Chicken Teriyaki

The “little girl” is determined to learn how to use chopsticks.  So for the past two days she has been practicing.  Last night’s dinner was Chicken Teriyaki, though at first she had a hard time picking up the chicken pieces with her sticks, eventually she got the hang of it and based on my count ate about 10 pieces. 

It makes me truly happy that she has a huge appetite these days.  There was a time when she barely ate anything except for chips and other junk food.  Nowadays at the end of dinner she would turn to me and ask “Tita Eileen, what are you going to cook tomorrow?”  That’s enough encouragement for me to continue to learn new dishes and improve on the old ones.  

But I have to be honest, yesterday I was not feeling so well.  For weeks now I have a cough that just won’t go away.  So I cheated.  I did not slice the chicken fillets as thin as I should have, and instead of making the teriyaki marinade from scratch I used a bottled version from the grocery store.  The dish tasted fine, though with the bottled marinade the chicken pieces turned darker than usual. 

By using the bottled marinade this dish is super easy to make.  Just marinate the chicken fillets for at least 1 hour.  Then either pan-fry or grill the chicken until both sides are brown.  To make the teriyaki glaze just mix together in a pan the remaining marinade, some soy sauce and sugar.  Heat until the mixture is reduced.  Then pour over the cooked chicken fillets, or if you don't want it as a glaze, transfer the mixture to a small bowl and use as a dipping sauce.