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Butter Shoyu Chicken バター醤油チキン

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Glazed with delicious soy-butter sauce, this easiest and tastiest Butter Shoyu Chicken recipe will win your family’s heart!

Butter Shoyu Chicken on a white plate.

Once in a while I get stuck in the rut with menu planning and I don’t know what to cook.  As my children love chicken, my easy solution often comes to this Butter Shoyu Chicken (バター醤油チキン).  The flavor is similar to Teriyaki Sauce, but everything is homemade, and with the addition of butter the sauce is creamier and even a bit sweeter.

Butter & Soy Sauce – Butter Shoyu Chicken

If you have never combined these two ingredients together, you will be pleasantly surprised how delicious these two flavors bring to a dish.

In Japan, you will see many dishes flavored with butter and soy sauce flavor (butter shoyu aji, 醤油バター味 – Shoyu means soy sauce in Japanese). Japanese style pastas are often seasoned with soy sauce and butter and a popular street snack, grilled corn flavored with soy butter (バター醤油コーン), is absolutely addicting too.

Butter adds a rich wonderful creaminess and sweetness to the salty savory soy sauce, making the combination a great sauce and glaze over meats, vegetables or even noodle dishes.

Butter Shoyu Chicken on a plate.

My Other Recipes

Chicken Thighs for Juicy, Tender Result

Instead of using chicken breasts, I prefer to use chicken thighs. Fattier than lean meat, they are less likely to turn dry on the heat. These inexpensive cut is best for a recipe like this. You get tender juicy chicken meat and crispy skin that is seared on the hot pan, which means perfection. 

The ingredients for the butter shoyu sauce is short, but it’s packed with flavor. You want to spoon any remaining sauce in the pan over the chicken before serving.

If you are thinking of cooking chicken tonight, definitely give this recipe a try. There is no need to marinate the chicken, and you can finish cooking in 30 minutes! Serve the Butter Shoyu Chicken with steamed rice alongside a vegetable dish and you’ve got a delicious meal for the family.  

Recipes Similar to Butter Shoyu Chicken

Chicken Teriyaki with green salad and bowl of rice on a table.

Chicken Teriyaki

Teriyaki Salmon and asparagus on a white plate.

Teriyaki Salmon

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Butter Shoyu Chicken
Butter Shoyu Chicken バター醤油チキン| Easy Japanese Recipes at JustOneCookbook.com
Print
Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
25 mins
Total Time
30 mins
 
Course: Main Course
Servings: 3
Author: Nami
Ingredients
  • 2-5 chicken thighs (I prefer to use boneless chicken thighs with skin - the skin will be crispy and adds another flavor and texture)
  • kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 Tbsp neutral flavor oil (vegetable, canola, etc)
  • 3 Tbsp sake
  • 1 Tbsp unsalted butterr
Sauce:
Instructions

  1. Gather all the ingredients.  Lightly sprinkle kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper on both sides of the chicken.

  2. In a large frying pan, heat oil on medium high heat. If the chicken has skin, cook from the skin side first.
  3. When the bottom side is nicely browned, flip over and reduce heat to medium heat.
  4. Add sake and cook covered until liquid is almost gone.
  5. Remove the cover and cook until the chicken is almost cooked. Then wipe off excess oil on the frying pan with paper towel.
  6. Add the sauce and coat the chicken well with sauce using a spoon.
  7. When the sauce gets thicken and small bubbles appear in the pan, add the butter. Spoon the sauce over the chicken When the butter is melted, serve the chicken onto a plate. Pour some sauce over the chicken.
Recipe Notes

Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.

Editor’s Note: Picture is updated in March 2012.

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  1. You certainly don’t need St Valentine’s to cook this one. Your dish looks divine. Interesting about making your own teriyaki rather than the bought stuff. I’ve recently good hooked on making a mirin sauce with salmon and it’s so easy. I must try your dish here with the chicken. Look like it will be a hit in our house! So glad to find your blog and learn about Japanese cuisine.

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    Reply

    • Nami

      Mirin is one of the 3 important condiments for cooking Japanese food (along with soy sauce and sake). Therefore you will find lots of recipes in my website using mirin. Hope you enjoy the teriyaki chicken!

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      Reply

  2. Lexi

    I am living in Okinawa and trying to cook Asian, so your site is very helpful. I would prefer using chicken breast instead of thighs. What do you think?

    3
    Reply

    • Hi Lexi! I’m happy to hear you like my blog. 🙂 Chicken breast works too, but it is more dry so we don’t usually eat that much. I think cooking in a frying pan is quicker than oven, and it keeps moist in the meat. Hope it will work!

      4
      Reply

  3. Sook

    Oohh!! I am totally going to try your teriyaki sauce recipe! I’ve been trying to find a good teriyaki recipe and they always ended up too salty or what not. Bookmarked!

    5
    Reply

    • I hope you enjoy this recipe. I really need to retake this photography…. but I’m glad it was tempting enough for you to decide. 🙂

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      Reply

  4. Julie

    Is cooking sake the same as “kikkoman Manjo Aji-morin sweet cooking rice seasoning”?
    It does contain 8% alcohol. Thanks

    7
    Reply

    • Hi Julie, that’s Mirin, not sake. You can buy either cooking sake, or buy a cheep bottle of (drinking) sake and use for cooking. If you can’t find sake, then you can substitute with Chinese rice cooking wine. 🙂

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  5. christine

    Hi Nami,
    Just stumbled onto your site and want to make everything on here!! My bottle of mirin says it’s a cooking sake, but they are not the same thing, are they?
    Thanks!

    9
    Reply

    • I’m glad you found my blog, welcome! Mirin and cooking sake is different. I’ve noticed that some level says cooking sake. You can use regular sake or cooking sake, or chinese rice wine. Mirin is sweet, and we use it to substitute sugar or gives some nice luster in the sauce, but it contains some alcohol in it.

      Hope this helps. Just in case you don’t know, I have a pantry page (which I need to update…) you might think it’s helpful too…

      10
      Reply

  7. I’m making this version of teriyaki for dinner. It sounds perfect. I cannot think what to cook tonight and have rice started but nothing else. Thank you for the idea!

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  10. mona

    Hi Nami. I,m very pleased to find your blog. I visited Japan many years ago and of course I was eating in restaurants. However, I always wanted to know more about japanese cuisine. I only have one question to you. you said you do not often eat Teryaki at home. Why ? and I’m interested in Tempura.
    I will follow you and happy to try your suggested japanese recipes .

    17
    Reply

    • Hi Mona! Welcome to my blog and I’m glad you stopped by!

      We have many other ways to make seasoning besides Teriyaki style sauce. Unfortunately, most of Japanese dishes in Japanese restaurants have “Teriyaki” sauce only. But we have different kinds of sauce or marinade we use. So that’s why we don’t eat “teriyaki” often.

      Many of Japanese dishes uses same condiments – soy sauce, mirin, sake, but we simmer or braise food and it’s no longer Teri “yaki” (grilled).

      I have a shrimp tempura recipe here and plan to share vegetable tempura soon.

      Hope you enjoy my recipes!

      18
      Reply

  12. Vaness

    i just did this teriyaki chicken for dinner. Looks good and am sure it’s yummy. I wonder for the extra sauce, can we keep in the fridge for the next dish like salmon?

    21
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    • Hi Vaness! I’m so glad to hear you liked this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂 I’m sorry for the late response. Is the extra sauce cooked or non-cooked. I usually recommend to make it fresh every time. 🙂 If you are going to re-use it, make sure to re-heat it. 🙂

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      Reply

  13. Jessica

    I’ve always love chicken teriyaki, and today I cooked it myself for the very first time! ^^ The taste is really really good (yay! ^^)… but the chicken did’t feel as tender as how it would usually feel when I get it from the restaurant. Do you have any idea what I did wrong? I was thinking maybe I cooked too long, I’m not sure..

