Easy Teriyaki Sauce
- PREP 5min
- COOK 5min
- TOTAL 10min
This homemade teriyaki sauce is incredibly versatile! Use it as a marinade, stir-fry sauce, or glaze for chicken, salmon, or shrimp. I love the depth of flavor that sake adds, but if you don’t have any, check out the tips section below for easy substitutes.
This recipe makes about 2 cups of sauce – plenty to keep in your fridge for weeks! If you’d prefer a smaller batch, simply use this ratio: 1 part soy sauce, 1 part sugar, 1/2 part sake, 1/4 part rice vinegar.
You Will Need
1 cup (235ml) low-sodium soy sauce
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar, see notes for lowering sugar
1/2 cup (120ml) sake (Japanese rice wine)
1/4 cup (60ml) rice vinegar
1 heaping tablespoon finely grated ginger, see notes
Directions
Combine ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.
For a thick and shiny sauce, bring the teriyaki sauce to a simmer and cook for an extra 5 to 10 minutes. Cool.
Store the sauce in the refrigerator for several weeks. You can also freeze it for up to three months. If it ever seems too thick, thin it with a tablespoon or so of water.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Substitute for sake: We love the delicate flavor of sake for teriyaki sauce, but if you cannot find it, there are some alternatives. Mirin is a sweeter version of sake. You can either swap it for the sake and leave the sugar amount as is or pull back on the amount of sugar slightly to accommodate the extra sweetness (Try 3/4 cup of sugar instead of 1 cup). Dry vermouth or dry sherry can also work as a substitute.
- Can I reduce the sugar: The 1:1 ratio of sugar to soy sauce makes a nicely balanced sauce similar to great teriyaki restaurants and bottled sauces. It’s delicious, but if you are concerned with the amount of sugar, you can get away with reducing it. Reducing the sugar from 1 cup to 3/4 cup or even 1/2 cup should work. Since the sauce does not need to cook long, you can taste it as you go. Start with 1/2 cup, taste, and then increase the sugar until you are happy with the balance of salt and sweet.
- Ginger: We use a Microplane rasp grater for the ginger, which helps it “melt” into the sauce. You can finely mince it, but you will be left with bits of ginger in the sauce.
- Cornstarch: We omit cornstarch in our recipe. Some teriyaki sauce recipes call for a bit of cornstarch mixed with water added to the saucepan to thicken the sauce. We find that an extra few minutes of simmering thicken the sauce enough for us, but you can include it if preferred.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.