Homemade Japanese Teriyaki Sauce
If you love Asian cuisine or ever tried a cooking an Asian recipe, you’d probably learn that there are quite a few popular condiments and sauces involved in this cooking, such as soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, mirin, rice wine vinegar, and hoisin sauce, to name a few. Then when you get to Japanese-style cooking, one of the most famous sauces has to be the thick, glossy, Teriyaki sauce, made from pungent ingredients such as soy sauce, fresh ginger, garlic, chilis, saké (Japanese rice wine), toasted sesame oil, and spring onions – what can be better? It is one of my favorite Japanese sauces and can be used as marinade, glaze, or as a sauce on its own. I often marinade chicken thighs and wings or even rib-eye steaks in it before grilling or simply use it as a sweet, savory, sticky basting for Yakitori skewers or grilled vegetables such as bok choy, leeks, or spring onions. It also doubles as a very tasty dipping sauce to serve with just about any Asian street food, such as spring rolls, or as a condiment with rice bowls.
The thing is, buying and storing so many sauces can be overwhelming and expensive and if you don’t use them very often, they can get old quite easily and you’ll have to throw them away. So whenever there is a sauce or condiment that I can prepare when I need it, I call it a “repertoire recipe” and this way I can whip up a fresh batch whenever I need it. Yes, this is not always possible for all condiments and sauces, but it is very simple and quick to make your own Teriyaki sauce. You can of course buy Teriyaki sauce from a good supermarket or Japanese import store but speaking strictly flavorwise, I think this homemade Teriyaki sauce is so much better and has much more depth of flavor. Also, if you’re making your own Teriyaki sauce, you have complete control over the sweetness, saltiness, and heat as well as the thickness of your sauce, depending on what you’ll be using it for. Having a sugar content, this sauce will brown and caramelize nicely over the grill, which, in my books, is always desired.
If you make a large batch, store it in an airtight glass jar in the fridge and it will last for up to a week.
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
Ingredients
- ¼ c soy sauce
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp fresh ginger grated
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1-2 bird's eye chilis finely chopped
- 2 spring onions sliced into coins, white and light green parts only
- ½ tsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 tbsp mirin or saké alternatively use marsala or sherry
- 1 tsp corn starch
- 2 tbsp water
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, over medium heat, combine all the ingredients, save for the corn starch and water. Bring to a simmer and stir to allow the sugar to dissolve completely.
- Combine the corn starch and water, mixing thoroughly to dissolve the corn starch. Add to the simmering soy sauce mixture. Cook for 3-5 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly and becomes glossy. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
- If you're not using the sauce right away, store it in a glass jar in the fridge for up to a week.
Notes
- The recipe calls for saké (Japanese rice wine) or mirin (which is a sweeter version of saké) but if you don't have either, use marsala or sherry instead.
- This sauce makes an excellent, sweet/sticky marinade or glaze. Depending on what you'll be using it for, you may want to cook it longer to thicken is even more or add a few sploshes or water or saké to thin it out.
