There’s nothing like a simple bowl of rice with saucy chicken and broccoli. It’s simple, balanced, and delicious. Whenever I’ve gotten chicken teriyaki bowls at restaurants, I often find them to be way too sweet, so I created a simpler, lightly sweetened version you can make at home!
Chicken chunks get pan-fried until golden, then the broccoli and sauce get added and cooked into a thick sauce (thanks to the help of tapioca, corn, or arrowroot starch!). It all gets served up with some white or brown rice and topped with lots of scallions and sesame seeds!
Ingredient highlight
Broccoli! This mighty cruciferous veggie is packed full of nutrients like vitamin K, vitamin C, folate, fiber, iron and calcium. It’s also loaded with antioxidant compounds like sulforaphane, kaempferol, and quercetin. Plus, it’s large tree-like flowery heads absorb sauced extremely well, making it one of my favorite veggies for things like stir-fry’s and anything with a sauce or dressing!
Servings 4 People
Prep Time 5 minutes 
Cook Time 12 minutes Ingredients
- 1 cup short grain brown rice or jasmine white rice
- 1 ½ lb boneless skinless chicken thighs (or sub breasts), cut into ½-inch pieces
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 head broccoli cut into small florets (about 3-4 cups)
- 1 bunch scallions green parts thinly sliced
- Sesame seeds for topping
For the teriyaki sauce:
- 1/3 cup soy sauce or tamari
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon tapioca starch, cornstarch or arrowroot starch
- 2 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 3 cloves garlic minced
Instructions
- Cook your brown or white rice according to the instructions (see below).
- In a small bowl, whisk together the sauce ingredients until smooth. Set aside.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add 1 tablespoon oil. Once the oil is hot and shimmering, add half of the chicken pieces and cook, undisturbed, for 2-3 minutes, or until browned. Stir and cook for about 2 more minutes, or until cooked through. Transfer to a plate.
- Add in the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and remaining chicken and repeat. Add the first batch of chicken back into the pan along with broccoli and cook for 1 minute, stirring often, to soften the broccoli a bit..
- Add the teriyaki sauce and cook for 1 more minute, stirring constantly, or until the sauce thickens and coats everything nicely.
- Serve with rice and top with scallions and sesame seeds.
Items you can prep ahead (optional)
- Cook 1 cup rice
- Prep broccoli florets
- Mix together teriyaki sauce
- Cut up the chicken into ½-inch pieces
- Cook chicken
Substitutions:
- To make vegetarian or vegan: use cubed tofu or tempeh in place of the chicken. Pat your tofu dry. Pan-fry them in oil until golden and follow the recipe as is. Use maple syrup instead of honey to make vegan.
- To lighten it up, sub the rice with veggie rice! Blend up cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, carrot or combination until finely chopped, then cook in a pan with some oil and salt for a couple of minutes. Voila!
- Use cilantro instead of scallions
- Add sriracha for some spice!
Storage:
-
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge
- Chicken and broccoli: up to 4 days in the fridge
- Rice: up to 5 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer
Leftovers + Repurposing:
- Warm up your rice and chicken/broccoli. Serve topped with plenty of herbs, some lime juice and sesame seeds.
- Turn it into a chicken teriyaki fried rice. Top with a fried egg!
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