Chicken with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
Chicken teriyaki is definitely one of my go-to take out foods! After all, it is probably one of the most healthiest choices you can get at your local food court. But this recipe for homemade teriyaki sauce is a million times better - and so much better for you too! And of course, you can use this sauce for both meat and vegetarian dishes!
Chicken teriyaki is definitely one of my go-to take out foods! After all, it is probably one of the most healthiest choices you can get at your local food court.
Of course, I tried making this at home with some of the bottled teriyaki sauces in my local grocery store, but it never seems to taste like the restaurant version.
And then I learned to make it at home.
Let me tell you, it is so much better than what we are used to from our average takeout restaurants. It's lighted, has so much more flavour and you can put as little, or in my case, as much as you want.
The mirin in this recipe is what makes all the difference! Mirin is a sweet Japanese rice wine (with less alcohol). I have played with different proportions of mirin and soy sauce and found that equal amounts of both work best. If you prefer a sweeter teriyaki sauce, add as much brown sugar as you like but be careful with it on the stove as too much brown sugar may burn.
I personally like the sauce to thicken up not not too sticky as I can easily eat just the teriyaki sauce with rice any time of day!
I served my teriyaki with chicken, but you can easily change the recipe to beef, salmon, shrimp, or, of course, veggies.
Makes: 2 servings
Preptime:
Cook time:
- In a skillet, saute chicken strips in the hot oil onmedium-high heat until browned and cooked through. Set aside
- In the same skillet, saute the broccoli florets, careful not to overcook.
- In a separate saucepan, combine soy sauce, mirin and sugar to taste over medium-high heat, stirring often.
- Bring to a boil and lower heat to medium. Simmer until the sauce reaches desired consistency.
- On a plate or bowl of rice, add the chicken, broccoli and pour over the teriyaki sauce. Serve and devour.
Photo Gallery Wall
I have tons of photos from my travels (the only souvenirs I need and collect!). But more importantly, I never made a photo album for our wedding photos. Instead, I framed the really good ones (we were lucky to have a lot of great shots) and created a gallery wall.
As you may know, the Mister and I recently moved into a new condo.
I absolutely love the new space, but since the layout is completely different from our previous place, this means redecorating from scratch.
The new place is more of an open concept compared to where we were before and I've lost a lot of wall space. While to most people, this may not seem like a big issue, in fact, it may seem like a bonus! But keep in mind that I'm a photographer first. I have tons of photos from my travels (the only souvenirs I need and collect!). But more importantly, I never made a photo album for our wedding photos. Instead, I framed the really good ones (we were lucky to have a lot of great shots) and created a gallery wall.
In my old condo, I made a 3x5 gallery wall (which you can see here) but I just don't have a similar wall space anymore. Instead, I opted to create a 2x7 gallery wall.
I got these 11x11 black gallery frames from Chapters-Indigo. I fell in love with the simplicity of these frames and love that they practically match any decor.
The first thing I did was lay everything out on the floor to decide which photos will go where. I mixed in a few photos from some of the places the Mister and I have traveled to - just to mix it up a bit.
After this came the hard part - how high do I hang them??
I have a really odd drop in the ceiling, bringing the ceiling height to 7 feet on the only wall that I could display my photos. I have read that the centre of your "wall art" should be at 5'5". This may work well with large pieces but I don't think that translated well with a photo gallery wall. Instead, i made the bottom row centred to 5'5". (When I did the 3 rows at my old place, I made sure that the centre row was centred to the height of 5'5".) Because I don't like nails or holes in my walls, I opted to use the Command Picture Hanging Strips to hang my photos.
I must say, I am quite happy with the final results (even if it did take me months to finally get around to!).
Wedding Gallery Wall
If you have a lot of photos that you would like to display, I would highly suggest you show them off in a gallery wall!
gallery wall
So many times, people would come over and ask to see our wedding photos. Given that we had so many great photos, I wanted to do something out of the ordinary with them. I decided to create a 5X3 gallery wall. (I read somewhere that hanging things in odd numbers is more visually pleasing.)
black and white photo wall
I used very simple 13X13 square gallery frames that hold a 5X7 photo that I found at Indigo. I personally think this is the perfect size - not too big and overwhelming for the small room I would be displaying them, but big enough that it invites you to take a better look. The black gallery frames with white matting and my black and white wedding photos work perfectly with my decor.
wedding gallery wall
I printed off a number of our wedding photos and even mixed them up with a few pictures of places we had traveled to together - especially since we got engaged while on vacation. I spread out all of my photos on the floor to decide where their place on the wall will be. It took a lot of measuring and a lot of calculations, but it worked! I am very happy with the results.
condo sized gallery wall
If you have a lot of photos that you would like to display, I would highly suggest you show them off in a gallery wall!
small room gallery wall
square frame gallery wall