20 Minute Meals: Teriyaki Chicken & Rice

20 Minute Meal Series: When you are short on time do you grab fast food? Who doesn't is a better question. Want to share some quick meals that we use when time is short. In 20 minutes you can have a simple home cooked meal which is healthier, better tasting, and easier on your wallet.

Last night it was snowing and with wind chill it felt was like sub zero temperatures so running to the store wasn't something we wanted to do. Worse we lost track of time and it was already dinner time when my Wife asked "What are we doing for dinner?".

Under pressure I come up with some meals that are simple, quick, and using whatever I have laying around the house. Feel like I'm on an episode of Chopped sometimes. Last night we had a Thawed Chicken Breast that needed to be cooked. Decided on Teriyaki Chicken over rice with mixed veggies. Sorry the photo is of a partial bowl, forgot to take a photo of the finished dish.

Meal served 2 adults and 2 kids with no leftovers

Prep Time: 7 minutes Cooking Time: 13 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound Boneless Chicken Breast (It's what we had thawed, but Thighs would be best)
2 bags of Boil In Bag White Rice makes 2 cups of Cooked Rice (going for speed and simplicity)
Used 1 package of mixed frozen vegetables (it's what we had, see notes at bottom)
1/3 cup of Cooking Rice Wine or Rice Vinegar
2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon of Sugar (I have kids so actually use a heaping Tablespoon to sweeten it a little)
Cooking Oil
Salt

Prep Work
Prep is simple and actually took me around 3 minutes, but I'm good with the knife and know where everything is.

1. Get your water boiling first. This takes the longest time of everything.
2. Get the Oil Heating up on a Med-High heat for Pan Frying the Chicken, or Start your Grill
3. Trim your Chicken and Cut so it's max 1/2 inch thick.
   1. Use a Meat Hammer or rolling pin to pound the meat to an even thickness. It will cook evenly and be more moist this way.
4. Salt your Chicken on both sides.
5. Put the veggies in the microwave ready to cook, or if you prefer to boil refer to step 1
6. Put small sauce pan on medium heat for Teriyaki Sauce

Cooking:
It's time to start cooking once your water is boiling and the oil is hot.

Start with the Teriyaki Sauce as you need 10-12 minutes. In the pan you just put on the burner add your Rice Wine (or Rice Vinegar), Soy Sauce, and sugar. Make sure to stir every couple minutes to avoid hot spots. Goal is to thicken up the sauce. This should be a simmer, not a boil.

Next get your Chicken Started. The Oil should be hot and may spit a little when adding the cold chicken. Once the Chicken is added put a cover on the pan to keep cleanup easier ;) . It should take about 10-12 minutes cook time

Time to drop the Bags of Rice in, the water should be at a boil. I should of used a bigger pot, this one was splashing over a little as it boiled.

Don't forget the Veggies. Mine needed 3:30 to cook so started them with around 5 minutes left on the timer. Going to use a steamed mixed veggie bag next time. Needed more veggies then this mix gave.

Once the meat finished cooking I quickly pulled it, drained the oil and then returned the pan to the heat. Then quickly cube the chicken and return it to the pan. Pour 3/4 of the Teriyaki Sauce over the chicken and mix. This will allow more of the meat to absorb the Sauce. Retain the other 1/4 of the sauce.

Pull the rice and put into bowls. Add your Chicken and Veggies then use the last 1/4 of the Teriyaki Sauce as a drizzle across the top. If you want add White Sesame Seeds for garnish, but they really don't add anything to the dish other then presentation.

Again sorry about my half eaten meal photo at the top, but was kind of rushing. Took me 18 minutes start to finish including taking photos. The end result was a simple meal that even my Super Picky 8 year old loved. Every bowl was completely empty and it was requested that we have this again!

Final Thoughts on this Meal

We will be eating this again with a few changes. Plan to cook with more Veggies and less rice. Also want to use 1/2 Dark Meat and 1/2 Chicken Breast for a little extra flavor.

Also plan to grill the meat one time and see if that makes enough difference to justify the extra running around.

As for the Veggies we used. The mix was good, but had a light seasoning which luckily worked with the dish. When planning ahead I will have a large steamer bag of mixed Veggies that aren't seasoned.

Overall this was a very Easy Recipe with limited cooking skills needed. It's nice being able to incorporate some easy cook items like 10 Minute Boil-in-Bag Rice and a simple bag of froze veggies to make a quick meal that is healthier, better tasting, and less expensive then fast food.

So was it really cheaper then eating out?
Oh yeah, total costs. The Chicken was on sale for $1.88 a pound, Veggies was $1.33, 2 bags of Boil-in-Bag Rice was $1, and the other ingredients will call it $1. It was slightly over a pound of meat so we can use $2.25 for that. Total was $5.58 or $1.40 per person.

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All Photos were taken by me and all rights are reserved.

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