thighs as they are moister and have more flavour, removing the bones for easier cooking and eating, and I leave the skin on as it gets all nice and golden brown, crispy and good! You could of course use boneless and skinless chicken breasts for a lighter version. The chicken teriyaki takes less time to make than it takes to cook the rice that I like to serve it over so I have plenty of time to steam a vegetable to go with it!

The red garnish is benishoga, a Japanese red pickled ginger.