What Can I Use Instead Of Sake For The Teriyaki Chicken?

Our answer

Nigella's Chicken Teriyaki (from KITCHEN) is a quick dish that uses a combination of soy sauce, sugar, mirin and sake to marinate chicken and then make a sauce. The sake adds a little flavour and some extra liquid to the mixture. Alcohol can help to tenderise meat, but as the marinating time is very short, this is less of an issure.

If you don't have sake then Shaoxing wine, or Chinese cooking wine, is a good alternative and as it has a long shelf life and many uses, it can be useful to have a bottle in the store cupboard. Otherwise a dry sherry would be another alternative. If you have neither of these or need to avoid alchohol then we would suggest using water instead of the sake.