TJ's Secret to Great Teriyaki

I buy the meat be it chicken or
steak, stick it in bag (ziplock or vaccum seal type) and then
immediately pour in Yoshida's sauce to cover. Then seal the bag. Put
it in the freezer until you need it. The meat will take in the marinade
as it freezes, and then again as it thaws out so you never have to let
it sit in the marinade overnight or for any length of time really. The
freezing process really seems to deep soak the flavor and lock it into
the meat. Then just thaw and BBQ to taste. With chicken be especially
carefull to BBQ over low heat as it's really drippy and will flare up.
But anytime I BBQ any kind of chicken I do it over low heat for a longer
time. Seems to work better, comes out more tender.

For this specific steak recipe I'm using tri-tip steak strips. It works
for chicken really well too. Sometimes I get some boneless chicken
breasts and do the marinade process. Then after the thaw cut them into
little half to three quarter inch size bits and skewer them. Makes for
great chicken teriyaki skewers. I've done the same with steak. You can
add a few slices of onion or bell pepper too to jazz it up a bit.

It's the freezing process that really gets the marinade into the meat.
You can do this with just about any marinade, not just Yoshida's. I've
experimented a little with it by just leaving some steaks in the sauce
overnight in the fridge. They were good but not as deep flavored as the
frozen and thawed versions. Plus doing the prep right when you bring
the stuff home from the store makes for easy cooking later. Just pull
from freezer and thaw, good to go!


*Note - Tri-tip was seldom marketed when carcass beef or beef quarters were delivered to retail markets because there are only two tri-tips per carcass. This meant that there was not enough for a case display. Consequently, the butcher would grind or cube it. Today, most stores receive boneless boxed beef. If you don't see tri-tip in the meat case, ASK FOR IT.