Chicken Teriyaki

Every month, I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC) has a potluck. That means we get to choose any recipe we want from the collections of chefs that have been featured in the past six years.  That is not a small set of choices.  I went with chicken teriyaki from Nigella Kitchen.  I have owned the book for years, but haven't cooked from it very often. And in our household, anything teriyaki is a winner. It's a rare taste on which we can all agree.

What I like about Nigella Lawson's recipe is that it uses mirin (sweet rice wine) and soy sauce as a base with a little sake  and other ingredients thrown in. Some recipes I've tried have you start with bottled teriyaki sauce and mix in other ingredients.  I thought this recipe was cleaner and brighter. 

When I went to my favorite Asian market to purchase the sake and mirin,  I was surprised to fine a variety of sakes, at different price points and sizes. And frankly I had no idea how to choose.  It's different when I'm at a sushi restaurant and all I have to do is order small or large.

There was sake in elegant glass bottles, in jars with pop tops and even small aluminum cans (serve chilled!). I decided on a small bottle of mid-priced sake; the one with the  eye-catching red dragon on the label was the winner. 

 

The dish comes together quite easily, but leave enough time. There's a little chopping and marinating involved.  You can find the recipe on pages 38-40 of Nigella Kitchen (lots of pictures, not a lot of steps) or you can find it here.

To find out what other cooks came up with, look here.  It's worth it because there is quite a variety of yummy-looking dishes.