Teriyaki Chicken Steamroller

Recreating a dead recipe from a long-lost local fast food vendor. With a vegan variant!

When I first moved to Boulder in 2000, we had a great fast food restaurant called Wok n Roll that served teriyaki and yakitori, mostly chicken. It was definitely a sodiYUM experience but still healthier than burgers or anything fried. 

I have been told that it was very similar to the Kasahara variant of Pacific Northwest Teriyaki — long-marinated chicken thighs charbroiled, served over perfect medium grain rice, with steamed broccoli and carrots. I could have happily eaten a teriyaki chicken bowl six times a week. 

But in addition to the rice and chicken bowl, there was a snack called a steamroller that was a tortilla wrapped around a mix of vegetables, chicken, sauce and… cream cheese — trust me, it works — rolled tight like a sushi roll, then steamed and served as a side or a snack or even dessert. And those? Those were amazing and unlike anything available anywhere else. They were crave-able in a way that is rare in fast food.

Alas, Wok n Roll was not long for this world and while there were outlets in both Denver and Fort Collins, they were never as good as the Boulder one, and have not survived well, either. Denver’s is now catering only, and Fort Collins has teetered on the edge of survival. And they were too far away for a casual meal, so that meant I had to figure this out on my own. 

The chicken was the first priority. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are critical for the success of the dish, because they have a lot more flavor and enough fat that they stay juicy. Keep breasts far from this dish, the relatively small amount of fat in the thigh will not hurt and adds enormously to the flavor. 

I went through every version of bottled teriyaki sauce because I know enough about restaurants that while a secret sauce often exists in a higher end place, in fast food, the secret is often based on recombining available commodity products. I eventually hit on Mr Yoshida’s Original Sweet Teriyaki as my near identical marinade. 

Put a large pack of boneless, skinless chicken thighs in a large zip bag or sealable container and cover with liberal amounts of the Yoshida’s. Zip bag means you can use slightly less sauce because you can squeeze out the air. Then put that container in the refrigerator and forget about it for at least 24 hours, though two or three days won’t hurt it, either. (Want a spicier yakitori version? Add chili garlic in oil, about 1 tablespoon to a gallon zip bag of chicken and sauce and massage well.)

Nobody said this was a quick recipe, though mostly it’s waiting. 

Up to three days later: An hour and a half before you want to eat (or two hours if you want brown rice) measure out your rice cooker’s 3 cups of medium grain rice (Calrose, Kokusai, or Nishiki by preference), rinse your rice well, and start the cooker per instructions. 

If you have a charcoal grill, great, use that to cook this. If you have a gas grill, also great, use that. But if it’s below freezing and snowing? Use your oven’s broiler, turn on the fans and open a window, because the sauce will caramelize and give that smoky, charred flavor — and likely set off your smoke detector. Cook the chicken until it’s 165° F in the thickest part of the thigh by instant read thermometer or the probe thermometer on your oven. DISCARD THE MARINADE. It had raw chicken in it. It is no longer fit for human consumption.

You can also cook this stove-stop, using a heavy pan and patience; you have to let the sauce get thick/dark and kinda charred looking. (Least amount of smoke, but takes time.) Use some neutral oil and a dash of toasted sesame oil to cook it. 

Also: steam some broccoli, baby carrots, or a bag of frozen Normandy blend (carrots, sliced yellow carrots, cauliflower and broccoli). 

You have now all of the ingredients for the rice bowl. Add some extra teriyaki to taste, from the bottle, not the marinade. 

But we also have all of the ingredients for the steamroller, except the cream cheese and a tortilla — whole wheat or white, your choice, but the whole wheat ones are what the OG Wok n Roll used, and they’re slightly sweeter, and compliment the other flavors. 

For four steamrollers, finely chop a cup of steamed vegetables and about 6 ounces of chicken (one thigh). The finer, the better. Mix with 2 ounces of cream cheese and a light sprinkling of more Yoshida’s sauce. Divide into four approximate equal parts. 

Warm four tortillas, and place one quarter of the chicken and vegetable mix in a tortilla. Wrap burrito style — fold up the two sides, fold up the bottom, roll tightly — and repeat with the other three. Steam (microwave works) before serving. 

To make this vegan: use firm tofu cut into cubes and plant-milk cream cheese. Only marinate the tofu for up to a day, and sauté until crispy using a stovetop pan and some neutral vegetable oil, with a touch of toasted sesame sauce. Alternately, if you like Daring Foods plant-based chicken, or another plant-based chicken, those work well, too, but reduce the marinating time. 

Teriyaki Chicken and Steamrollers, Copycat of defunct Wok n Roll, Boulder.

• 2-3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1.5 cups (approx) Mr Yoshida’s original sweet teriyaki sauce, or a sweet teriyaki sauce to your taste
• Large plastic zip bag or sealable container
• At least a pound of broccoli and carrot mixed vegetables or Normandy mixed vegetables
• Medium grain rice, white or brown, to your taste
• Rice cooker or a well-practiced rice recipe for stovetop or Instant Pot
• Four tortillas
• 2 ounces cream cheese, or more, to taste

1. Marinate the chicken in the sauce in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours, up to 72 hours.

2. Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard the leftover marinade.

3. Cook rice per rice cooker instructions or well-practiced method.

4. Cook chicken over a grill, or under a broiler to internal temp of 165° F.

5. Steam vegetables.

6. Serve chicken and vegetables over rice, with additional fresh sauce as desired.

For the steamrollers:

1. Finely chop around 6 oz — one thigh — and a cup of vegetables together, and stir in at least two ounces of cream cheese. Warm these together in the microwave to ease stirring together. Add up to a tablespoon of sauce to make a cohesive mixture. 

2. Warm four tortillas. 

3. Wrap a quarter of the vegetable mix in a tortilla, fold as for a burrito, and steam (in the microwave works) before serving.