This Sous Vide Teriyaki Chicken recipe features juicy, tender chicken coated with an irresistible, homemade teriyaki glaze. It's so easy to make and only takes an hour of cooking time. Sit back and relax while your sous vide does all the hard work.
Can't get enough of sous vide recipes? Try my Sous Vide Char Siu, Sous Vide Hainan Chicken, and Sous Vide Sesame Chicken next!
I can't believe nobody told me sooner about Sous Vide Chicken Teriyaki! It's quickly becoming one of my favorite ways to cook chicken using sous vide. We start by marinating the chicken in teriyaki sauce before cooking it in a water bath. The teriyaki sauce in the bag combines with the leftover chicken juices, which we reduce to create a flavorful sauce that bursts with umami.
My teriyaki sauce only requires four ingredients, but it tastes just like the authentic ones you get from Japan! Keep reading to learn all my secrets for making the best sous vide teriyaki chicken.
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🐔 Why you'll love this recipe
- Easy - Aside from a short broiling step at the end, all the cooking is done by the sous vide cooker, so there's no need to monitor the chicken constantly.
- Fool-proof - Sous vide cooking is the most fool-proof method for cooking meat because the temperature of the meat never exceeds the water bath, eliminating any risks of overcooking.
- The juiciest chicken ever - Sous vide results in the juiciest chicken ever, period. When meat is cooked at a lower temperature, fewer juices are squeezed out, resulting in juicier meat.
- Flavorful - The teriyaki sauce has so much flavor you'll want to drizzle it on everything. The soy sauce, mirin, and miso add so much umami and complexity.
🍳 What you'll need
- Immersion circulator - I recommend using the Anova Nano Precision Cooker. It's really easy to use, and I've never had any issues. You simply attach it to a container filled with water and then turn it on.
- Zipper-lock or vacuum-sealable bag - If you use a zipper-lock bag, I recommend Ziplock Large Freezer Bags; they're durable and can withstand the temperature of the water bath.
- Vacuum sealer (if using vacuum-sealable bags) - I highly recommend the FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer Machine; I bought mine at Costco and use it almost weekly for water bath cooking and storage. I use the Kirkland-branded vacuum bags, which are much cheaper than the ones by FoodSaver.
🧂 Ingredients
- Chicken legs (or chicken breasts or chicken thighs) - Use bone-in and skin-on chicken for the best results; the meat near the bones has the most flavor, and the skin helps keep the meat moist and tender. We broil the skin at the end to crisp it up and add flavor through browning.
- Soy sauce - Provides saltiness and umami to the teriyaki sauce.
- White Sugar (or brown sugar) - Provides sweetness, balancing the salty and savory flavors from the other ingredients.
- Mirin - A sweet Japanese cooking wine. It has a syrupy texture and adds sweetness and depth of flavor to dishes.
- Miso (optional) - Use any "color" of miso. Adds umami and complexity to the sauce.
- Cornstarch - Just a little bit to thicken the sauce after it's been cooked with the chicken. We want the teriyaki sauce to be a glaze-like consistency so it clings onto the chicken with every bite.
- Water - Mixed with the cornstarch to create a cornstarch slurry. If you add cornstarch directly to a sauce, it will clump up and not thicken properly.
🔪 Instructions
Step 1. Teriyaki Sauce
Combine soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and miso in a saucepan over medium-high heat and stir continuously until the sugar dissolves. Set aside to cool slightly for 5 minutes.
Step 2. Marinate
Place the chicken legs in a zipper-lock bag or vacuum-sealable bag and add the teriyaki sauce. Close the bag and refrigerate the bagged chicken for at least 45 minutes and up to 4 hours.
To close the bag, use one of the methods below:
Zipper-lock bag method: Seal the bag but leave the last inch of the top open to let the air out. Slowly lower the bag into a container of water and completely seal it just before submerging. Here's a video showing how to do the zipper-lock water displacement method.
Vacuum bag method: Seal it according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Step 2. Cook
Preheat a water bath to 150℉. Cook for 1 hour per 1-inch thickness of the meat. For chicken legs, this is usually between 1-2 hours. Refer to this handy guide by Serious Eats: Sous Vide Chicken Temperature Guide.
Step 3. Reduce sauce
Remove the chicken from the water bath and bag. Carefully pat the chicken dry with paper towels and allow it to rest for 10 minutes to help the proteins relax and the meat become juicier.
Pour the leftover liquid from the cooking bag into a saucepan and cook it over medium-high heat until it's simmering. Make a cornstarch slurry with 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and 1 teaspoon of water, and mix it in until thickened.
