Easy Teriyaki Chicken For Two

This easy teriyaki chicken with homemade teriyaki sauce has to be one of the simplest, most delicious dinners ever.

We’re well into September, which means it’s time for a new recipe theme for the month! Last month’s theme was Slow Cooker recipes since it was way too hot in August to be running an oven. This month since it’s (nearly) fall, school has started, and the days are getting shorter, I thought I’d go with a theme we could all use right about now, dead simple recipes.

I have a few of those on the site already, like my Quick Rosemary Pork Chops or the World’s Easiest Chicken Taco Soup , but we can always use a few more.

These are the recipes I make when there is no bone left in my body that can even fathom picking up a knife when dinnertime comes around.

They are all easy, quick, and healthy. These are some of my most-made recipes, and I think you are going to love them. We’ll start out with Easy Teriyaki Chicken because it’s about as simple of a recipe as you can get.

Before we get to the good stuff, I want to say: I’m including a homemade teriyaki sauce recipe here. It’s thick, quite sweet, and AMAZING. It makes enough for 2 to 3 meals and will keep for a few weeks in the fridge. The recipe calls for a couple of ingredients that you might not keep on hand if you don’t cook Japanese food often, but I’ve included substitutions in the recipe notes.

This homemade teriyaki doesn’t require any cutting or grating, just a little measuring, mixing, and simmering, but if that sounds like too much for you tonight, this cooking method works just as well with a store-bought sauce. (I’m kind of partial to the Panda Express Mandarin Sauce * myself.)

It’s great when it is, but sauce doesn’t always need to come from scratch. 😉

Moving on.

This is just about the best, easiest chicken recipe out there. Just pour a bit of teriyaki sauce over some boneless skinless chicken thighs in the morning or at least 30 minutes before cooking. Then plop those babies on a greased baking sheet and bake in a nice hot oven so they cook quick without drying out.

We’ll baste them once about halfway through so you get a lovely baked-on glaze, and then, boom. You have teriyaki chicken that is honestly better than takeout, and you didn’t have to lift a knife to get it. (Okay, you will have to pick up a knife to eat it.) The whole thing takes about 15 minutes from start to finish.

Serve this Easy Teriyaki Chicken with a side of steamed broccoli and some rice ( Calrose is my favorite * for serving with Asian dishes), and enjoy the rest of your evening with a glass of wine and some Netflix.

As written, this Easy Teriyaki Chicken recipe serves 2. See recipe notes for doubling instructions.

Ingredients

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

• ▢ 1/3 cup soy sauce
• ▢ 1/4 cup water
• ▢ 2 tablespoons mirin*
• ▢ 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar*
• ▢ 1/4 cup ( 50 g) granulated sugar
• ▢ 3 tablespoons ( 37 g) brown sugar
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• ▢ 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch whisked with 1 tablespoon water

Teriyaki Chicken

• ▢ 2 large or 4 small boneless skinless chicken thighs

Serve With

• ▢ Rice
• ▢ Steamed Broccoli

Instructions

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

• Combine soy sauce, water, mirin, rice wine vinegar, granulated sugar, brown sugar, garlic powder, ground ginger, and cornstarch and water mixture in a small sauce pan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Turn heat down to medium and simmer for 4 to 6 minutes, until sauce is thickened. (It will thicken further as it cools.)

Teriyaki Chicken

• In a small bowl or plastic bag, combine chicken thighs and about 3 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce. Toss to coat. Marinate for at least 30 minutes, up to 12 hours.
• Preheat your oven to 400°Line your baking sheet with foil for easy clean up and lightly grease. Remove thighs from the marinade and transfer to baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Pour about 3 tablespoons of sauce into a small bowl and use to baste the chicken thighs. Discard remaining basting sauce.
• Bake for an additional 3 to 5 minutes before using an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the meat. Once the meat reads 165°, pull it from the oven and allow it to rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing. Thigh size varies wildly, so baking time will too. Don’t be alarmed if your thighs take longer to cook.
• Brush with additional teriyaki sauce if desired. Serve over white rice with steamed broccoli and enjoy!

