Is Teriyaki Chicken Healthy? (Low Calorie Teriyaki Chicken Recipe)

Teriyaki chicken is a classic Japanese favorite that consists of juicy chicken coated in a sweet and umami teriyaki sauce. It's simplicity and tastiness makes it an easy dish to make at home. While teriyaki chicken is definitely delicious, but is teriyaki chicken healthy?

Teriyaki can be a very healthy dish given that it predominantly consists of protein from the chicken and a manageable amount of carbs from the sauce ingredients -- a serving of teriyaki chicken is only 321 calories with 45 grams of protein, 20 grams of fat, and 13 grams of carbs, following the recipe and portioning below. However, the key to making this dish help rather than hinder progress towards your fitness goals is portioning high calorie ingredients mindfully and choosing the right cut of chicken.

🍎 Calories and Nutrition – Is Teriyaki Chicken Healthy?

To understand the calorie and nutrition content of Teriyaki Chicken, it’s useful to look at the core ingredients that make up teriyaki chicken.Teriyaki Chicken is made of two main components: the chicken and the teriyaki sauce.It is often paired with a side of vegetables and rice to make a well-balanced meal, so we'll take a look at how that affects the nutritional content of the meal as well.

• Chicken: Teriyaki chicken can be served with any type or cut of chicken. If your goal is to keep calorie count low, using a skinless boneless cut of chicken thigh or chicken breast is ideal. Skin-on chicken thigh adds about an additional 100 calories for a 4 ounce serving of chicken thigh predominantly from fats, so it's best to opt for skinless cuts to keep calories low.
• Teriyaki Sauce: Teriyaki sauce traditionally consists of soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, minced ginger and minced onion. Some recipes also include honey, cornstarch, or fruit juices to enhance the flavor and create a thicker consistency. While most of the sauce ingredients are at a manageable calorie count while portioned right, honey, sake, and cornstarch can easily add up in calories given that they are relatively calorie dense. For purposes of minimizing the calorie content of the sauce, it's best to use a small portion of these ingredients or omit them all together.
• Vegetables: Whether it be broccoli, brussel sprouts, or cucumbers, vegetables make a great side dish to teriyaki chicken without adding a significant amount of calories.
• Rice: Rice is often served with chicken teriyaki to make a well-rounded meal. While there’s nothing wrong with eating carbs, carbs can easily add up in calories if not portioned mindfully, so it’s best to be intentional with the amount of rice being consumed. I'd recommend using about 1 serving of brown rice (at about additional 160 calories) if desired.

Looking at each component, it’s easy to see that teriyaki chicken can easily be made to be a high calorie and high fat dish if the chicken and sauce are not chosen or portioned correctly, making it less than ideal for dieting purposes. However, it’s not hard to make it low calorie and macro conscious — this recipe will show you some tweaks that will make teriyaki chicken easy to fit into a fitness-oriented diet.

🍏 How to Make It Healthy – The Fitsian Method

In this recipe, I used portioning and mindful ingredient choices to make it lower in calories. Here are some key tweaks I made:

• Used 8 ounces of boneless skinless chicken thigh for a lean protein source

• Portioned the sauce following the traditional Japanese style recipe using Just One Cookbook's formula while omitting the sake -- following the portioning below, the sauce ingredients come out to be only 60 calories

For a detailed breakdown of each ingredients, their portioning, and how they make up the nutrition profile of this low calorie teriyaki chicken recipe, you may refer to the table below:

Tips and Tricks

What is chicken teriyaki sauce made of?

Traditionally, chicken teriyaki sauce is made of soy sauce, mirin and sugar. Many recipes also add in cornstarch, honey, or fruit juices to enhance the flavor and thicken the sauce. For the purposes of keeping calories low, I've stuck with the traditional recipe for the sauce. By cooking the chicken in the sauce, I've found that the sauce will naturally glaze onto the chicken, creating a delicious flavor.

Do I need to marinade the chicken beforehand?

You can but you don't have to, especially if you're like me and like to decide what to eat last minute. In fact, the traditional Japanese cooking method has you cook the chicken first before glazing on the sauce and it tastes just as good, if not better. The recipe below will walk you through how to do this.

What vegetables are good with teriyaki chicken?

Broccoli is a popular vegetable side for teriyaki chicken. Other great options include roasted brussel sprouts (my personal favorite), cucumbers, or some stir fried vegetable medley of carrots, mushrooms, and onions.

Can I use other types of protein beside chicken?

Teriyaki is also delicious with other types of protein including shrimp, beef, and salmon. For the purposes of keeping of keeping calorie count of the dish low, it's best to opt for shrimp or protein. Salmon and beef are also great options, but are proteins that tend to be more calorie dense given its higher fat content. They're completely fine to eat, but just keep portion control in mind. 

If you liked this recipe, check out the following:

• Thai Basil Chicken recipe -- a simple Thai chicken stir fry dish
• Check out my Oyakodon Recipe for a classic Japanese chicken rice bowl dish
• Japanese Izakaya Style Recipe Collection for more of my favorite Japanese recipes made low calorie and protein-packed
• 30 Healthy Japanese Recipes for more low calorie and high protein Japanese recipe ideas

📋 Ingredient Notes

Teriyaki Sauce

• 1 tablespoon Soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Water
• ½ tablespoon Mirin
• ½ tablespoon Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Ginger, grated
• 1 tablespoon Yellow onion, grated

Teriyaki Chicken

• 8oz Chicken thigh, boneless skinless
• 1 clove Garlic
• Salt and pepper
• Sesame seeds, scallions (For garnish)

🔪 Step by Step Instructions

1. Begin by mincing the ginger and yellow onion into fine, small pieces. Mix them together in a small bowl alongside with the remaining teriyaki sauce ingredients.
2. Begin to cut the chicken thigh into small, bite-sized pieces, removing any excess fat in the process. Use a food scale to weigh the chicken pieces and cut up enough chicken until you get 8 ounces, or whichever portion size you'd prefer. Cutting off the excess fat removes a decent amount of weight so be sure you are weighing the chicken post-cutting!
3. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.
4. Spray a skillet with cooking spray and add the chicken pieces onto the pan in a single layer. Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side, or until the chicken is cooked and slightly browned.
5. Pour in the teriyaki sauce and let the chicken cook in the sauce -- the pan will begin to sizzle and the sauce will begin to reduce. Cook for about 1-2 minutes and flip the chicken onto the other side. The sauce will begin the glaze on to the chicken pieces.
6. Turn the heat off and toss in the chopped scallions and furikake. Serve with vegetables and rice, or a la carte and enjoy your delicious and healthy chicken teriyaki!