Chicken Teriyaki from Scratch: Because Store-Bought Sauce is for Quitters

Ok I am going to be honest. I kind of hate making sauces from scratch. When I am not working I love experimenting with things like this, but work drains me, and I just want to make something I like as easily as possible. One thing I appreciate about this project is how it has forced me to have a bit of fun with cooking, even when I am tired and just not feeling like it. This is is the week I decided to redo my initial dish, but without the assistance of the grocery store kit. The video above shows a stop motion time lapse of my stove at supper time, but let’s get into why we are really here – The learning process!

ChatGPT

ChatGPT has been invaluable in helping me decide what dishes to create, and making grocery lists. I started this week just looking for something that was kid friendly, because my children have not been enjoying my sushi experiments. The three dishes that were suggested were: Oyakodon, Japanese curry rice, and teriyaki salmon and rice. I went to my local grocery store to see what I could track down, and that is where I decided to make a teriyaki chicken instead since my family isn’t a huge fan of fish. ChatGPT can output a general grocery list in seconds, and it also explains more unique ingredients. For example, I didn’t know what Mirin was, and ChatGPT explained to me that it was a sweet rice wine that can be found in the international aisle of most grocery stores.

It provided me with a substitution option just in case I couldn’t find it. I did end up substituting my sweet vinegar, so I appreciated the unprompted assistance.

Just One Cookbook

The blog Just One Cookbook has been a go to for my Japanese food adventures. One thing that stuck out to me was the caution to avoid some of the optional ingredients you find in some recipes for the teriyaki sauce. It isn’t that they taste bad, but I was trying to be authentic, and the ingredients for an authentic teriyaki sauce are pretty simple, just soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar. There was also a good amount of instruction on how to make nicely cooked chicken. I didn’t end up with skin on my chicken breast, but I thought the description of the nice crispy skin mentioned sounded delicious. Chicken teriyaki is incredibly versatile. I served mine with rice and pan fried broccoli and mushrooms, but you can serve it with many different sides as the photo in this recipe shows.

After all the research and planning, was the one I made tonight better? Not really if I am honest. It was definitely tasty and not really that much work, but I thought it was pretty equivalent in flavour. I was curious what the impact would be of adding in some of those flavours that some recipes incorporate, but that aren’t as authentic, so I started to do a little bit more reading.

New York Times Cooking

I came across this recipe from the New York Times while I was doing my research. When I am looking for recipes I usually look at the ratings and the number of reviews, and this recipe has almost 5000 ratings and 5 stars, so I am pretty confident it is good. This review by a lady named Nikki made me excited to try it.

I am hoping to try this recipe soon, but it also made me reflect on North American Cuisine. In many ways the food here is a remix of the dishes of many cultures. The documentary “Everything is a Remix” argues that creativity is built on copying, transforming and combining existing ideas. Most of the dishes I have created are not exclusively Japanese, but have a North American spin. Some of this has to do with the availability of ingredients. For example, as an island Japan has a good supply of fresh fish, whereas the fish I have access to is usually frozen first. I think remixing also reflects the creativity that people bring to cooking. Food is of course a need, but we also take great pleasure from making and sharing food with each other, and it is fun to put your own spin on a recipe. Many of the reviews are people making little modifications to the recipe to suit their taste, or dietary needs. I think I am going to branch to an Asian fusion dish next week. Is your favourite food authentic, or a North American remix of something from another part of the world?