You’ll love this quick and easy teriyaki chicken, naturally sweetened with fresh orange and honey. Made in just 30 minutes, this is perfect for busy days. Jump to the recipe for Honey Ginger Teriyaki Chicken or read on to see how we make it.

More teriyaki recipes. Try our Homemade Teriyaki Marinade or this Crave-worthy Teriyaki Chicken.
How to make Teriyaki Chicken at home
The genius of this recipe is that the marinade for the chicken doubles as a sauce. It’s made with soy sauce, ginger, and fresh orange juice. Thanks to this quick marinade and quick prep time, you! you can make teriyaki chicken in about 30 minutes.

In our choice of chicken, we use chicken thighs. If you’ve been following the blog, you may already know that we like to use chicken thighs. They’re more flavorful and tender than chicken breasts. But that doesn’t mean chicken breasts don’t work in this recipe.
Additional recipes where we call for chicken thighs. Try our Easy Lemon Chicken Thighs or this Juicy and tender minced chicken
Honey and Orange Spicy Teriyaki Chicken
The marinade doubles as a sauce for cooked chicken. To prepare our chicken teriyaki marinade, add the following ingredients to a bowl:
- Soy sauce that seasons chicken and is an important ingredient in teriyaki sauce.
- Honey, which adds natural sweetness to the marinade and sauce. It also helps make the sauce thick and shiny after cooking.
- Ginger adds flavor and a bit of spice.
- Mirin is another traditional ingredient when making teriyaki. It’s a sweet rice wine used in Japanese cooking. If you can’t find miri, we’ve suggested substitutions in the recipe below.
- Toasted sesame oil adds nuttiness and umami (flavor) to the marinade/sauce.
Marinate the chicken for at least 15 minutes. You can marinate longer; the chicken will only get better.
After marinating, remove the chicken from the marinade and add it to the hot pan. Cook the chicken until light golden brown on all sides, then pour in the marinade. Continue cooking until the marinade is glossy, thick and coats the chicken.


More. You can also enjoy our quick and easy sauce mixing made with fresh garlic and ginger!
Recipe updated, originally posted in 2012. Since posting this in December 2012, we’ve tweaked the recipe to make it clearer
Honey Ginger Teriyaki Chicken
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You’ll love this quick and easy teriyaki chicken, naturally sweetened with fresh orange and honey.Made in just 30 minutes, it’s perfect for busy days.
Makes 4 servings
You will need it
1/4 cup (60 mL) low-sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup (80 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice, of 3 small oranges
3 tablespoons of pure honey
1 tablespoon of finely grated fresh ginger, about 1 inch piece of fresh ginger
2 tablespoons mirin, see note
1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil
1 3/4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1 tablespoon high heat oil recommended: avocado oil or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of orange peel optional
Directions:
1:In a medium bowl, combine the soy sauce, orange juice, honey, ginger, mirin, and sesame oil.
2:Cut the chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces, then add to the marinade. Let marinate for 15 to 20 minutes.
3:Heat the oil in a large pot or wok over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, remove the chicken from the marinade with a slotted spoon. Reserve the marinade for later.
4:Cook the chicken, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned on all sides, then add the marinade and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the lid, then check if the chicken is cooked. If it is, remove the chicken to a clean bowl. Let the marinade cook for 1-3 minutes, then pour the chicken over the orange peel.
Advice from Adam and Joan
- Use a fine microplane to grate the ginger. If you don’t have a microplane, you can grind the ginger. If you do this, make sure the ginger is cut into very small pieces.
- In this recipe we use miri. It is a Japanese sweet rice wine. You can usually find it in the international aisle of larger grocery stores. Mirin is a sweet rice wine used in Japanese cooking. It not only adds flavor to this recipe, it also adds a sheen to the dry sherry wine, dry white wine, and rice vinegar are good substitutes, but you may find that you need to add more honey to the sauce.
If you make this recipe, take a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations Instagram: and: Facebook! Find us @inspiredtaste
Nutrition per serving
Serving size
1/4 of the recipe
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Calories
370
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Total fat
12.8 g
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Saturated fats
2.8 g
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Cholesterol
186.4 mg
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Sodium
653.5 mg
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Carbohydrate
21.2 g
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Dietary fiber
0.3 g
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Total sugars
18.8 g
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Total protein
40.4 g