If you miss teriyaki sauce, you will love ♥ this low sodium grilled chicken. We marinate chicken, red onion, and pineapple in the low sodium sauce, and then grill it. To make this even more delicious, we top the chicken with a slice of Swiss cheese and serve it all with a creamy teriyaki dipping sauce. Trust me on this one. It is delicious.
Guess what today is? It is our first wedding anniversary!! I am pretty excited about it, and to celebrate have spent the morning editing photos. 🙂 Beyond getting this recipe posted, the only things that we have planned for today are cupcakes and poodle puppies. The cupcakes are to celebrate our anniversary and the poodle puppies are to celebrate poodle puppies. More specifically, these are standard poodle puppies, which means they are huge and fluffy and awesome and I can’t wait to play with them.
But back to the teriyaki chicken … I used to make a high sodium teriyaki chicken sandwich using jarred (high sodium) teriyaki sauce. It wasn’t until after I had made the Togarashi Beef Skewers that I decided that I should try my hand at a low sodium teriyaki, and I came up with this recipe right out of the gate. The teriyaki sauce itself is pretty low in sodium. The Swiss cheese and the dipping sauce add a bit of sodium, so if you need to have a lower sodium meal, you can always cut those back. If your diet can stand the numbers (just under 250 mg per serving), keep the cheese and sauce in because they really, really make this a special dish.
This will look like it is a long recipe, but I promise that it comes together quickly and easily. The only thing you need to make sure to do is to mix up the teriyaki and then split it up into three smaller portions:
one for the onion & pineapple,
one for the chicken,
and one for the sauce.
A note on brands:
As far as Swiss cheese goes, I use the IGA store brand, which has only 15 mg per slice. Whole Foods also carries Swiss that is only 15 mg per slice. For mayonnaise, you should be able to find Kraft Mayo (only 75 mg per tablespoon) or Walmart’s Great Value mayonnaise (70 mg per tablespoon).
PrintGrilled Teriyaki Chicken
SODIUM COUNT: 243.6 mg per serving; 974.2 mg in the entire recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
Low Sodium Teriyaki Sauce:
- 1 ½ cups cola ((I used Coke))
- 1 Tbs reduced sodium soy sauce
- 1 Tbs unseasoned rice vinegar
- 4 tsp honey
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- [You will divide the sauce in three; see below.]
Dipping Sauce:
- ¼ cup mayonnaise*
- 2 Tbs Low Sodium Teriyaki Sauce
Chicken:
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts ((butterflied and pounded to ¼” to ½” thickness; you want four thin pieces))
- ¾ cup Low Sodium Teriyaki Sauce
- 4 slices swiss cheese**
Pineapple and onion:
- 4 slices pineapple ((fresh is best, but canned will work))
- 1 medium red onion ((sliced to about ½” thickness))
- ¾ cup Low Sodium Teriyaki Sauce
Instructions
Low Sodium Teriyaki Sauce:
- Whisk together all the ingredients, being sure that the honey dissolves.
- Divide the sauce into three servings: one ¾ cup serving (for the chicken), one ¾ cup serving (for the pineapple and onion), and 2 tablespoons (for the dipping sauce). You may have an extra tablespoon or two of sauce, which you can discard.
Dipping Sauce:
- Whisk together ¼ cup mayonnaise with 2 tablespoons Low Sodium Teriyaki Sauce. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Chicken, Pineapple, & Onion:
- Put the chicken breasts in a quart-sized ziploc bag along with ¾ cup Low Sodium Teriyaki. Place the refrigerator to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
- Place the pineapple and red onion in a gallon-sized ziploc baggie along with ¾ cup Low Sodium Teriyaki. Place in the refrigerator and marinate for at least 30 minutes.
- When ready to grill, preheat the grill to medium heat. Place the onion, pineapple and chicken on the grill and cook for about 6-8 minutes per side, or until the chicken is cooked through.
- During the last two minutes of cooking, evenly top the chicken with the swiss cheese. When the chicken is cooked and the cheese is melted, remove the all the food from the grill.