Notes

Teriyaki Sauce Adapted From Food Network

Pink Cream Puffs filled with a rich vanilla pastry cream. So cute and delicious you’ll want to keep them all to yourself.

I have another fun and nerdy recipe for you today, Jigglypuff Pink Cream Puffs! A bunch of fellow bloggers are putting together a month of Pokemon-inspired recipes, and I definitely didn’t want to miss out on all the geeky fun.

The recipe linkup is being hosted by The Gluttonous Geek . There are some really great ones in there, and you should absolutely head on over to check them all out.

Have you been playing Pokemon Go? I have not let myself start because I was pretty obsessed with the Game Boy version as a kid, and it’s a slippery slope when it comes to me and Pokemon games, but it is sooooo tempting.

Anyways, given my childhood obsession, when #PokeNOM month was announced, I knew I wanted to participate and Jigglypuffs and pink cream puffs immediately popped into my head.

I mean Jigglypuff is basically a sentient pink cream puff right? Put them next to each other and there’s no telling which is which. 😉

Have you ever made cream puffs from scratch? It’s easier than you might think, and SO satisfying. Your eggy, wet pâte à choux dough goes into the oven and these perfect fluffy puff balls come out half an hour later. I think it might be magic.

The pastries bake up hollow, leaving plenty of space for fillings. Some people like a simple whipped cream filling in their cream puffs, but not today. Not in these cream puffs. We are making a fantastically rich, gloriously creamy pastry cream for our pink cream puffs, so when you bite into them, you are met with a perfect, sinful center.

And guess what, if you keep cream in your fridge for coffee, you probably have all of the ingredients to make these. The great thing about these pink cream puffs is that they are made with simple kitchen staples. These fancy pastries do not require fancy ingredients!

They do however require a couple of notes:

• This pâte à choux recipe is simple and easy, but it’s not necessarily forgiving. Make sure to follow the instructions as written and measure your flour correctly, preferably with a scale. If you don’t have a scale, use the spoon and sweep method . (Use a scoop to drop flour into your measuring cup and then the flat side of a butter knife to sweep off the excess. This way your flour won’t become compressed and you won’t end up with too much.)
• You will also need a couple tools. Both the pâte à choux and pastry cream need to be piped. The former works best using a 5/8-inch plain tip *, but you get away with using a large plastic bag with the corner snipped off. For the pastry cream, you need a piping bag with about a 1/8-inch plain tip *. Filling the cream puffs requires you to make a small hole in the bottom and pipe cream in. Without a sturdy tip, filling them is going to be difficult.
• The final thing you need is a fine mesh strainer. While making the custard for the pastry cream, sometimes bits of egg get overcooked and running the cream through the strainer will make sure that you don’t get solid eggy bits in your pastry cream. They are super cheap on Amazon *, but you can also find them in the baking aisle in most grocery stores.

More Easy Desserts

• No-bake Cheesecake Bites
• Giant S’mores Cookie
• Small-batch Lemon Pound Cake
• Small-batch Lemon Cookies With Strawberry Frosting

You can find all of my nerdy recipes by clicking here .

Ingredients

Pastry Cream

• ▢ 1 cup milk any percentage
• ▢ 1/2 cup heavy cream
• ▢ 1/2 cup ( 100 g) granulated sugar
• ▢ 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 4 large egg yolks
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pate A Choux

• ▢ 1/2 cup water
• ▢ 1/4 cup ( 2 oz) unsalted butter diced
• ▢ 1 teaspoon sugar
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1/2 cup ( 60 g) all-purpose flour
• ▢ 2 to 3 drops red food coloring
• ▢ 2 large eggs

Egg Wash

• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ 1 tablespoon water

Instructions

Pastry Cream

• In a medium saucepan, heat milk and cream until just before simmering. Remove from heat and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, and egg yolks. SLOWLY drizzle in hot cream mixture, whisking constantly so you don’t scramble your eggs.
• Continue whisking and pouring until all of the liquid is incorporated. You can speed up the pouring as you go and the temperature of your eggs is brought up.
• Transfer egg mixture back to your saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly. Continue to cook until mixture thickens and begins to bubble, about 3 to 6 minutes. It’s ready when it is the consistency of a thick pudding. Whisk vigorously until smooth, remove from heat, and stir in vanilla.
• Place your strainer over a medium bowl and strain pastry cream, using your whisk to push the mixture through.
• Place a piece of plastic wrap directly over the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming and place in the refrigerator to chill completely, at least an hour.

