This tasty grilled chicken teriyaki skewers recipe was made for summer grilling. A flavorful blend of soy sauce, brown sugar, mirin, garlic, and a little minced ginger makes the tastiest marinade for these juicy grilled chicken skewers.
Easy Teriyaki Chicken Skewers Recipe
Boneless chicken thighs are cut into smaller pieces and tossed in this easy teriyaki marinade then grilled with pineapple, mushrooms, onions and colorful bell peppers. You’d best believe when these hit the grill, the smell is a-ma-zing. My mouth instantly waters! There’s really no exact art or science to skewering these together. Sometimes I make random ones with bits of mushroom, pepper, and onion in between. Sometimes I do lots more pineapple!
Creating Bold Flavors For The Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Skewers
The teriyaki flavors go so well with the simple sweetness of pineapple…It’s fun to throw a couple of pineapple slices on the grill and serve alongside these skewers as well!
My husband is Japanese, so we usually make these a few times throughout the summer. He knows this combination like the back of his hand and will usually throw it together in five minutes and before I can blink….it’s done. Sooooo…I had to stalk him in the kitchen and get some measurements down while he was mixing this up the other day. In watching him, I figured out what I’d already known all along: the best recipes are the ones no one really measures out. They’re just passed down to you and then tattooed on your heart and your hands over time.
How To Make This Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Skewers Recipe
The marinade for this easy grilled teriyaki chicken skewers recipe is definitely the star here. It really makes the meat sing and brings tons of flavor to the plate. The marinade is a quick combination of a few special ingredients that create that mouthwatering teriyaki-style flavor.
What You’ll Need To Make Teriyaki Chicken Skewers
Mirin is a Japanese rice wine used to bring flavor and light acidity to many different Asian recipes. We’ll use a splash of that in the teriyaki marinade as well as sesame oil.
Sesame oil is also a big flavor enhancer in many Asian cuisines and we’ll use a dab of that in the marinade as well. It’s made from sesame seeds and you’ll get that right away when you smell it. It has an amazing fragrance and the taste is quite strong. Keep in mind that a little bit of this goes a loooooong way, so you don’t need much. It will easily overpower everything else so keep a light hand when using this in your recipes. There’s just a few more things we can toss in to make this teriyaki marinade complete!
Make The Teriyaki Marinade For The Grilled Chicken Thighs
In a medium bowl, whisk together soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, brown sugar and ketchup. Yes. Ketchup. This is where that Nisei style comes to the plate. It is the addition of western or American ingredients to otherwise totally Japanese flavors. The brown sugar and ketchup bring a little sweetness, zing, and body to the marinade.
Whisk & Pour The Teriyaki MArinade For The Chicken
Whisk everything together and pour over the chicken. What we like to do place the chicken in a larger freeze bag beforehand and then pour the marinade in. Then we’ll seal it and squish it around a bit so the chicken is totally coated. Nothing else left to do except set it in a bowl, refrigerate for 2 to 6 hours, and forget about it.
Assemble Teriyaki Chicken Skewers
Once everything is done marinading, skewer the chicken and vegetables and cook on a hot grill turning a few times in between until cooked evenly throughout. If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 30 to 40 minutes ahead of time.
Sprinkle with scallions and serve with a bed of steamed rice, grilled pineapple slices, or this quick summery salad!
This is a great recipe that’s low on time but big on flavor. I hope you give yourself just a few minutes to make this easy teriyaki marinade and try these delicious grilled chicken teriyaki skewers.
Don’t forget to keep the grill hot and the drinks cold!
Take a minute to serve up some easy citrus soy sauce brown sugar grilled salmon fillets and serve up with this ice cold white wine peach sangria or this easy strawberry watermelon frosé! A little zippy guacamole or dragonfruit mango salsa dip make the perfect appetizers while you wait on the grill…
Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Skewers Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Boneless Chicken Thighs - cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 each Red, Orange, Yellow and/or Green Bell Pepper - cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 cup Fresh Pineapple - cored and cubed
- 1 Red Onion - cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 container Mushrooms - Optional. I used shiitake but you could use white or baby bella mushrooms
- 1 tsp Fresh Ginger - minced
- 2 cloves Garlic - minced
- 1 1/2 cup Soy Sauce - I used Kikkoman Less Sodium
- 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
- 1/4 cup Ketchup
- 1 1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
- 1/8 cup Mirin - Japanese rice wine vinegar
- Red Pepper Flakes - Optional – 1 teaspoon, if desired
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk soy sauce, mirin, brown sugar, sesame oil, ketchup, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes, if using. Place cubed chicken thighs in a large ziplock bag and pour the combined marinade over the chicken. Set the bag in a large bowl to marinade in the fridge for at least 2 hours or up to 6 hrs. If you don't have large ziplock type freezer bags, simply marinade everything in a large bowl, cover, and set in the fridge.
- If you use wooden skewers, soak them in water for 30 minutes to an hour before using. Skewer chicken, vegetables, pineapple, and mushrooms, if using.
- Cook on a medium-high pre-heated grill for 5 to 10 minutes turning in between until chicken is cooked through.
- Serve with fresh steamed rice and sprinkle with sliced scallions.
