On Teriyaki, there are a few ways to make it.
One is a reduction method and the other is a cornstarch slurry thickening method.
Both are good and I do both depending on what or how I'm cooking. This cook was a wet bine an then a cook down of the contaminated brine (raw chicken juices).
The chicken above was a wet brine for 8 hours in:
Wet brine ingredients
soy sauce 1/4 cup
mirin -(sweet rice wine) - 1/8 cup
gran garlic 3 TBS
a heavy dose of red pepper flakes 2 TBS
black pepper - to taste, i went heavy
salt - less than you'd normally dry brine with, to taste, as salt is a different flavor than soy sauce
plain sugar 1/2 cup
sesame oil 2 tsp
avo oil 2 tsp
powdered ginger (home made as it has 500x more flavor than store bought)
seasoned rice vinegar - a good splash - "seasoned" means it has sugar in it, it's usually used to make sushi rice, you can use ACV and add sugar to get close to seasoned rice vinegar
post marinate cook ingredients
thickener - cornstarch slurry - 2 tsp cornstarch and 4 tsp cold water, mix and combine the two - cornstarch and water and a small dash of dark soy sauce (if you don't have dark soy sauce, don't worry)
1/4 cup water - to be added to the used marinade
to make teriyaki chicken
combine all the above except the post marinate cook ingredients with the chicken and let it marinate for at least 6 hours. dark meat works best as you need the fat when cooking this meal. the fat just adds more flavor.
After marinating, pour the used chicken marinade into a sauce pan, not a fry pan. you don't want a lot of surface area as your boil down will cook too quickly. Add the 1/4 cup water.
gently warm the liquid until you have a very low boil. let the liquid boil for a few minutes to cook off the raw chicken juices. i usually go 5 minutes on this step.
now you have to taste your cooked marinade. i usually have to add some additional sugar, sometimes up to 1/4 cup more white sugar.
you're seeking to balance the salty and sweet components of the final glaze sauce.
one you have the balance dialed in, you'll add the cornstarch slurry, around half of it, and gently let it thicken with the heat of the pan. if the sauce tightens too much, add a little water in. this is where you can choose how you like your sauce, either like a bbq sauce with thick texture or runny like a sauce.
i like to have a slightly fluid sauce so that it drizzles off a spoon but will still stay on the chicken when i brush it on the final steps of bbq'ing the chicken.
if you like to add the sauce to rice, leave it a little more loose than thick. again it's all about your preferences and desired texture.
so this is the basic method and recipe. you can make the marinade as a sauce unto its own and never put raw chicken into it. if doing so, add the oils and dry seasonings above to the warmed oil so the flavors will infuse into the oil (red pepper, garlic, ginger). don't over cook the dry spices as they will burn quickly. then add all the wet ingredients and bring to a boil, then simmer, then balance the flavors and add the thickener.
if you like to make spicy teriyaki sauce, warm some neutral oil, then remove it from the heat and add in a heavy dose of red pepper flakes. this will make a spicy oil which you can then add to your sauce or just your own plate if others don't enjoy your heat adventure. because we all know not everyone can survive the ring of fire (sorry, you've been warned).
feel free to ask any questions. teriyaki is a fun sauce to play around with and modify. it's pretty inexpensive to make and has massive flavor.
here's one of my more fave vids on teriyaki:
