Teriyaki Sauce

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There’s a good reason Teriyaki is one of Japan’s most well known sauces – it is a totally delicious sweet, salty, sticky, shiny, sauce which packs a huge flavour punch with layers of unami. Even better, it is very quick to make! 

Teriyaki is a sweet sauce made with soy sauce, sake, and mirin, (a sweet sake used in cooking). It is not a marinade, rather a glaze, which you spoon or brush onto the meat or fish whilst it is cooking. Once made, the sauce will keep well in the fridge, stored in an sealed container, for up to 1 month so I highly recommend keeping a batch ready to use in the fridge. You can use it in many ways and with many different ingredients such as:

• salmon
• chicken
• pork
• beef
• squid
• meatballs
• burgers
• stir frys
• donburi (rice) bowls

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There are many pre-made versions widely available in most supermarkets. They do vary however and some can be far too sweet, so I much prefer to make my own. The ingredients should all be available in large supermarkets and most definitely in Asian supermarkets. I know I can get everything I need at Ocado. Alternatively, try on line. The Japan Centre has a good selection of ingredients and delivers over the whole of the UK.

This recipe is very, very slightly adapted from Nagi’s recipe in Recipe Tin Eats. The only difference is that I add a tiny bit of sugar to mine. Nagi grew up in Australia after her Japanese parents immigrated there in the 1980s and I believe her recipes are very authentic. Interestingly her mum, Yumiko, also has a fabulous blog called Recipe Tin Japan. Her Teriyaki recipe, when served with salmon, has no added sugar whilst her recipe for Teriyaki when served with chicken, has more sugar than mine. So when it comes to added sugar, the only right answer is you chose according to your own palate! Mirin, one of the 3 main ingredients, is naturally quite sweet anyway, so you may prefer not to add any extra. However if you are used to pre-made versions, which tend to be very sweet, you may find you like some added sweetness.

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How to make Teriyaki Sauce

Collect the ingredients together:

• soy sauce. I use Kikkoman, salt reduced. Try to use Japanese soy sauce. If you only have light soy sauce, that will be fine but do not use dark soy sauce. It is too strong.
• cooking sake
• mirin
• water
• sugar

Now make the sauce:

1. Combine the soy sauce, cooking sake, mirin and water in a saucepan. If you find it difficult to gauge when the sauce has reduced by half, insert a wooden skewer into the sauce before you bring it to the boil and make a mark where the sauce comes to.
2. Make a second mark half way between your first mark and the base of the skewer.
3. Bring to a brisk simmer and reduce by half.
4. Use the skewer to check when you have sufficiently reduced the sauce.
5. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve
6. All done!
7. Remember to take the saucepan off the heat when checking the depth of the sauce, to avoid the steam burning you!)

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Alternative Recipes

When my daughters went off to university, I used to make a batch of this for them to take. They would remind me that not everybody can afford to have such well stocked cupboards or, indeed, have access to the correct ingredients. I am therefore sharing 2 additional copycat recipes using predominantly western ingredients. I am assuming that if you are interested in Japanese food, you are likely to have some soy sauce! Either of these recipes can directly replace the original one and are used in exactly the same way. The quantities are shown in the ‘Recipe Notes’ below.

Alternative recipe 1 –

This one is very similar to the original, although a little sweeter. When reducing the number of traditional ingredients you lose a level of the magical unami. The added sweetness is to compensate for this.

Ingredients:

• soy sauce – I use Kikkoman, salt reduced. Try to use Japanese soy sauce. If you only have light soy sauce, that will work at a push, but do not use dark soy sauce. It is too strong.
• port – I use supermarket port I buy for cooking. You do not need expensive aged port
• water
• runny honey

Method:

1. Measure all the ingredients into a saucepan and reduce by half. See above for tips on measuring the reduction.

Alternative recipe 2 –

This recipe was inspired by a recipe I saw on @chopsticksandapint. Alice shared a recipe from her mother using coca cola and soy sauce. It was not a teriyaki copycat but I thought it was a tremendous idea and tried it out with different proportions until I was happy with the result. This is the sweetest of the options above, as the coca cola brings a lot of sweetness, but it has the added benefit of using extremely accessible ingredients and is also alcohol free.

• coca cola – full sugar, classic coca cola
• soy sauce – I use Kikkoman, salt reduced
• water
• runny honey

Method:

1. Measure all the ingredients into a saucepan and reduce by half. See above for tips on measuring the reduction.

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Made this recipe?

If you make any of these recipes, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.