Pate a Choux

• Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
• Have your flour measured out and ready to go. In a medium saucepan, combine water, butter, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. As soon as the butter is melted and the mixture reaches a boil, stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Stir until flour is incorporated and the mixture pulls away from the sides and forms a thin film over the bottom of the pan.
• Transfer dough to a large bowl and allow to cool for about 4 minutes, until no longer hot to the touch. Add 2 to 3 drops of red food coloring and your first egg. Use your wooden spoon to work the egg and coloring into the dough until completely mixed. It will seem slow going at first, but it will come together. Repeat with the second egg.
• Transfer mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a 5/8-inch tip. Pipe 14 1 1/2-inch mounds at least 1 inch apart. Once finished, use a little water on your fingertip to pat down any tips that are sticking up from piping so you have smooth rounds (otherwise the tips sticking up will burn).
• In a small bowl whisk together egg and water and brush gently over the pate a choux.
• Bake for 25 minutes. Do not open the oven. At 25 minutes, check the puffs. They should be lightly browned. If not, cook for an additional 2 to 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely before filling.

Filling the Puffs

• Use a chop stick or small, sharp knife to poke a small hole in the bottom of each cream puff. Transfer your cooled pastry cream to a piping bag fitted with a 1/8-inch round tip (if the cream has firmed up too much in the fridge, you can whisk it for about 30 seconds until it is smooth and the right consistency for piping.
• Fill each of the cream puffs with a generous amount of pastry cream. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Pate a choux adapted from Martha Stewart Pastry Cream Adapted From TheKitchn

This Dutch Apple Galette for Two is an easy and beautiful rustic dessert for those days when you feel like pie without all the hassle.

Sometimes you feel like pie, but you don’t feel like actually making pie.

Sometimes you feel like eating a slice of pie, but you don’t feel like eating pie leftovers for a week.

Sometimes a galette for two might be just the thing you are looking for.

Guys, I love galettes. They have all the trappings of pie without the all the fussy bits. No one’s spending 45 minutes creating a perfectly braided lattice top for a galette. You roll some pie dough out to something vaguely resembling a circle, fill it with fruit, fold it, and bake. It’s perfectly perfect in its imperfection.

You can turn most fruit pies into a galette, but given that this is September and apple season is just getting started, I thought we’d kick off this galette train with a Dutch Apple Galette for Two.

This dessert is good-looking enough to serve for a special occasion, but simple enough to make on a random Saturday afternoon when you feel like bumming around the kitchen for a while. (This recipe was born in my kitchen on just such a Saturday. ;))

And if making a pie from scratch is something you’ve never gotten around to, a galette is a great place to start building your pie-making muscles.

It takes half the effort and less than half the skill since there’s no fussy top to work with. Plus, since we are using my favorite–and after being pinned 16,000+ times on Pinterest , I’m going to say, Famous– buttermilk pie crust , you know this dough is going to be easy to make and easy to work with. I LOVE IT.

Okay, I’ve been singing the praises of galettes in general, but why should you make a Dutch Apple Galette specifically? Because it’s knock-you-down fantastic. The crust is flakey and dusted with sugar. The apples are cooked to sweet cinnamon perfection. And hey, do you like streusel topping?

Because I’ll give you streusel topping. This thing is piled high (some might say too high (NOT ME!)) with streusel, which offers a fantastic sweet and slightly crunchy contrast with the apples and buttery pie crust.