The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Step 4. Broil chicken
Preheat the broiler to 500℉. Place chicken legs, skin-side up, on a roasting rack and brush a thin layer of oil on the tops. Broil for 2-3 minutes until skin is crispy and brown in some spots.
Serve chicken legs with rice, lemon wedges, and drizzle teriyaki sauce on top.
💭 Top Tips
- Consider double bagging the chicken if you're using a zipper-lock bag. I find zipper-lock bags to be more prone to leaking during cooking.
- Don't marinate the chicken for more than 4 hours. The marinade is quite strong, so if it marinates for too long, it'll become too salty.
- Allow the chicken to cool for at least 10 minutes before roasting so fewer juices are lost during the broiling step.
- Add in the cornstarch slurry a bit at a time so you don't over-thicken the sauce. If you over-thicken it, add more water.
👩🏻🍳 Substitutions
- Mirin - If you don't have mirin, you can substitute it with two teaspoons of rice wine vinegar and one teaspoon of sugar.
👨🏻🍳 Variations
- Whole chicken - You can use a whole chicken instead of legs. Follow the instructions here on how to butterfly a chicken, then follow the recipe as directed.
- Garlic - Add one tablespoon of minced or grated garlic to the teriyaki sauce before marinating the chicken.
- Ginger - Add two teaspoons of minced grated ginger to the teriyaki sauce before marinating the chicken.
🥡 Storage & Leftovers
Storing: Store leftover Sous Vide Teriyaki Chicken in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Leftover teriyaki sauce that hasn't been in contact with the chicken can last up to 1 month in the fridge.
Reheating: Reheat leftovers by baking for 5-7 minutes at 350℉ until warmed through. Or bag everything up and place it in the water bath, and reheat at 145℉ for 30 minutes.
📖 Recipe FAQs
Chicken can be made even more juicy and tender by marinating it before sous vide cooking. I recommend marinating chicken for at least 45 minutes to give the marinade enough time to penetrate the meat.
The salt will denature some of the meat's proteins, resulting in less moisture loss during the cooking. Leaving the marinade in the bag will result in more flavorful meat.
Depending on the temperature you select and the thickness of the chicken, the cooking time will vary. Generally, chicken legs need to be cooked for 1-2 hours at a temperature between 150°F and 165°F.
Yes, you can use frozen chicken, but you'll need to add an additional hour of cooking time to make sure the chicken is cooked through.
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📋 Recipe
Sous Vide Teriyaki Chicken
Equipment
- 1 immersion circulator
- 1 vacuum sealer (optional)
Ingredients
- 4 chicken legs (skin-on, bone-in) (or any combination of thighs, drumsticks, or wings)
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil (for brushing on the chicken before broiling)
- lemon wedges (for serving)
Cornstarch slurry
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon water
Instructions
- Combine soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and miso in a saucepan over medium-high heat and stir continuously until the sugar dissolves. Set it aside and let it cool slightly for 5 minutes.
- Place the chicken legs in a zipper-lock bag or vacuum-sealable bag and add the teriyaki sauce. Close the bag and refrigerate the bagged chicken for at least 45 minutes and up to 4 hours. To close the bag, use one of the methods below:Zipper-lock bag method: Seal the bag but leave the last inch of the top open to let the air out. Slowly lower the bag into a container of water and completely seal it just before it submerges. Here's a video showing how to do the zipper-lock water displacement method.Vacuum bag method: Seal it according to the manufacturer's instructions
- Preheat a water bath to 150℉. Cook for 1 hour per 1-inch thickness of the meat. For chicken legs, this is usually between 1-2 hours.
- Remove the chicken from the water bath and bag. Carefully pat the chicken dry with paper towels and allow it to rest for 10 minutes. During this time, you can thicken the teriyaki sauce and chicken juices.
- Pour the leftover liquid from the cooking bag into a saucepan and cook it over medium-high heat until it's simmering. Make a cornstarch slurry with 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and 1 teaspoon of water, and mix it in slowly until thickened.
- Preheat the broiler to 500℉. Place chicken legs, skin-side up, on a roasting rack and brush a thin layer of oil on the tops. Broil for 2-3 minutes until skin is crispy and brown in some spots.
- Serve chicken legs with rice, lemon wedges, and drizzle teriyaki sauce on top.
Notes
- Consider double bagging the chicken if you're using a zipper-lock bag. I find zipper-lock bags to be more prone to leaking during cooking.
- Don't marinate the chicken for more than 4 hours. The marinade is quite strong, so if it marinates for too long, it'll become too salty.
- Allow the chicken to cool for at least 10 minutes before broiling so fewer juices are lost.
- Add in the cornstarch slurry a little bit at a time so that you don't over-thicken the sauce. If you over-thicken it, add more water.
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