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Cooking adventures in a small, closet sized, kitchen. - I came to realize that my meals were boring and that I had been eating the same few dishes over and over again for years. It was time for a change! I now spend my free time searching for, creating and trying tasty new recipes in my closet sized kitchen.

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Teriyaki Sauce

[heart_this] · Jul 8, 2007 · 16 Comments

Teriyaki (????) is a Japanese way of cooking where the food is broiled or grilled in a sweet soy sauce mixture. Many foods can be cooked in teriyaki style such as salmon, tuna, chicken, beef, zucchini, etc.
Teriyaki sauce is one of my favourite Japanese flvours. It is simple to make your own teriyaki sauce that tastes great. You can make a lot of teriyaki sauce and store it in the fridge until needed.
Mirin is a sweet rice wine that is similar to sake. You can also get an imitation mirin that has no alcohol in it. You should be able to find mirin in the asian section of your local grocery store or your local asian grocery store.
You can change the flavour of the sauce by changing the ratios of the soy, mirin, sake and sugar. The sugar can also be replaced with another sweetener such as brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc. You can also add extras like garlic or ginger.
Teriyaki Sauce

Teriyaki Sauce

Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 15 minutes Servings: 1/2 cup
ingredients
  • 3 tablespoons soy
  • 3 tablespoons mirin
  • 3 tablespoons sake
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
directions
  1. Heat in the soy, mirin, sake and sugar in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved.
Use in:
Cherry Teriyaki Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Cherry Teriyaki Chicken
Chicken Teriyaki
Zucchini and Onion Teriyaki
Teriyaki Mushroom Salad
Teriyaki Salmon and Asparagus, Spinach Salad
Teriyaki Black Cod Burger
Grilled Teriyaki Chicken and Pineapple Sandwich
Shrimp and Pineapple Teriyaki
Asparagus and Shiitake Mushroom Teriyaki Quinoa Salad

Food, Japanese, Maple, Recipe, Sauce, Vegetarian

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. katiez says

    July 9, 2007 at 2:24 pm

    See, there’s the problem… If I HAD a local Asian market…or an Asian section in my local supermarket I could actually buy teriyaki sauce and not have to make my own. As it is, I can’t get mirin or sake…sigh…
    I wonder if I could substitute sweet sherry for the mirin and dry for the sake?!?! Not the same, but close.
    Anyway, thanks for the recipe – I now have a starting point LOL

    Reply
  2. Ferdzy says

    July 13, 2007 at 2:16 am

    Ha! Non-alcoholic mirin? I’ve always shied away from going and looking for it because of the alcohol, which I need to avoid. Next time I’m out and about I’ll look for that.

    Reply
  3. Ferdzy says

    July 13, 2007 at 2:18 am

    Oh drat, that still leaves the sake. Any suggestions there?

    Reply
  4. Kevin says

    July 13, 2007 at 9:54 pm

    katiez: I have never tried using sherry in the teriyaki sauce. It sounds like it would be interesting to try.

    ferdzy: Sorry, I am do not know of a non-alcoholic sake… I am not sure this helps but; I am pretty sure that most if not all of the alcohol would be cooked off.

    Reply
  5. Feisty Artist says

    November 14, 2007 at 6:51 pm

    Interesting! I never thought about making my own Teriyaki sauce since it is easily found in most supermarkets. (look in the grill and marinade section, Katiez) As for the rice wines, I would look for one of those Liquor Superstores that have many varieties of beer and wine. 😉

    Reply
  6. Anonymous says

    March 5, 2008 at 6:51 pm

    Here’s a completely different recipe for teriyaki sauce that I use. The mixture of ginger, chilli, garlic and lime makes for an incredible smell when cooking. It’s soooo flavoursome, and nicer than the teriyaki sauces I’ve had out at restaurants!
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/teriyakisalmon_66107.shtml

    Reply
  7. Anonymous says

    March 5, 2008 at 6:52 pm

    doh.. it cut off- I’ll try again:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/
    database/teriyakisalmon_66107.
    shtml

    Reply
  8. Kevin says

    March 6, 2008 at 3:27 am

    I like the sound of using the lime in a teriyaki sauce.

    Reply
  9. Nicholas says

    March 23, 2008 at 11:14 pm

    I’m not sure if you’ve found this out already, ferdzy, but you might check your local ABC store for some Sake – that’s where I got a bottle for myself.