- Serve each piece of chicken with 1 ring pineapple, 1 slice of onion, and 1 ½ tablespoons dipping sauce.
Notes
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION – Yield: 4 servings (1 slice chicken, 1 slice pineapple, 1 slice onion, and 1 ½ tablespoons dipping sauce)
Sodium: 243.6 mg, Calories: 399.3, Total Fat: 19.1 g, Saturated Fat: 6.5 g, Cholesterol: 90.8 mg, Carbohydrates: 21.8 g, Fiber: 1.6 g, Sugar: 17.2 g, Protein: 33.0 g.
I only accounted for half the Low Sodium Teriyaki Sauce in the nutrition calculation since we discard about half the sauce. If I account for all of the Sauce, the sodium comes up to 321 mg sodium per serving.
* Check the label on your mayonnaise. We use Walmart’s Great Value brand, which has 70 mg sodium per tablespoon. Kraft’s mayonnaise is also a lower-sodium option, at 75 mg sodium per tablespoon. The nutrition information is for Kraft mayonnaise.
**Check the label on your Swiss cheese. The Swiss we use (the IGA generic Swiss) has 15 mg per slice. Whole Foods also carries Swiss cheese slices that are 15 mg per slice.
Hi! So my husband was recently directed by his doctor to reduce sodium, and my son, who is a picky eater, loves teriyaki bowls. I used to make it with premade teriyaki sauce or I made my own with regular soy and diced chicken. Which led me to your recipe. I tried it, but it didn’t quite make a sauce for putting over rice. I added a little xanthan gum to thicken it, but it still wasn’t quite right, I feel like the proportions are off for a saucy dish vs a grilled version. Any advice?
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I know exactly what you mean. I’ve been working on another teriyaki recipe, which I think will be better for making a sauce. I use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce in it. The coconut aminos that I use have about half the sodium as reduced sodium soy sauce, so I’m able to use a lot more (which means I can reduce or eliminate the cola, which works fine for grilling but doesn’t translate well to a stand alone sauce). For that sauce, I use coconut aminos and a bit of balsamic vinegar in place of the soy sauce, so I’d advise that you start with that and go from there (with your old soy sauce recipe). As soon as I get the other recipe dialed in I will post it here. In the meantime, good luck! I hope you’re able to get a sauce that your whole family enjoys.
I was wondering what i can use in place of the cola? I am alergic to something in the syrup? Would root beer change the flavor drasticly? Thank you for your advice, I would love to try this recipe. I have heart failure and am on a restricted sodium diet. This is one of those things I have been craving!
Hi Jennifer! I have not tested it with anything besides cola, so I cannot guarantee results. If I were going to use something else, my first choice would be Dr. Pepper (if you aren’t allergic – ?). If you can’t use Dr. Pepper, root beer may also work. Another possible substitution is a combo of water + rice vinegar + molasses (maybe 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 2-3 tsp molasses). I have not tested this with this recipe specifically, but have used a similar combination in other recipes. The molasses brings that rich cola-like flavor. Best of luck!
What low sodium teriyaki sauce are you using? Can you tell me the sodium content in it so I can find a comparable one? Thanks.
Hi Sue. I make my own teriyaki sauce (it is in the recipe), which has about 25 mg sodium per tablespoon.
I’ll try this. I was diagnosed with heart failure a month ago at the age of 42 so I’m at the start of my low sodium journey. Asian food is tough as it is usually loaded with salt, which is mostly the sauces. I did find a no soy soy sauce that has half the sodium as a lite soy. Like you I am making my own food (my wife has been wonderful) by modifying existing recipes and finding new ones to adapt. For instance, I made my own pork dumplings. I love chicken teriyaki so this will be added to my rotation!
Made this last evening and it was very good. Chicken cooked up moist. Loved the sauce to dip it in. I didn’t have rice vinegar so I substituted apple cider vinegar which worked fine. Didn’t have long to marinate it so looking forward to trying it after I’ve been able to marinate overnight. So glad to have your website for recipes!
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