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Chicken Teriyaki Sushi Bowl

Homemade teriyaki chicken sits atop a bed of steamed, seasoned rice, along with crunchy cucumbers and creamy avocado in this healthy, easier-than-it-looks sushi bowl dinner.

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Chicken Terryaki Sushi Bowl with cucumber and avocado

Easy Sushi Bowls For Dinner.

This simple, satisfying teriyaki chicken bowl is a favorite go-to for me, not only because it is quick and easy, but also because I can make the complete bowl for my husband and I, and a deconstructed version of it for my kids. Everyone is happy, well-fed, and satisfied—no exasperated reach for boxed mac-and-cheese required. That’s what I call a win-win! This bowl is on heavy rotation in my meal planner, and I hope it makes it onto yours as well.

Ingredients laid out brown rice, teriyaki sauce, avocado, cucumber, nori, sriracha

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How Do You Make Teriyaki Chicken?

We’ve opted for a shortcut on this one, since the whole reason we created this teriyaki chicken bowl is to make a dinner that’s as stress-free as it can be. Here’s how we do it:

  1. Buy boneless, skinless chicken breast. If you can buy it already cut into pieces—or ask your friendly local butcher to do it for you—even better.
  2. Buy a bottle of teriyaki marinade. Any teriyaki marinade that you like! We love this Soy Vay Marinade & Sauce, which can be purchased at most grocery stores.
  3. Place the chicken into a pan along with some of the teriyaki sauce. Don’t bother to marinate! We swear it tastes just as good without the extra step of marinating the chicken.
  4. Cook! A quick sauté over medium heat, and you can consider your chicken teriyaki-ed. You’ll achieve a lot of good flavor from cooking the chicken in the sauce, and then you can always add more sauce to the bowl if you’d like your teriyaki chicken bowl even more teriyaki-y.
nori seasoned brown rice in a pot
cooked brown nori rice in a pot
sriracha mayo in a small bowl with a spoon
teriyaki chicken cooked in a pan

How Do You Make Chicken Teriyaki Rice Bowls?

Even we admit, there’s something about bowls like this that look fussy. You see those lovely cucumber spears and that fanned out avocado and you think “that looks delicious but I’m never going to make it.” But we promise, bowls are easier than they look! And they win so many points for adaptability. The answer to “how do you make chicken teriyaki bowls?” is “however you want!”—everyone gets to make their own bowl with only the things they like in it. Here’s what you do:

  1. Sauté some chicken pieces.
  2. Steam some rice. Even without a rice cooker, this is an almost-effortless step.
  3. Chop up the green stuff while the chicken cooks.
  4. Take 30 seconds to squeeze some sriracha into some mayonnaise and mix it together.
  5. Chop up some nori, or just tear it up with your hands. Let your kids play with it, because it makes awesome crunchy sounds. Don’t tell them that it’s super duper crazy healthy, and maybe they’ll even decide they want to crunch some of it up into their bowl!
  6. Let everyone assemble the bowl of their dreams with whatever combination of things suits their fancy.
  7. Dig in!
Chicken Terryaki Sushi Bowl with cucumber avocado nori and brown rice

Is Chicken Teriyaki Healthy?

It’s not not healthy, and served as part of a bowl like this, it makes for a complete, balanced meal—heavy on nutrients, good fats, and protein! Our teriyaki chicken bowl scores in the nutrition department because of:

  • Skinless chicken breast! It’s a weeknight dinner staple for many reasons, but we love it because it’s a lean, mean protein source that happily soaks up flavor—hello, teriyaki sauce! It’s a blank canvas, which can be a great thing.
  • Nori! If you’re not in the habit of keeping these crunchy sheets of dried seaweed in the pantry, now is the time to start! Salty and crisp, they’re fun to eat, low in fat and calories, and they’re a good source of iron, calcium and B vitamins.
  • Avocado! Do we really need to sell you on avocado? I didn’t think so.
  • Brown rice! We’ve seasoned ours with traditional sushi rice flavors (see below for more on that) which make it extra delicious, and no less nutritious.
  • Cucumber! Obviously a super healthy component of this dish—so refreshing and a little sweet, cucumber is an unsung hero of the vegetable world.
  • Sriracha mayo! Just kidding, this is not healthy—not even a little bit. But it is very very delicious, and a little drizzle here and there never hurt anyone.
Chicken Terryaki Sushi Bowl with cucumber and avocado

Tell Me More About This Seasoned Rice Situation.

