Teriyaki chicken

Like most working professionals, I’ve always been a sucker for quick and easy foods. A dish like teriyaki chicken is so simple when it comes to ingredients and preparation, especially compared to how delicious it tastes, that it’s an easy go-to for weeknight dinners.

I complemented the chicken with two sides: spicy sesame peanut noodles and Chinese-style green beans.

• The spicy sesame peanut noodles were inspired by a side offered by my favorite food truck at UVA. Got Dumplings? — a small restaurant in Charlottesville — makes these amazing cold peanut noodles that pair perfectly with their pan-fried dumplings and the sweet and sticky dumpling sauce. I modified the Peanut Sauce recipe from Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner (Stacie Billis) as my noodle sauce.

• The second side—Chinese-style green beans—is based on one of my most craved Chinese foods from P.F. Chang’s. I wanted to mimic the preparation style, cooked at a high heat to get a blistered green bean that cooks in the soy sauce mixture.

I can’t wait to iterate on these recipes to find the perfect palette pleaser.

Ingredient prep

Green onions and roughly chopped garlic

Teriyaki sauce

Mix the sauce in prep for quick cooking

Cooking teriyaki chicken

Teriyaki chicken

Final plating & sides

Trimmed green beans

Trim the ends of your green beans

Green beans soy sauce mix

Chinese-style green beans

Spicy sesame peanut noodles

Full meal - teriyaki chicken, sesame peanut noodles, chinese-style green beans

Teriyaki Chicken

What you need

• ~1.5 lbs. Chicken (white or dark meat is fine), cut into 1-inch pieces

• Broccoli

• Garlic, roughly chopped

• Green onions, sliced

• Dried red chillies, to taste

• Teriyaki sauce mix:

  • 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce

  • 3 tbsp light brown sugar

  • 1 tbsp rice vinegar

  • 1 tbsp sesame oil

  • 2 tsp cornstarch

What to do

1. Prep all the ingredients. Add a tbsp of soy sauce to the diced chicken and set aside. Whisk the teriyaki sauce mix ingredients together to combine.

2. Heat cooking oil in a large wok over medium-high heat. Once the wok is hot, add the chicken in a single layer. Cook until the chicken is lightly browned, then flip.

3. Create a small well in the center of the chicken, and add the roughly chopped garlic. Saute until fragrant, and then pour in the sauce.

4. Mix the sauce and chicken together and allow it to cook on medium heat as the sauce thickens. Add the dried chillies to add some spiciness.

5. Before the sauce thickens to your preferred consistency, add the broccoli florets into the wok and stir well. Cover with a lid to steam the broccoli for a few minutes.

6. Once the broccoli is steamed, serve with white rice and garnish with chopped green onions and sesame seeds.

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Sides

Chinese-style green beans

Spicy sesame peanut noodles

• 1/2 cup unsweetened peanut butter

• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce

• 1 tbsp green onion

• juice of a lime

• 2 tbsp maple syrup

• 1 tsp minced ginger

• 1 tsp sesame oil

Combine the ingredients in a blender and add water (by the tablespoon) to achieve the right consistency.

Cook a half-box of spaghetti noodles as per instructions on the box. Once you drain the noodles, wash them in cold water before tossing the noodles and sauce together.

• 1/2 lb. of green beans

• Sauce:

  • 4 cloves of garlic, chopped

  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes

  • 2 tbsp sesame oil

  • 2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

  • 1 tbsp rice vinegar

  • 1 tsp white granulated sugar

Whisk sauce ingredients and let the garlic sit in the soy sauce and vinegar for at least 30 minutes.

Heat up a wok on high-heat, and add a tbsp of cooking oil.

Once the wok is hot, add the green beans and let them cook at a high-heat, tossing quickly, for a couple minutes until they blister.

Add the sauce mix and continue to toss until the liquid evaporates. Tastiest served immediately.