School lunch made easy with this Chicken Teriyaki Bento, serve along with cucumber salad, apple bunnies, tomatoes, and furikake on top of rice. Cooking a double batch of chicken teriyaki for dinner makes your bento making so much faster.
TGIF! How was your week? I cannot believe we are already at the end of September. Didn’t schools just start not long ago? Just like any other families with children, I sometimes find it difficult to prepare dinner with everything that’s going on. I cook dinner almost every day, so quick and easy recipe like Chicken Teriyaki comes in handy. It’s especially tasty with the homemade sauce.
If your rice cooker has a timer, you can wash rice and set it to be ready for your dinner time. I defrost chicken in the morning before I drop off my children at schools. And when I come home for lunch after picking up my daughter, I quickly marinate the meat. If you are working full-time, you might have to plan ahead so that you can marinate the chicken before going to work.
About 40 minutes prior to dinner time, you can start cooking the chicken. While you are doing so, you can make quick Miso Soup and a simple salad. If you still have some time, you can make another quick side dish like Sunomono (Cucumber Salad). There you go, healthy homemade food!
I wish everyone a fantastic weekend. I definitely need to catch up some sleep as well as some blogging work, and of course, have some fun with my family. Enjoy!
Previous Dinner was:
Chicken Teriyaki (I used chicken thigh WITHOUT skin this time), and quick side dish Sunomono (Cucumber Salad).
Lunch Next Day:
- Chicken Teriyayaki Bento
- A small size box of fruits: strawberries.
- Water bottle
Other Homemade Bento Ideas:
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Chicken Teriyaki Bento
Ingredients
- cooked Japanese short-grain rice
- chicken teriyaki (pre-cooked)
- lettuce (for garnish)
- tomatoes
- sunomono (cucumber salad) (pre-cooked)
- 2 apple bunny/rabbit
- furikake (rice seasoning)
Instructions
- Fill up half of the bento box with Japanese rice. Let it cool so that hot/warm rice will not warm up other cool food.
- Reheat leftover chicken teriyaki in a frying pan until it's warm thoroughly.
- Wash lettuce and tomatoes and pat dry. Place nicely in the bento box.
- Pack cooled chicken teriyaki on top of lettuce.
- Put sunomono in a silicone cup and put it in the bento box. Make sure you do not include any liquids.
- Pack apple bunnies in an open space in the bento box.
- Sprinkle furikake on top of slightly cooled rice.
- Cool down completely before closing the bento box.
Notes
Click here to see how to make Apple Bunnies (Apple Rabbits).
Enjoy making bento!
Thanks for the instructions on making the apple bunnies!! Recently, I’ve been packing a banana and some grapes with my lunch, but it’s time for some variety. =) I usually use a little lemon juice to keep apples from browning, but I’m going to try the salt water technique you mentioned!
Hi Kimmi! Japanese use salt water for apples, and I didn’t know about lemon juice until I came to the US. 🙂 Salt water always work perfectly, so please give it a try when you don’t have a lemon! 🙂
Hey! I just love how you explain how to make these pretty bentos. I’m not a Japanese, and how these pretty and tasty things are made are such a mystery to me. Maybe one day I’ll try sprucing up my bento like this. 🙂
Thank you so much! 🙂
I just stumbled upon your site and I love your bento recipes. They are not too kiddie for me which I can also prepare for dinner. I have bought lovely traditional bento boxes here: http://www.katachiware.com.au/bento-boxes.html which I haven’t any idea yet what food should I put there. And your recipes were prefect to try out with my new babies <3 Thanks
Hi Cee! You have very nice traditional bento boxes. Hope you enjoy making bento! So happy to hear you like my bento posts. 🙂
I made this for dinner last night and it was outstanding. It will be one of my favorite JustOneCookbook recipes.
Hi Angelo! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback. xo