    Reply
  10. Tumerica says

    March 25, 2008 at 12:31 am

    Exactly, Closet Cooking! Paying good money for teriyaki sauce is like paying someone for the air you breathe. Too simple, too easy–no way should that cost anything extra. Takes only a minute or two to throw the ingredients in a pot and simmer. What’s the big deal? Makes me crazy to see how American consumers are lead to believe that they can’t cook by all the ready made stuff out there. It’s something that takes time to make, like curry powder–that’s understandable. The hardest part about teriyaki is just having mirin on hand. Simple. Now, to go make some teri sauce for our salmon supper. Yum!

    Reply
  11. Anonymous says

    July 1, 2008 at 4:17 am

    I’ve heard that soy and BBQ sauce make an excellent teriyaki!!

    Bonus tip: Mix in a blender with fresh sardines/anchovies for extra flavor!!!

    Reply
  12. Anonymous says

    July 24, 2008 at 1:58 am

    Huh!

    Just now looking at some teriyaki sauce recipe and many have mirin/sake in it.

    Never made it that way, just use shoyu (soy sauce), sesame seed oil, sugar. Boil then simmer until thickened. Add a bit of flour, cornstarch or other thickeners for a basting sauce.

    Substitute and add in other ingredients and you’re done

    Sugar can be brown, cane, molasses, honey, etc.

    Additions can be toasted sesame seeds, ginger, garlic, onions, scallions, peppers, etc.

    Have fun 🙂

    Reply
  13. Anonymous says

    July 31, 2008 at 1:10 am

    Katiez… I have a recipe. Used for chicken.

    Use 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup sherry, and 1/3 cup honey.

    Mix: 1 tablespoon water with 2 tablespoons cornstarch and add for a thickener.

    Link

    I think it came from a cookbook that came with a 70’s GE Microwave. Tastes great and all ingredients are very common.

    Reply
  14. Bob - Alameda CA says

    August 6, 2008 at 9:15 pm

    Some misconceptions, rectified:

    FIRST, yes … you can use all the dealcoholized items you want. OR, you can just cook it a bit longer, and evaporate all the alcohol! 99% of the original 3% is gone with 5 minutes of gentle simmering. That leaves 0.03%, or LESS than commercially dealcoholized products!!!

    SECOND, these recipes specify simple ingredients, yet miss the point when it comes to aromatizing flavors. Peeling the orange zest off a single orange into the sauce while it is cooling off is just amazing. Using a half cup of orange juice from the same orange gives a very pleasant tang to the sauce.

    THIRD, there’s the authenticity factor. Any asian food store, no matter how small and hole-in-the-wall will have tapioca starch. Japanese NEVER use “corn” starch, since it doesn’t result in a sauce but more of a gel. I paid $0.75 (can you believe ANYTHING less than a dollar these days?) for a hefty 1/2 lb bag of the stuff just last week at a Filippino store. This is the secret to thickening. It also not-so-coincidentally makes WAY better gravies, bisques, thickened sauces and even bulked up light cream soups. This is a must-have secret incredient.

    FOURTH, all good teriyaki sauces should have a dash of rice vinegar. Mirin and Sake notwithstanding, a tablespoon of rice vinegar adds to the aromaticity. Further, you’ve never eaten salad until you have it with a rice-vinegar, minced shallot, squeeze of lime, light olive oil, salt and tarragon dressing. Just scruptious.

    LASTLY, I recommend making 4 cups at a time, since the labor is exactly the same, and it stores for a LONG time in the refrigerator in a well-cleaned Ball canning jar, or recycled sauce (glass) container.

    Talk back at [email protected] if you like.

    Reply
  15. maY says

    August 8, 2008 at 5:46 pm

    nice, i’ll try this recipe. thx

    Reply
  16. CarolinaDreamz says

    October 12, 2008 at 6:02 pm

    Thank you for posting this recipe. I’ve enjoyed the comments, too. I live outside of Charleston, today, and I’m now completely out of Mirin. I’ve used quite a bit of gas to find it, where I’ve seen it before.. nothing. I am going to have to turn to mail-order. Sad.

    Reply

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Kevin: I came to realize that my meals were boring and that I had been eating the same few dishes over and over again for years. It was time for a change! I now spend my free time searching for, creating and trying tasty new recipes in my closet sized kitchen.
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