Chicken Teriyaki--hear me roar!

Do you ever get in a culinary rut?  You realize suddenly that you are stuck making the same things day after day and you just get bored.  That has been my lot as of late.  Culinary boredom...(insert snore here)...but actually, otherwise life has been kind of CrAzY.  Lots of change and meeting new faces and trying new adventures.  Especially for my five year old who recently had a late start to Kindergarten.  Now our lives revolve around bus schedules and after-school play dates and it has been a crazy fun month.

Spending so much time each week waiting around for the school bus has made for some new mom friends for me :)  I have two wonderful ladies who pick up their kids with me each day and I enjoy our daily visits.  Recently, they were both sharing Japanese cuisine that they love and suddenly I NEEDED to eat some Teriaki Chicken...which is unusual for me.  I have never attempted anything Asian.  It was a "light bulb" moment for me and I have since been using my wonderful family as guinea pigs as I have worked out the perfect Teriaki Chicken recipe.

I personally think that I NAILED IT, but you may judge differently.  Either way it cured my boredom and suddenly I feel like a Kitchen Wonder :)  Now I just have to resist the temptation to make this every day.  And the family all loves it too...I am homemaker, hear me roar! Here's to new recipes and new friends!

The RECIPE I used to start my experiment was from the FOOD Network (aren't they great).  However, I ended up changing quite bit so I have posted my revised version below.

CHICKEN TERIYAKI

1/2 cup mirin (sweet Japanese rice wine)
1/4 cup soy sauce
4-5 Tbsp brown sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
3 tsp grated fresh ginger root
Splash sesame oil
3-4 chicken breasts, cut into bit-sized pieces
1 tsp peanut oil
1/2 chicken broth*

Combine the mirin, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger root and sesame oil in air tight dish that you can steep the chicken in.  Add the prepared chicken pieces and leave for 15 minutes.
Heat the peanut oil in a frying pan over medium heat.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken pieces from the marinade to the pan.  Saute them until they look cooked on the outside.
Add the marinade to the chicken pieces and bring to a bubble, then turn down the heat to a gentle simmer, put the lid on and cook for about 5 minutes.  (I cut the chicken pieces even smaller as I stir and check to see if they are cooked through, the smaller the pieces the tastier)
Remove the cooked pieces with the slotted spoon and turn the heat up in the pan to let the liquid boil down to a thick dark syrup. *This is where I added the 1/2 cup chicken broth.
Return the chicken pieces back to the pan, stir well so that all the chicken pieces are coated in the sticky savory syrup.  Serve over a pile of rice with steamed veggies!

AND for the rice, I tried my best to imitate the Ham Fried Rice from a local Chinese restaurant we loved growing up.

Perpare rice however you like it...I  used
1 cup uncooked rice
2 cups water

Saute
1 cup cubed ham (cut small)
2-3 bunches chopped green onion

Scramble 2 eggs and toss it all together.  It's pretty tasty.