    22
    Reply

    • Hi Jessica! You could be right. Overcooking could cause the meat hard and dry. Also, which part of chicken did you use? Some restaurant uses chicken thigh, some use breast… it depends, but I know thigh is more flavorful and tender. Hope that helps! 🙂

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      • Jessica

        Thanks Nami for your reply. I used chicken thigh in my cooking. I’m going to try cooking again this weekend, and I’ll let you know if I get it right this time 🙂

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          • Jessica

            I cooked teriyaki chicken on Saturday evening for my family, and the response was good! I’m going to do this again and again, because it tastes so very good! And I also tried your recipe for Zaru Soba too, love it! 🙂

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            Reply

            • Hi Jessica! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe (and zaru soba recipe)!! Thank you very much for your kind feedback. 🙂

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    • Hi Rose! Alcohol evaporates and only umami flavors from sake (rice wine) remain in the dish. In Japan, we use sake and feed the children if it’s cooked like this. 🙂

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      • Rose de Castro

        Thanks so much for replying! Now i can use both sake and mirin without any worries. My family loves japanese food most especially my 8year old. Love all your recipes esp the tonaktsu and tonkatsu sauce!!!

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        Reply

  15. Tracy Huang

    Hi Nami,

    I recently discovered your blog, and being a working mum, your many quick, simple and delicious recipes such as gyudon and teriyaki are a life saver!

    However, I am just wondering if you ever encountered the issue of excess juice/liquid coming out of the chicken when you’re frying/stir frying it. My chicken produces so much liquid every time I had to cook uncovered for a long time for it to evaporate, and by that time the chicken would be too tough and dry! I tried coating the chicken with flour and that helps – but it’s certainly not the way you cook it!

    I’m just wondering if that’s an issue with the chicken or with my method…

    Thanks!
    Tracy

    33
    Reply

    • Hi Tracy! Thank you for finding my blog and I’m happy to hear you enjoy cooking from it.

      First thought came to my mind is if your chicken has left on the kitchen counter for a long time before you cook it. For example, you take out from the fridge and there is a long time for the chicken to be at the counter before you start cooking it. In that case, I recommend removing the extra moisture with paper towel before cooking process. The second thing is that if your frying pan is very low temperature when you start cooking the meat. After putting cold meat on a pan that’s not hot enough, the pan gets even cooler and it takes a long time to heat up. During that time chicken releases water and by the time pan is hot, you have a lot of liquid. Instead you should use higher heat to start (and pan will be less hot due to chicken) and remove the moisture as soon as possible. And third point is to use a bigger pan that gives enough space for chicken to move around. If it’s crowded, the meat will be “steamed” instead of getting enough heat from all arounds. Hope this helps? 🙂

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  16. charlesjnr

    ive just brought teriyaki marinade, and was wondering if i could marinate the chicken in it instead of making my own sauce. would it still taste the same

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  17. Wendy

    Tried this recipe for a quick dinner today, it was really good and we have no leftover ????it is also very quick to prepare, great for a weeknight meal. Thank you!

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  20. Fonchie J LeGawiec

    Thank You so much for all your time you share such delicious foods with all. Also I truly from the heart love the music in the background of your videos. Thank you for n unforgettable cooking experience. ありがとう

    43
    Reply

    • Hi Fonchie! Aww thank you so much for your kind feedback. I’m so happy you enjoy my videos and website. I hope you continue to enjoy my recipes! Thank you!!

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      Reply

  21. Lisa Lee

    Hi there, this looks great. Can I ask what frying pan you use? Nonstick or not and name? I’m tired of my poor quality pans. Thanks!

    45
    Reply

    • Hi Lisa! I’ve been using All-Clad non stick pan. The quality is very good, but we also can’t use more than medium heat (techinically medium high heat, but I have a strong gas burner, so I am allowing myself to use only medium heat for my non-stick). Still, I change it once every 2 years or so because the edge of pan gets scrapped off etc. But it’s been the best non-stick pan that I keep using the same. 🙂

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  22. sara

    I just wanted to say thanks for this excellent recipe. I made it for my family tonight and we all loved it! Absolutely delicious! Just wanted to clarify, the “print” version of the recipe calls for adding the saké and covering until the liquid is almost gone. The instructions above do not. Which is right?

    47
    Reply

    • Hi Sara! I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback!

      “Print” version and the recipe box are exact same recipe. Step 4, to be exact. What do you mean by “the instruction above”?

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      Reply

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