This Baked Teriyaki Chicken recipe has been my go-to for a delicious dinner (that I know my entire family will eat) for as long as I can remember. I have made it with a whole chicken, chicken thighs, chicken legs, you name it and this teriyaki sauce marinade is perfect for any cut of chicken. The best part? You make it the day before and let it marinate until you are ready to bake it. I have updated this recipe from 2009 with new photos and like all the recipes on this website, you know that it’s still a dinner winner!
How to Make Teriyaki Chicken
Finding new and easy ways to make chicken can be so daunting. And boring, extremely mind-numbingly booooor-ing. Just like making the same chicken over and over is boring. This teriyaki chicken recipe is a busy parent’s best friend as all of the amazing flavour comes from literally 5 minutes of prep that you do beforehand. Then all you do is come home and throw it into the oven!
To make teriyaki chicken all you have to do is:
- Whisk together all of the sauce ingredients.
- Place your chicken pieces of choice into a large lidded container, skin side down.
- Pour the sauce into the container, then place the lid on top.
- Once the lid is secure, shake the pieces to coat them again.
- Refrigerate overnight.
- To bake, heat your oven to 350 °F and cook until the chicken is done!
This is NOT traditional stir-fried teriyaki chicken and vegetables ( that recipe will be coming soon!) this is just a great marinated then baked teriyaki chicken recipe. This requires the least prep out of all the teriyaki chicken methods ( no cutting up the chicken into pieces nor is there any vegetable prep) yet dare I say that you are going to get the best chicken out of this?
Because of that chicken skin. Lord almighty, that chicken skin is loaded with teriyaki flavour and is SOOOOO crispy that all you are going to want to eat is the skin.
How to Marinate Teriyaki Chicken
- Whisk together all of the sauce ingredients until the sugar has dissolved as much as possible. I actually don’t cook this marinade at all, I don’t find that I need to.
- Pour over the chicken breasts and cover completely.
- Marinate for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator.
- I prefer using a container to using a plastic bag and the reason is the emphasis I put on marinating chicken pieces skin side down. You cannot accomplish this if you put a massive amount of chicken pieces in a bag! Skin side down ensures that you are getting the marinade where it needs to be, just like in my BBQ Grilled Chicken Marinade. Why waste marinating time on the bottom bones of chicken pieces?
- If you don’t have room for a container, use enough Ziplocs and divide everything so that the chicken pieces are in a single layer and skin side down in the bag. If you don’t believe me that this is worth the effort, take a look at the colour of these chicken thighs! They are saturated with flavour!
More Tried & Tested Chicken Recipes:
Here are some more chicken recipes for you to try!
- The Best Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Legs
- Man Catching Oven Baked Fried Chicken
- Baked Sesame Chicken
- Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Thighs
Hope you guys love this as much as we do! I just made it again the other night when my entire family was visiting and this teriyaki chicken will coat at least 12 chicken thighs, which makes it a great choice when you have company coming! It’s easy, you prep it the night before and it’s going to seriously impress your guests!
Happy cooking!
Love,
Karlynn
Teriyaki Chicken
Ingredients
- 6-10 chicken thighs, skin on
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
Instructions
- Combine the brown sugar and soy sauce in a large measuring cup or bowl, I like to use a large 4 cup glass measuring cup because it pours so lovely when I am done. Mix until the brown sugar dissolves as much as possible.
- Whisk in the lemon juice, ginger and the garlic.
- Place your chicken pieces of choice into a large lidded container, skin side down. Pour the marinade over the chicken, and refrigerate it overnight.
- To cook the chicken the next day, preheat your oven to 350 °F.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper ( you will thank me later when you aren’t scrubbing burnt sugar off!) and place the chicken on top. You can drizzle some marinade over the top at this point.
- Bake in the oven until the chicken pieces reach the right temperature ( 165 °F for chicken breasts and 185 ° for chicken thighs, see my cooking chicken info in this post) and right before removing, take a spoon and baste with the juices. Let the chicken cook for another 3-4 minutes and then remove.
Notes
Nutrition
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Lee says
The ignorant person that made the comment about the sodium and sugar WHATEVER I made this recipe and it is wonderful!! I would not change a thing!!! Thank you for your fantastic recipes!!
Cant wait to make more!!!!
V muny says
Teriyaki. Chicken hasWay too much sidium & sugar! Heart attack waiting to happen?
Karlynn Johnston says
Use low sodium soy sauce and it’s fine BUT I also say right above the nutrition that :
” THE NUTRITIONAL VALUES ON THIS RECIPE INCLUDES THE ENTIRE SAUCE the actual information will be less as you don’t eat all of the sauce. This is not accurate, just a estimate.”
The third party calculator calculates ALLLL the sauce, you only eat a tiny bit on the chicken!