Asian food without the delivery

One of my favorite things to do on a day off is to order Chinese food and veg in front of the television with the fiance. Unfortunately, ordering out is getting expensive, so last night I decided to make chicken teriyaki. Sadly, I had no teriyaki sauce, but never fear good readers - food blogs to the rescue. Apparently you can make your own teriyaki sauce with a few basic ingredients that most home cooks have on hand. Deborah Harroun at Taste and Tell shows you (and me) how.

Teriyaki Sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
5 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1-2 tablespoons honey
Chicken (or other protein)

Vegetables (whatever you want, but onions, carrots, peppers, broccoli and water chestnuts are a good mix)

Rice

First begin making your rice. As the rice is cooking, mix the first five ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to a boil. As the sauce is boiling, begin cooking chicken (or beef or pork or any other protein) with whatever mix of vegetables you prefer. Once sauce is at your desired thickness, bring heat down and cover. When the chicken is halfway done, add the half of the sauce. Cover and simmer until chicken is cooked. When finished, spoon chicken-veggie mixture over rice and then pour a little of the reserved sauce on top.

*A few tips: The thing I hate most about teriyaki is how sickeningly sweet it tends to be. I cut that by halving the amount of brown sugar and adding a splash of vinegar and a few dashes of basic hot sauce (I have Cholula) into the mix. Deborah recommends thickening your sauce with cornstarch. I like a thinner sauce so I didn't bother with that.