Chicken Teriyaki Pizza is another of the long list of favored pizza flavors and combinations that has endeared itself in our hearts. No oven Chicken Teriyaki Pizza is a combination of pizza loaded with chicken simmered in sweet and savory teriyaki sauce, a mouthful of cheese in each bite, crispy bacon bits, and cilantro for a pop of color.

What is Chicken Teriyaki?

Teriyaki is a Japanese method of cooking in a soy sauce based sauce, with “Teri” meaning gloss or gloss made by simmering in sugar. While “yaki” is a method of grilling. Teriyaki sauce is often a mix of soy sauce, sugar, sake and mirin, thickened with flour, potato starch, or cornstarch. The teriyaki sauce is typically used in Japanese cooking especially for fish and chicken. Though Teriyaki is commonly associated with Japanese cuisine. The practice of cooking fish and meat with this mix of sauce has a long history dating back to a hundred years. This used to be called “Amakarayaki” which meant ‘sweet and salty grilled’, “Yamatoni” or simmered ‘Yamato style’, or “Kannroni” which literaly translate to ‘simmered in sweet nectar’. The teriyaki sauce recipe we commonly use and eat originated in Hawaii when Japanese immigrants mixed local cuisine like sugar or pineapple juice in their marinade. This became popular in the 1960’s United States with the rise of Japanese restaurants. This is so popular that there are a variety of teriyaki sauce all bottled up and sold in groceries, and other Asian markets for convenience, cooked with all kinds of meats like chicken, pork, beef and fish, and even added in other renditions as the teriyaki burger, teriyaki pizza, meatballs, and as a side of dipping sauce.

The method of preparation and what makes Teriyaki sauce different?

While the usual mix of soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar with all equal mixes creates the well known sauce or marinade that makes anything delicious, additions like garlic, ginger, and for a spicy take, gochujang, these are added to create variety and is almost always garnished with leeks or spring onions for color and additional flavor. The key ingredients to make this a uniquely Japanese sauce are the mirin and sake. While both of these ingredients are both commonly found in Japanese cooking these have slight differences. Mirin is a rice wine with high sugar content and low alcohol content, with the sugar content made naturally during the fermented process. Sake is seen as an alcoholic drink made by fermenting rice polished to remove the bran, but cooking sake which we’ll be using in this recipe and is used in most cooking recipes is it’s salt content, cooking sake has salt to not only flavor the dish but helps tenderize and remove unwanted smells and flavors.

Why add Chicken Teriyaki in Pizza?

While chicken teriyaki is usually seen as a rice topping that everyone loves. As a pizza topping chicken teriyaki just hits that sweet and savory feel that compliments the cheesy pizza dough, especially the excess sauce that gives it all the more richness. It combines the best of bother worlds and gives the dish a nice change from your usual greasy and cheesy pizzas.

Chicken teriyaki is not only a well-known rice topping, it also works well over pizza. Who knew? Try out this No Oven Chicken Teriyaki Pizza today!