Mar 8, 2010

Terriyaki Chicken: On the Cheap!

Recently a friend lamented about her bill after she bought some chicken terriyaki from a large chain Asian restaurant. While I detest this restaurant for their bland, flavorless food and absurd prices, I thought I'd share a better way to get this dish. The following recipe is both tastier, better for you and cheaper.
I am not a nutritionist or anything so no suing me over the following recipe. I am not paid to endorse any of the following brand names, they just taste good and work for the "Explains It All" family. So buy whatever you want and take the following recipe for cheap-o chicken terriyaki with a grain of rice.

To do this up easy peezy and on the cheap:

Go to the store and buy:
One back of Bridseye "Steam Fresh" white rice with vegetables
One poundish of raw chicken- the Gold'n'Plump tenders kind of rock.
One bottle of your favorite Terriyaki sauce from a big box chain Asian type restaurant ( they all sell their sauces, it is darned right predatory if you ask me!!)
-or, you could stick it to the proverbial man and just buy some terriyaki at the grocery store.

Grab your self a pan you can brown up some chick'n' tenders in, some oil of the flavorless variety ( canola is a good choice) and a spoon/ spatula/ kitchen implement that can get raw chicken and hot fat on it- I highly recommend a wooden spoon and here is why:

Pop those chicken tenders into oil that has been heated to the point where when you put the end of the wooden spoon into the oil you see bubbles. This means it is frying temp.
Brown that chicken up for about brownish minutes. Seriously, when it is golden brown on all sides you should be ready to safely consume the chicken. Or get fancy and use a meat thermometer- whatevs.

Once your chicken is brown and beautiful, lay it to drip dry on some paper towels.
While your chicken is getting a spa treatment on some Bounty, you pop that bag of rice into the nuker and cook it up per the package instructions.
When it dings, carefully dump the rice into two portions/ bowls/ plates.
Toss that chicken on top and pour your terriyaki sauce down on top of the whole mess. Enjoy your sloppy, cheap Terriyaki. Take THAT big chain blandness and your steep price tags too.

I have done this meal a couple of times. The price tag for this meal with the sauce from a restaurant chain- $9 for two portions. Keep in mind there is enough sauce in that bottle to make this meal 4 or so times. If you buy 2 bags of rice, this meal will feed 4 people for about $10.50 total. It really is inexpensive and tasty. The price tag for this meal if you buy terriyaki from the grocery store? About $7.00 for 2 portions, $8.50 for 4. That totally beats $18.00 for two portions at that other crap place or $36.00 for 4 portions just for the pleasure of them doing this same basic thing and bringing it to you on a plate instead of doing it at home.
We tend to eat out when I am too lazy to wash dishes. After doing the math, $9.50 is worth it to me in savings to just wash some dishes and eat at home.

So next time you think of take out to feed your sloppy, starved, out of energy face, think cheap, fast and easy.
Stick it to the man, save your money, eat at home!

1 comments:

Rachel said...

LOVE it!

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