Chicken Teriyaki for Dinner

Today was my food shopping day and as I shop fortnightly, it's always my nightmare day. I used to love it but as the years have rolled by I have disliked it more and more. I think it's the unpacking that I hate so much and the drudgery of cleaning out the fridge and the already overstuffed pantry to make room for more food. Crazy I know, but I like to have ingredients that I might need on hand when I need them. Therefore my pantry is always well overfilled with all sorts of stuff. It's worse if I have to 'pop into' a Chinese supermarket 'for a few things' as the temptation is so strong and my willpower nonexisistent. I hate to think about the stuff I have that gets lost in my pantry and invariably thrown out because I have either forgotten I have it and/or it expires before I can either use it up or even use it at all.

Anyway I digress! The whole point of the paragraph before this was that on food shopping day dinner has to be easy. I often have over ambitious thoughts of what to make while I am out shopping but I know from past experience that by dinner time I'm tired and over it and all the inspiration has gone. Enter in Nigella (yes we really should be on first name basis by now), and her new cookbook 'Kitchen'. I got this a few weeks ago and have only made the muffins in the previous post from it. This recipe caught my eye as soon as I had my first look through it. It had all the things that my boys love....a sweet, sticky and tasty sauce; chicken; rice. Need I say more! It is also very easy and fast to make. I started cooking it at 530pm and dinner was ready but 6pm. The boys ate all of it and kept telling me that this recipe was a make again and when could we have it next? And it really was delicious, in fact better than the teriyaki chicken on rice you can get from St Pierre's by a long shot. We had ours with sushi rice and stir fried sugar snaps. So here's the recipe for all people who want a quick, easy and tasty dinner. Also please excuse the photo but before I remembered to take on dinner had pretty much disappeared.

Chicken Teriyaki (Nigella Lawson 'Kitchen')

2 Tbsp sake (I used the cooking wine from the Japanese section at the supermarket)
4 Tbsp mirin
4 Tbsp soy sauce (I used dark)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp grated ginger
dash of sesame oil
750 gm boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into bite sized pieces
1 tsp grapeseed or plain oil
Steamed sushi rice, and vegetables of your choice

Mix sake, mirin, brown sugar, soy, ginger and sesame oil and marinate the prepared chicken in it for 15 minutes.

Heat the oil in a frypan with a lid. Remove the chicken from the marinade with a slotted spoon and cook the chicken in the hot oil until it starts to look cooked.

Add the marinade to the pan, bring to the boil simmer, covered, for about 5 mins until the chicken is cooked through.

Remove the chicken from the pan and boil the marinade until it goes all thick and syrupy.

Return the chicken to the pan and cover in the syrupy liquid. Serve with the rice and vegetables.