I’ll be honest. We were getting bored of the SAME few chicken recipes we have from week to week: BBQ chicken, “the best chicken marinade” (it really is quite good), buffalo chicken, and, finally, a pre-marinated fajita chicken from a local carniceria (which is BOMB.com).

And it’s summer and has been WARM, so, we wanted to take something to the grill! 

We were at my parent's house recently and smelled teriyaki. So, we decided to attempt a grilled teriyaki chicken.

I scanned Pinterest for a good 20 minutes for a good, healthy teriyaki chicken recipe. And while many of them sounded good, they also had a LOT of sugar.

My daughter overheard us talking about the sugar. She’s 5.5 years old, and she later said to me, “is brown sugar bad for you?” “No,” I said. “I love brown sugar in some things. Sugar doesn’t necessarily provide you with a ton of nutrients, but it does provide you with energy. It’s just that too much of it isn’t a good thing, either.” 

Don’t get me wrong — I have no problem adding sugar to anything, and quite frankly love it when it’s both necessary! But on my chicken? I surely didn’t need the 1 cup of brown sugar that many of the recipes were calling for. HA!

I also don’t want my kiddos to grow up thinking sugar is “bad.” No food is “bad” for you.

Do some foods provide you with more nutrients than others? Of course! Should some be limited in how much you have in a given sitting? Probably, yeah.

But in my opinion, nothing should ever be off-limits!

And I love sugar just as much as the next person... especially when it comes to kettle corn — my vice!

So, I decided to make a variation of my own teriyaki chicken and see how it went. I always have frozen chicken breasts on hand (thank you, Costco!) so pulled those out in the morning. I find the best way to thaw them is to place them in a gallon zip lock back and submerge in water. Once thawed, be sure and refrigerate so it’s not sitting out all day!

grilled teriyaki chicken with maple syrup

I marinated the chicken for about 2-3 hours before we grilled it. And OH MY GOSH. It was soooooo good. My husband was raving about it. And I can assure you, it will be a staple in our chicken rotation!

We paired this with a side of baked sweet potato and grilled bell peppers, onions & mushrooms and it was absolutely delicious. 

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!!

Recipe: Healthy Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
 
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A easy low-sugar girlled chicken teryaki recipe that the whole family will love!
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Ingredients
  • 2 chicken breasts
  • ¼ cup of Bragg’s liquid aminos*
  • 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 2 tsp fresh ginger
  • 1 tsp sriracha
  • Approx 1 tsp cornstarch (optional)
  • Pineapple, sliced (optional)

Instructions
  1. Mix all marinade ingredients (liquid aminos through sriracha).
  2. Optional: If you want to thicken the marinade a bit (we chose to do so!), pour the marinade into a small sauce pan. Heat the marinade over medium heat until bubbles slightly and whisk in cornstarch until it thickens.
  3. Pour marinde over chicken, cover and refrigerate until ready to cook (2-3 hours**).
  4. Grill chicken to your desired tenderness.
  5. At the same time, place your sliced pineapple on the grill and cook until it begins to caramelize.
  6. Once everything is cooked, serve by placing the grilled pineapple on top of the chicken!

Notes
*I actually did a little less than a ¼ cup of liquid aminos and it turned out perfectly. You could also choose to sub for soy sauce, just make sure to use low sodium!
**Short on time? The longer the better for the marinade, but I'd recommend a minimum of 1 hour.