Teriyaki Chicken Skewers

Use chicken thighs for juicier results. Soak wooden skewers 30 minutes to prevent burning. Reserve some sauce for glazing after cooking. Grill over medium-high, turning and glazing frequently. The sauce should caramelize but not burn.

Teriyaki derives from two Japanese words that describe both a technique and its visible result: teri (照り), meaning the shiny gloss or luster produced by the glaze, and yaki (焼き), meaning to grill, broil, or fry. The technique — cooking fish or meat coated in soy sauce, mirin, and sugar and grilling until a lacquered, caramelized surface develops — is documented in Japanese culinary texts from the Edo Period (1603–1868), when soy sauce production became industrialized in Japan. The flavor profile of the teriyaki glaze reflects the Japanese principle of umami, identified by chemist Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University in 1908 as the fifth fundamental taste, produced by glutamate in soy sauce, mirin, and the Maillard products of the caramelized glaze. Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii beginning in 1868 as plantation workers and in increasing numbers after the Meiji government encouraged emigration to Hawaii from the 1880s onward; they brought their soy-based cooking traditions with them. The blending of these traditions with local Hawaiian ingredients and the American barbecue techniques of the islands created the Hawaiian-American teriyaki style. Seattle's emergence as a teriyaki hub — Japanese-American restaurants serving teriyaki chicken over rice became a Seattle institution from the 1970s onward — helped spread the preparation across the Pacific Northwest and nationally.