Chicken Teriyaki Bowl With Rice (Beef & Veggie Options)
Chicken teriyaki bowl has white rice, fresh veggies, and a delicious homemade teriyaki sauce. This easy recipe is a great option for weeknight dinners. It’s gluten free and dairy free with a veggie option.
Looking for more easy dinners? Try my gluten free general Tso’s chicken, nasi goreng kampung, or pineapple chicken fried rice.
What You’ll Love About This Recipe
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this chicken teriyaki bowl:
- Ground chicken.
- Bell peppers – orange, yellow, or red bell pepper.
- Snap peas.
- Shredded carrots.
- Cooked rice – either white or brown rice. I love white Jasmine rice or coconut lime rice, which goes well with these quick teriyaki chicken rice bowls.
- Teriyaki sauce – low-sodium soy sauce or tamari, pineapple juice, maple syrup, rice vinegar, fresh ginger, garlic, toasted sesame oil, tapioca starch, and water.
- Green onions or black sesame seeds – to garnish.
How to Make A Teriyaki Bowl: Step By Step
Here are some quick visual instructions. The full instructions and ingredient list will be in the printable recipe card below!
1. Make the sauce. Make the slurry by whisking together the starch and water in a small bowl until the starch has completely dissolved. In a medium bowl, add all sauce ingredients along with the slurry. Whisk to combine and set aside.
2. Saute the vegetables. Heat a large skillet over medium heat with avocado or olive oil. Add the chopped bell peppers and snap peas into the hot pan and cook for 2-3 minutes until lightly cooked. Remove the veggies from the skillet.
3. Cook the chicken. Cook the ground chicken until no pink remains. Remove from the skillet using a slotted spoon.
4. Thicken the sauce. Pour the sauce into the skillet and allow it to reduce for a few minutes to thicken, stirring frequently (there will be extra sauce in the skillet to drizzle over the vegetables and rice). Stir the cooked chicken into the teriyaki sauce and remove from the heat.
5. Assemble. Place rice in the bottom of a bowl followed by the cooked chicken and vegetables on top, drizzling extra sauce over the top. Garnish with sliced green onions or toasted sesame seeds.
Helpful Tips
- Cut the veggies into bite-size pieces. This allows for a quick saute time and also makes them easier to eat.
- Prefer a sweeter teriyaki sauce? Add another tablespoon of sweetener until you reach your desired flavor.
- Want to make a teriyaki marinade? Leave out the slurry.
Quick Tip: The sauce is ready when it easily coats the back of a spoon.
Storage
Store extra teriyaki sauce in a separate airtight container from the leftover chicken and vegetables for up to 5 days in the fridge. Toss together just before reheating.
Make It Your Way: Substitutions & Variations
Please remember that recipes are just a starting point.
How can you make this teriyaki chicken bowl using what you already have? Here are some ideas…
- No ground chicken? – you can make your own by pulsing boneless skinless chicken breasts or boneless skinless chicken thighs in a food processor until you have ground chicken, but you can also use ground pork or ground beef.
- Make it soy free – make my soy-free teriyaki sauce with coconut aminos.
- No maple syrup? – use honey, brown sugar, or coconut sugar.
- Use any of your favorite vegetables – such as bok choy, thinly sliced cabbage, kale, broccoli, cucumber, etc.
- Make it vegetarian – use tofu or edamame in place of the chicken.
- Add-ins – red pepper flakes, pickled cucumbers or Sunomono, fresh pineapple, quick pickled vegetables, cauliflower rice, etc.
Variations
- Teriyaki Salmon Bowls – use salmon instead of chicken and bake for 10-15 minutes in a 400ºF oven.
- Beef Teriyaki Bowls – use flank steak, skirt steak, or sirloin. Thinly slice the beef and let it sit in a few tablespoons of the teriyaki sauce to absorb all the flavors. Then quickly stir fry it in a large skillet with the vegetables.
- Tofu Teriyaki Bowls – use tofu as the protein. Press it to remove as much moisture then cut it into cubes or crumble it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Authentic teriyaki sauce is made using soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake.
To thicken teriyaki sauce, you have to make a slurry by whisking together some type of starch with cold water until it dissolves before you pour it with the rest of the ingredients. The addition of heat activates the starch and helps to thicken the sauce.
When you make your own teriyaki sauce, you can control the sweetness and keep the ingredients simple. Store bought teriyaki sauce can be sickly sweet since many brands use high fructose corn syrup to sweeten it. It also contains preservatives and other filler ingredients.
More Easy Dinners
I hope you love this Chicken Teriyaki Bowl! If you make it, be sure to leave a comment & a star rating so I know how you liked it!
Chicken Teriyaki Bowl With Rice (Beef & Veggie Options)
Ingredients
Teriyaki Sauce
- ½ cup low sodium soy sauce or tamari use gluten free if needed
- ½ cup pineapple juice
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 inch piece of ginger grated
Slurry
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- 1 tablespoon tapioca starch
Bowls
- 2 tablespoon olive oil or avocado oil divided
- 2 small red, orange, or yellow bell peppers cut into bite size pieces
- 1 cup sugar snap peas sliced
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 pound ground chicken or substitute, see below
- kosher salt
- freshly cracked black pepper
- cooked rice
Instructions
- Make the sauce. Make the slurry by whisking together the starch and water in a small bowl until the starch has completely dissolved. In a medium bowl, add all sauce ingredients along with the slurry. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- Saute the vegetables (optional). Heat a large skillet over medium heat with 1 tablespoon of avocado or olive oil. Add the chopped bell peppers and snap peas (I like leaving the carrots raw) into the hot pan and cook for 2-3 minutes until lightly cooked. Remove the veggies from the skillet.
- Cook the chicken. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil and the ground chicken. Season with kosher salt and a few cracks of black pepper. Cook until no pink remains then remove from the skillet using a slotted spoon.
- Thicken the sauce. Pour the sauce into the skillet and allow it to reduce for a few minutes to thicken, stirring frequently (there will be extra sauce in the skillet to drizzle over the vegetables and rice). Stir the cooked chicken into the teriyaki sauce and remove from the heat.
- Assemble. Place rice in the bottom of a bowl followed by the cooked chicken and vegetables on top, drizzling extra sauce over the top. Garnish with sliced green onions or toasted sesame seeds.