Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
This easy teriyaki sauce recipe comes together in 10 minutes and is great way to add tons of flavor to stir fries, teriyaki chicken, and more!
Easy Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
Teriyaki sauce, with its savory-sweet flavor profile, is incredibly versatile in the kitchen. Most famously, it’s used to make classic chicken teriyaki, where it acts as both a marinade and a glaze, imparting a beautiful sheen and rich taste.
But its applications extend far beyond chicken; teriyaki sauce is equally delicious with beef, fish, tofu, and vegetables. Teriyaki’s syrupy consistency makes it ideal for glazes, adding a glossy finish to grilled or roasted dishes, while its balanced flavor enhances stir-fries, noodle dishes, and even burgers!
Traditional Japanese teriyaki sauce is made with 4 ingredients in an equal ratio: soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar. It is a fairly thin, watery sauce, made without any thickeners.
We took that base recipe, scaled back the sugar slightly, and added a pinch of garlic and ginger to give the sauce a little extra pop of flavor. We also used a very small amount of cornstarch to thicken the sauce.
However, our homemade teriyaki sauce is still very similar to classic Japanese-style teriyaki sauce in texture, rather than sticky sweet glop you’ll often get in store-bought sauces.
This is my favorite teriyaki sauce because it has just the right amount of sweetness, without using anything cloyingly sweet like honey or pineapple juice. I especially love to use it for teriyaki salmon! (TIP: If you also love salmon, be sure to try my husband’s foolproof method to cook perfect salmon on the stovetop!)
Trust me, once you’ve tried making your own teriyaki sauce, you’ll never go back to the bottled stuff again!
Ingredients
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- 1/2 cup sake
- 1/2 cup mirin
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch + 3 Tablespoons of water
Helpful Kitchen Tools
Instructions
- Add all ingredients (except cornstarch and water) to a saucepan over medium heat and whisk to combine.
- While the mixture in the pan heats up, make a slurry with the cornstarch and water in a separate small bowl.
- Add the slurry to the pot of sauce, whisking to incorporate.
- Simmer the sauce until it starts to thicken. It’s ok if it starts to reach a boil, but don’t boil hard. When the sauce has reached your desired consistency, remove from heat.
Video Demo:
Prep Tips:
- Yield – This recipe makes about 12 ounces of sauce; give or take, depending on how long you let it reduce while cooking.
- Storage – Homemade teriyaki sauce can last up to a week in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Variations – If you’d like to keep this recipe close to the traditional Japanese teriyaki sauce recipe, you can omit the garlic, ginger, and cornstarch slurry. We used regular granulated sugar in this recipe, but you could alternatively use brown sugar.
- Gluten-Free Substitution – Use Tamari instead of soy sauce to make this a gluten free recipe. Another option is to use coconut aminos. More on this in the FAQ section below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does The Alcohol Cook Out Of Teriyaki Sauce?
Classic teriyaki sauce is made with mirin, a sweet Japanese cooking wine. It also contains sake, which is rice wine. Much of the alcohol will evaporate during cooking, and what is left will be a small amount compared to the overall volume of the sauce itself. However, if you want to make sure that all of the alcohol (or as much as possible) cooks off, you can bring the sauce to a boil for at least 3 minutes.
How Do You Make Teriyaki Sauce Gluten-Free?
Regular soy sauce, a main component of teriyaki sauce, is made with wheat and therefore not gluten free. However, there is a simple substitution that will make you sauce gluten free. Tamari is a Japanese soy sauce made with 100% soy beans, and is naturally gluten free. Use Tamari in place of soy sauce in this recipe for a gluten free teriyaki sauce.
Recipes Using Teriyaki Sauce To Try:
- Shortcut Teriyaki Chicken and Rice
- Teriyaki Salmon Hand Rolls
- Copycat Red Robin Chicken Teriyaki Burger
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce Recipe (Printable Recipe Card)
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Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
Equipment
- Saucepan
- whisk
- Mixing bowls
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sake
- 1/2 cup mirin
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger grated
- 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch + 3 Tablespoons of water
Instructions
- Add all ingredients (except cornstarch and water) to a saucepan over medium heat and whisk to combine.
- While the mixture in the pan heats up, make a slurry with the cornstarch and water in a separate small bowl.
- Add the slurry to the pot of sauce, whisking to incorporate.
- Simmer the sauce until it starts to thicken. It’s ok if it starts to reach a boil, but don’t boil hard. When the sauce has reached your desired consistency, remove from heat.
Video
Notes
- Yield – This recipe makes about 12 ounces of sauce; give or take, depending on how long you let it reduce while cooking.
- Storage – Homemade teriyaki sauce can last up to a week in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Variations – If you’d like to keep this recipe close to the traditional Japanese teriyaki sauce recipe, you can omit the garlic, ginger, and cornstarch slurry. We used regular granulated sugar in this recipe, but you could alternatively use brown sugar.
- Gluten-Free Substitution – Use Tamari instead of soy sauce to make this a gluten free recipe. Another option is to use coconut aminos.
Nutrition
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