Quick and Simple 5 Ingredient Teriyaki Chicken

Okay, this is officially the easiest recipe that has ever been posted on the internet. Or written in any cookbook. Or put on YouTube. To reiterate…THIS IS THE EASIEST RECIPE EVER. It only takes five ingredients and twenty minutes to make! The supa short time and craycray few ingredients aren’t what make this recipe so awesome, though…

What makes it so awesome is how BOMB it tastes despite the few ingredients and short prep/cook time. This juicy chicken tastes like it has been coated in a sauce that’s been simmering away for hours. It definitely doesn’t taste like it was thrown together on your stove top in twenty minutes while simultaneously throwing your dog’s frisbee around the house, keeping your cat away from the vegetables on the counter, and cleaning up the remaining dishes in your sink.

But, alas, that is the exact situation in its truest form, people.

I’ll break this recipe down for ya…

1. Dice your chicken
2. Sear briefly in saute pan
3. Add sauce ingredients (soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic)
4. Let cook for a few minutes
5. Eat

Step five is very important. Don’t skip step five.

It doesn’t sound fancy, it doesn’t sound special, and it doesn’t sound like anything to write home about. I mean, how can a sauce made up of JUST soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and garlic be good enough to rant about for half an hour? Honestly, I can’t really tell you why it’s that delicious…it just is. That simple combination of five ingredients simmering together in your pan just creates the most delicious and flavorful dish.

We don’t add any cornstarch to the sauce, we just let it reduce while the chicken simmers in the flavorful goodness. The result is a sauce with deep, concentrated flavors of soy, brown sugar, garlic, and ginger coating your chicken so beautifully.

You’ll be in love…with the flavor AND the simplicity.

I will tell you something, though, friends…I will tell you something. Despite how oddly simple it was to make this recipe, it was THE MOST COMPLICATED THING EVER to photograph it. Why?

Well, the story begins with my memory card.

I finish this recipe, try it, swoon over how delicious it is and freak out about how there’s no way it tastes so good for being so quick and simple, grab my photography props, grab the food, head over to the room in my house where the photography happens, get everything set up, the brown sugar sprinkled around the bowl, the green onions perfectly placed just how I want them, go to turn on my camera, aaaannnnddddd there is no memory card.

Which I thought, “Oh, no biggie,” because I am known to leave things in random locations around my house from time to time…cough…every 5 minutes of my life…cough.

So Seth and I start looking around the house. The memory card was NOwhere. At that point, I realize I had to have left it at work. Seth, being the awesome husband that he is, said he would run over to the school and grab it for me while I finished making my second blog recipe of the day. Oh! But guess what else I forgot? The keys to my classroom. I left them inside my classroom (smart, right? I know). I had a really high opinion of myself in that moment.

So Seth drove out to Best Buy to grab another CF card for my camera. Buuut they didn’t have one. At this point, I have two blog recipes finished and ready to photograph, but ZERO way of photographing them. And they are getting cold and not nearly as appetizing in appearance. Which is a bigger deal than it may seem because I can only photograph on the weekends. During the week, it’s too dark by the time I get back from work to do anything.

Seth ended up driving to my sister’s house to grab her camera, and I just used that one instead of mine. BUT, apparently I am incompetent with any other camera than my own, because I could not totally figure out the manual settings, and I ended up absolutely hating the pictures that I got. I was able to partially save them with editing, but they are definitely not my faves. I am posting a super yummy Skinny Pumpkin Alfredo recipe (love) soon that I also photographed that day using my sister’s camera, and those pictures are literally the bane of my existence. BUT, this chicken and that pasta are yummy enough that I will post them despite not loving the pictures.

FOR YOU! Because I lava you. And food.

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If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!

In the mood for more yummy Asian recipes? Check these out:

Easy Korean Flank Steak

Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

Perfect 30 Minute Red Curry