Serve it hot, straight out of the oven. Serve it drizzled in caramel sauce . Serve it with a comically large scoop of ice cream and take hasty pictures of it before devouring it at 9 in the morning.

The only bad option is not serving it at all.

More Perfect Fall Desserts

• Small Apple Cinnamon Cake
• Pumpkin Donuts With Maple Glaze
• Small-batch Banana Muffins
• Small-batch Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Ingredients

Crust

• ▢ 1/4 batch My Favorite Buttermilk Pie Crust prepared and chilled

Apple Filling

• ▢ 1 1/2 cups diced granny smith apples about 2 small apples
• ▢ 1 tablespoon ( 14 g) unsalted butter
• ▢ 1 tablespoon ( 12 g) granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 tablespoon ( 12 g) brown sugar
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Streusel

• ▢ 1 tablespoon ( 14 g) unsalted butter softened
• ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 15g ) all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 tablespoon and 1 1/2 teaspoon ( 19 g) brown sugar

Egg Wash

• ▢ 1 egg
• ▢ 1 tablespoon milk
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ( 4 g) granulated sugar

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Apple Filling

• Combine apples, butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a small sauce pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally for 4 to 6 minutes, until apples are slightly softened. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Roll Dough and Assemble

• Take your dough out of the fridge and allow it to sit out for about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how warm your kitchen is. You want it pliable enough to roll without cracking, but not so warm that the chunks of butter in the dough become melty.
• On a well-floured surface, roll the dough ball out to a circle 1/8-inch thick (This is the best thickness for folding. Don’t be afraid to check it with a ruler!). When rolling, start from the middle of your dough and work your way out first in one direction, then the other. After every other roll, pick up your dough and rotate it 1/4 turn. If anything begins to stick, add more flour under or over your dough.
• Once your dough reaches the proper thickness, dust off the excess flour and transfer it to the center of your prepared baking sheet. Pour the apple mixture into the center of the dough, stopping at least 1 1/2-inch from the edge.
• Fold the edges over the apples in 5 or 6 folds (or as many as you need!). Edges will be ragged and if they rip, you can “glue” pieces back together with a tiny bit of water rubbed on with your finger tip.

Streusel

• In a small bowl, stir together flour and sugar. Add softened butter and use your fingers to mix until everything is well-incorporated, thick, and crumbly. Drop in crumbles over the apples.

Egg Wash

• In a small bowl, whisk together egg and milk. Brush over the edges of your galette. Sprinkle crust with sugar.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until fruit is bubbly and crust browned. Cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Notes

Easy Teriyaki Chicken With Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

Ingredients

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons mirin*
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar*
• 1/4 cup ( 50 g) granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons ( 37 g) brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch whisked with 1 tablespoon water

Teriyaki Chicken

• 2 large or 4 small boneless skinless chicken thighs

Serve With

• Rice
• Steamed Broccoli

Instructions

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

• Combine soy sauce, water, mirin, rice wine vinegar, granulated sugar, brown sugar, garlic powder, ground ginger, and cornstarch and water mixture in a small sauce pan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Turn heat down to medium and simmer for 4 to 6 minutes, until sauce is thickened. (It will thicken further as it cools.)

Teriyaki Chicken

• In a small bowl or plastic bag, combine chicken thighs and about 3 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce. Toss to coat. Marinate for at least 30 minutes, up to 12 hours.
• Preheat your oven to 400°Line your baking sheet with foil for easy clean up and lightly grease. Remove thighs from the marinade and transfer to baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Pour about 3 tablespoons of sauce into a small bowl and use to baste the chicken thighs. Discard remaining basting sauce.
• Bake for an additional 3 to 5 minutes before using an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part of the meat. Once the meat reads 165°, pull it from the oven and allow it to rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing. Thigh size varies wildly, so baking time will too. Don’t be alarmed if your thighs take longer to cook.
• Brush with additional teriyaki sauce if desired. Serve over white rice with steamed broccoli and enjoy!

Notes

Nutrition