Easy Peasy Baked Teriyaki Chicken & Broccoli Recipe

Let me start off by saying I AM NOT A CHEF! I am far from it and do not desire to be one. I simply love cooking and sharing some of the food I cook to give others dinner ideas, even though a lot of my meals are very basic. Why? Because I remember being a mother and a wife who barely knew what I was cooking from one day to the next. Ever since my children were younger I wanted to help other busy moms find quick meals to get on the table.

Side note: I entered college not knowing how to cook or wash my own laundry. My mom did everything for us when we were younger. While I appreciated it as a child, I quickly saw how I needed those skills once I had my own child. I had my daughter at the age of 18, so once she was able to eat regular food I knew I didn’t want her to eat fast food all the time.

Since I was receiving food stamps (yep, I got any type of assistance I could), I started my quest to learn how to cook. I would go grocery shopping then get on the phone with my mom and my sister April for them to talk me through how to create a meal. I eventually got to the point where I could follow a recipe on my own. I was super ecstatic when I finally learned how to create a meal without using a recipe and learned how to use a little bit of this and little bit of that to create a delicious meal for my family.

Although I love to make a lot of things homemade, I still use some “convenience foods” from time to time. If you’re a mom who buys prepackaged foods because that’s all you know or that’s all you have time for, then I’m proud of you for doing what you need to do to get dinner on the table for your family. This meal I’m sharing below was created just for you.

While grocery shopping earlier this week I saw this teriyaki sauce by P.F. Changs. I always make my teriyaki sauce homemade, but I’ve had a lot going on personally the past few days, so I gave myself permission to take the easy route and threw it in the buggy without feeling guilty. I also opted to use frozen broccoli over fresh broccoli. When I’m making everything completely homemade I prefer to use fresh broccoli.

Now, everyone may not do this first step, but where I come from…we WASH our meat off lol!! After rinsing the meat you want to pat it dry with a paper towel. Cut the chicken breast up into the size you want to use, then season them with a little salt, pepper, and garlic power. Do not go heavy handed on the seasoning because the sauce is already salty.

Next, I sautéed the chicken in olive oil (vegetable oil is fine if that’s all you have) on medium high heat to brown it only. Do not fully cook it (it’s easy to over cook it).

Once the chicken is brown, you want to drain it on a paper towel to make sure you don’t transfer a lot of the oil to your sauce.

I then put the chicken in a 8X10 baking dish (use a 9X13 baking dish if you’re cooking more than 2 chicken breast or have a larger family) and brushed the P.F. Chang’s Teriyaki Sauce on it. I poured just a little on top after brushing it on (don’t use all of it), then covered it in foil. I put it in the oven on 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

After the 15 minutes were up I stirred the chicken, poured the remaining sauce on it, and baked it an additional 15 minutes.

During the last 15 minutes of baking I steamed my broccoli for about 3 minutes and strained it. Once the chicken was done I added the broccoli to it and covered the dish with foil while it was on the counter for about 5 minutes so the flavors could get to know each other a little better. I’m sure you can cook the broccoli with the chicken, but since I was using frozen broccoli I didn’t want the sauce to be too watery. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this was my first time baking this dish.

We paired this meal with some brown rice that I cooked in the rice cooker. The kids didn’t notice a difference between the store brought sauce and my homemade sauce, so that’s a win in my book. I could tell a difference, but it wasn’t major. On nights when you’re drained and need to get dinner on the table, you don’t have time to major in the minors.

Anyhoo, I paired my meal with this frozen pack of seasoned Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Carrots. I love to roast my Brussels Sprouts but my kids are not a fan of them, so I again took the easy route since I was cooking them for myself. To be honest, I probably won’t buy them again. I prefer to season my own veggies.

This meal took me about 45 minutes top, but if you skip sautéing the chicken and bake it raw, then it can easily be on your table in 30 minutes.

Ingredients Needed:
– 2 Chicken Breast cut into cubes
(Optional: season chicken with salt, pepper, & garlic powder)
– Olive oil (for sautéing chicken)
– 1 14 oz jar of P.F. Chang’s Teriyaki Sauce
– 1 bag of frozen broccoli

From my family to yours, enjoy!
Tiffany