Shoyu chicken
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Dan Jones
Shoyu chicken
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minsTotal time: 
See more recipes
Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
255Kcal
Fat
8gr
Saturates
2gr
Carbs
16gr
Sugars
15gr
Fibre
0gr
Protein
29gr
Salt
2.9gr
Felicity Cloake
Felicity Cloake is a freelance food writer and is the author of The A - Z of Eating.
See more of Felicity Cloake’s recipes
Felicity Cloake
Felicity Cloake is a freelance food writer and is the author of The A - Z of Eating.
See more of Felicity Cloake’s recipes
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp grated root ginger
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 75ml soy sauce, preferably Japanese
- 50g light brown soft sugar, plus extra if needed
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 1 x 615g pack skinless chicken thigh fillets, trimmed
- steamed rice, to serve
- ½ tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
- 2 spring onions, green part only, very finely shredded
Step by step
- Put the ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sugar and mirin in a medium saucepan with 300ml water. Bring to a simmer, then add the chicken in one layer – it should be almost, but not quite, covered with liquid. Bring back to a simmer, then cover, turn the heat down and poach gently for 20 minutes, turning the chicken once.
- Scoop out the chicken with a slotted spoon and set aside somewhere warm. Skim any fat from the surface of the sauce then turn the heat back up and boil it hard for 10 minutes to reduce slightly, until it looks slightly syrupy. Taste and add a little more sugar if you like, then return the chicken to the pan and turn it over in the sauce to glaze. Slice the chicken and serve with plenty of rice. Drizzle the sauce on top and scatter with sesame seeds and the shredded spring onion tops.
Chef quote
This salty-sweet dish was brought to Hawaii by Japanese immigrants – shoyu being the Japanese word for soy sauce! A little like teriyaki, it packs a lot of flavour for something so very simple, and makes a great easy midweek meal
