Hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to deconstructing Americanized Chinese cuisine with a shot at a request that’s been floating around for some time now, which is the chicken teriyaki rice bowl from PF Chang’s. For those new to the channel, in this series, we have been deconstructing iconically Americanized dishes from Chinese and/or pan-asian cuisine, and then seeing what it might look like if we were to cook the dish through the lens of more traditional wok cooking. PF Chang’s chicken teriyaki bowl as the name implies prominently features a grilled and sliced chicken breast, combined with pineapple, red bell pepper, and of course, teriyaki sauce. The dish is in fact so popular that it is sold in the frozen foods isle of many grocery stores, but I’m fairly confident that we can do at least a little bit better than that, though.
For our version today, we’re gonna make use of some canned pineapple, because, as anyone who has made a pina colada before can tell you, this stuff is canned in a sweet syrupy pineapple juice, which is exactly what we need to make our own sweet and savory pineapple-teriyaki sauce today. Then finally rounding this out, we’re also going to assemble our rice bowl in the wok as a sort of chicken teriyaki fried rice of sorts, which is gonna give our rice a slightly crispy finish as well. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
3 green onions
1 red bell pepper
1 can pineapple (about 12oz dry weight)
3 medium chicken thighs
2 cups leftover rice
corn starch slurry (2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in water
sesame seed
peanut oil
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/4 cup mirin
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
PREP
CRUSH and mince 4 cloves of garlic, set aside
MINCE ginger, set aside
SEPARATE the whites and greens of the green onions, then slice both thinly and set aside
LARGE DICE the bell pepper, set aside
LARGE DICE the chicken thigh, set aside
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, then add about half to the chicken thigh and let marinate for 30 minutes
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a wok as hot as possible, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the chicken to the wok, holding back as much liquid as possible, then let sear for 2.5 minutes undisturbed
TOSS the chicken and tilt the wok downward toward the open flame for wok hei (optional)
SAUTE the chicken for an additional minute until cooked through, then remove
ADD the remaining sauce mixture to the wok and deglaze the residual fond left behind
REDUCE for about 5 minutes over medium heat until about 30% reduced, then add the corn starch slurry and stir until a thick sauce forms
REMOVE the teriyaki sauce, then wipe down the wok, reheat, add an additional 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the garlic, ginger, and whites of the green onions and toss for 15 seconds until fragrant
ADD the bell pepper to the wok and saute for 2-3 minutes
ADD the pineapple solids to the wok and saute for an additional 1 minute
ADD the leftover rice to the wok, then use the spatula to break up any clumps of rice
TOSS for 2-3 minutes, then remove
SERVE with pineapple fried rice and chicken, and finish with teriyaki sauce, sesame seed, and greens of green onions