Grilled Teriyaki Chicken - A Grilling Classic

[FTC Standard Disclaimer] This is not a sponsored post; however, some Char-Broil products are shown and they are a sponsor. 

There are certain grilling recipes that everyone has done, right?  Several come to mind.

• Chicken parts marinated in Italian dressing
• Burgers stuffed with more add ins than meatloaf
• Steaks marinated in a red wine, olive oil, and soy sauce concoction

Grilled teriyaki chicken is one of those, I think.  Who hasn't marinated chicken with a bottled teriyaki sauce? Here's how we do ours.

Grilled Teriyaki Chicken 

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 pineapple, cored and sliced

For the Marinade/Glaze

• 1/4 cup Mr. Yoshida's Original Gourmet Sauce (or other thick teriyaki sauce)
• 2 ounces rice wine vinegar
• 2 ounces mirin
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flake
• 1/4 cup oil
• salt or soy sauce to taste

Instructions

1. Mix the marinade/baste.  Put the Yoshida's, vinegar, mirin, black pepper, pepper flake and ginger in a mixing bowl.  Whisk rapidly while slowly adding the oil until combined.  Taste, add soy sauce or sauce as desired - it shouldn't be much.  Divide the marinade in half, half for the marinade and half for glazing.
2. Marinade the chicken.  Put your chicken breast in a gallon zip top bag and pour in half the marinade.  Press out the excess air from the bag, seal, and place on a sheet pan in refrigeration for 4 to 8 hours.
3. Preheat grill to 350-400°f.
4. Grill the chicken and pineapple.  Remove the chicken from the bag and shake off any excess marinade.  Place "pretty side" down on the grates and cook 5 minutes.  Flip and cook another 5 minutes.  Add the pineapple when you flip the chicken and grill it on both sides.
5. Glaze the chicken.  Brush the chicken and pineapple with the remaining teriyaki on both sides. Cook until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 160°f, flipping and glazing several times.  This should take about 2 to 5 minutes.
6. Remove chicken, rest it for 5 minutes, and serve.

Notes/Substitutions

• Yoshida's - Easily our favorite Asian style sauce, it's sweet so it's "teriyaki-ish" but not exactly teriyaki.  Mix it with a little stock, soy sauce, and Sriracha and you have a good general purpose "brown sauce".  Mix it with rice wine vinegar, other seasonings, and you have a marinade.  If you can't find it, look for a thicker style teriyaki sauce at the store or make your own.

For this cook I used a Big Green Egg Mini-Max to stir fry some rice and a Char-Broil Signature Series to grill the pineapple and chicken.

Mise en place - if you grill a lot, these various food trays save you a lot of in and out. Your air conditioner will thank you.  And yes, I have one of the defective Mini-Max carrying nests and the handle broke off.

The fried rice was simple as your ABC's. I stir fried some chopped onion and bell peppers in garlic flavored oil (throw a clove or 2 in the oil for a minute before cooking).

Then I added the cooked rice, some Yoshida's and some Ginger Sesame Soy Sauce from Ink.  

Brushing the glaze on several times builds up the coating, cooking it on between applications.

I picked these two grills today because I wanted to get out from under the awning and these two were the easiest to roll out to the other end of the deck.

The chicken came off in batches because the breasts were differently sized.  Always cook to temp instead of time.

We served this right in the wok on the Woo rig.