Teriyaki Chicken Thighs, Camp Grill Version
Thighs marinated at home in a sauce you cooked yourself, grilled over the fire pit grate.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 61
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- 120 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Grill grate
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Boneless skinless chicken thighs | 2 lb | about 8 thighs |
|---|---|---|
| Soy sauce | 1/2 cup | |
| Water | 1/2 cup | for the sauce |
| Brown sugar | 1/4 cup | |
| Honey | 2 tbsp | |
| Ground ginger | 1 tsp | or 1 tbsp fresh, grated |
| Ground garlic | 1 tsp | or 3 cloves, minced |
| Cornstarch | 1 tbsp | |
| Cold water | 2 tbsp | for the slurry |
Method
- At home: whisk the soy sauce, 1/2 cup water, brown sugar, honey, ginger, and garlic together in a saucepan. Bring it to a simmer over medium heat, about five minutes.
- Stir the cornstarch into the 2 tbsp cold water until no lumps remain. Pour it into the simmering sauce and whisk. It thickens in about two minutes. Pull it off the heat and let it cool.
- Set aside a third of the cooled sauce in a small screw-top jar. Pour the rest over the thighs in a freezer bag, press the air out, and refrigerate at least an hour. Freeze the bag flat if the drive is long.
- In camp: build the fire down to steady coals and set the grate over them. Lay the thighs on, discard the marinade bag.
- Grill five minutes, flip, brush with the reserved sauce. Repeat every five minutes until the thickest thigh runs clear and reads 165F, roughly 15 to 20 minutes total.
- Brush once more off the heat and let them sit five minutes before cutting.
Teriyaki is a glaze, not a marinade, and the difference is sugar. Brush the raw marinade on over a live fire and the sugar burns before the chicken cooks through. Cooking the sauce first, thickening it with cornstarch, and holding back a third of it for basting solves both problems: the meat soaks overnight in the thin version, and the thick version goes on only in the last few minutes.
Thighs over breasts is deliberate. Fire pit heat is uneven and unhurried, and thighs tolerate that. A breast overcooked by four minutes is dry; a thigh overcooked by four minutes is fine. This one stays a cooler recipe — raw chicken has no shelf-stable version — so freeze the marinating bag flat and cook it the first night out.
Packing
The marinating bag doubles as the container: freeze it flat, and it acts as a cooler ice block for the first day. Reserved sauce goes in a small leakproof jar, not a second bag.
Variations
- Cut the thighs into chunks and thread them on skewers. They cook in eight minutes instead of twenty.
- Bone-in thighs work but need closer to 35 minutes and a cooler part of the grate.
- Foil packet instead of a grate: wrap two thighs with a spoonful of sauce and set the packet on the coals for 25 minutes.
https://campfirefoodie.com/teriyaki-chicken-thighs-recipe