Intriguing, right? Sushi rice—the rice that is used to make sushi—is traditionally made simply with super-high quality, short grain white rice that is then flavored with rice vinegar and a bit of sugar and salt. We’ve taken that idea as inspiration and run with it, swapping brown rice for white, since it’s much more nutritious and we actually prefer its nutty flavor. Seasoning the rice lightly with rice vinegar adds a lot of interesting complexity to this bowl without much work. If you don’t have rice vinegar handy, it’s totally fine to serve plain brown rice, or you could even stir in a bit of the extra teriyaki sauce for an added boost of flavor. Like we’ve said, this teriyaki bowl is all about adaptability.

Tools You'll Need:

Chicken Terryaki Sushi Bowl with a fork and a linen

Bowls On Bowls On Bowls

Versatile, healthy, fast. Great for lunch. Easy for dinner. Just as good at room temp as they are piping hot. The list goes on and on—all we are saying is give bowls a chance. Here are a few of our other favorites:

Did You Love This Teriyaki Chicken Bowl Recipe?

If you make this chicken teriyaki sushi bowl, we’d love to hear about it! Snap a photo, add it to your Instagram feed or stories and tag us @themodernproper and #themodernproper.

Chicken Teriyaki Sushi Bowl

  • Serves: 4
  • Prep Time:  15 min
  • Cook Time:  20 min
  • Calories: 496

Ingredients

Seasoned Rice

  • 1½ cups long-grain brown rice, rinsed
  • 1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 full-size sheet of sushi nori, minced

Teriyaki Chicken

  • 1½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 (15-21-ounce) bottle teriyaki sauce (we like Soy Vay or Kona Coast brand)

Sriracha Mayo

  • ⅓ cup mayonnaise
  • 1-2 tablespoons sriracha, plus more for serving
  • 2 teaspoon seasoned rice vinegar

Sushi Bowl

  • 1 English cucumber, sliced
  • 1 large avocado, pitted, peeled, and diced
  • 2 full-size sheets sushi nori, cut into triangles
  • sesame seeds (optional)

Method

  1. Make the seasoned rice. Place the brown rice, vinegar, salt, garlic powder, minced nori, and 3½ cups of water in a medium saucepan, stir to combine. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 20 minutes.

  2. Meanwhile, add the chicken and ½ cup of the teriyaki sauce to a large skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through, about 8-10 minutes. Drain off the liquid from the skillet and coat the chicken with 1 cup of teriyaki sauce (see Note).

  3. Meanwhile, make the sriracha mayo. In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, sriracha, and the rice vinegar.

  4. To serve, divide the rice into bowls, top evenly with chicken, cucumber, avocado, and nori triangles. Drizzle with the sriracha mayo and sprinkle with sesame seeds, if using.


Note: Cooking the chicken in a little teriyaki sauce allows the chicken to absorb some of the flavor. By draining the sauce and adding more, we ensure that we still keep that flavor without serving an overly watery sauce.

Nutrition Info

  • Per Serving
  • Amount
  • Calories496
  • Protein30 g
  • Carbohydrates44 g
  • Total Fat21 g
  • Dietary Fiber2 g
  • Cholesterol78 mg
  • sodium2827 mg
  • Total Sugars29 g

Chicken Teriyaki Sushi Bowl

Questions & Reviews

Join the discussion below.

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  • tanizaki

    Why is this called sushi bowl when there is no sushi ?

    It's sushi style with the seasoned rice, seaweed (nori) and sushi mayo.

  • Joan

    Yes, I have a question. Thank you for asking. I am wondering why you drain the cooked chicken of its liquid, a sauce made of the 1/2 cup of teriyaki sauce in which the chicken was cooked, only to add more teriyaki sauce again.

    Cooking the chicken in the marinade helps flavor it while cooking. That sauce gets watered down with the chicken juices that are coming out while cooking. We like to drain that and then add fresh sauce that hasn't been watered down to coat the chicken. Hope this helps!

  • Egale

    Delicious 👌

    Thanks, so glad you loved it!

  • Katie

    So easy and so good.

    Thanks Katie!

  • Bridget

    This is a go to recipe for us. So delicious with few ingredients and quick and easy prep.

    Thanks Bridget, we LOVE to hear when something has become a go-to. Happy you love it!

  • Gabriel

    The whole family loves this recipe. Nice flavors and easy to modify with other veggies etc.

    Wonderful news!

  • Jillian

    I've made this twice now and love it! I made the rice with and without the nori, and I prefer it without, plus my kids were suspicious of the "green flakes".

    I used white rice since that's what I had on hand, used chicken thighs instead of breasts, and didn't drain the liquid from the chicken. I just used that as the sauce and didn't need any extra. Excellent flavors! Thank you for the recipe!

    You're welcome Jillian! Glad you liked it!