An easy homemade teriyaki sauce recipe made from pantry staples. This sauce is bold and thick and is great as a marinade or as a sauce served with your favorite meats or vegetables.
In the mood for teriyaki? Make up a batch of this sauce and then use it to make Teriyaki Chicken Pizza or Bacon Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken Skewers!
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce Recipe
There are lots of things I used to never considered making before, turning instead to the conveniently bottled versions. Salad dressings, mayonnaise, etc. Some of them I still buy bottled – mayonnaise – and some I make from scratch at home – salad dressings. One of these condiments that I love to make from scratch is homemade Teriyaki sauce. It is so super easy and good, it made me wonder why I ever bought the store bought kind!
This homemade teriyaki sauce recipe only takes minutes to make, and tastes a lot better than the jarred sauce. This sauce is great just served as a sauce alongside your favorite meats as well as a marinade. I love that it is so versatile!
Ingredients
Brown Sugar: I use light brown sugar. You could also up the amount of honey, but I think they both bring in different flavors, so I like to use both.
Soy Sauce: I always use low sodium soy sauce. You could also use tamari.
Honey: If you like the sauce sweeter, use 2 tablespoons, otherwise just use one.
Garlic: I always have fresh garlic on hand, so I like to use fresh. You could sub in garlic powder. If you do, you’ll need about 1/4 teaspoon.
Ginger: I don’t always have fresh ginger on hand, so that is why I use ground ginger. Feel free to use fresh if you do have it, though. You’ll need 1-2 tablespoons of fresh ginger if you do sub.
Cornstarch: This is what will thicken up your sauce. The sauce will get decently thick, so if you prefer a thinner sauce, feel free to cut this amount in half.
How to Make Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
It really doesn’t get much easier than this recipe!
1: Start by combining all of your ingredients except the cornstarch and 1/4 cup of water. Whisk to combine, and set over medium heat.
2: In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and the 1/4 cup water.
3: Pour the cornstarch mixture into the saucepan.
4: Cook, whisking, until the sauce thickens.
How to Use This Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
This homemade teriyaki sauce makes a thicker sauce that the bottled sauce, so it would be good served on top of something, but I have also used it as a marinade. If you don’t want it thick as a marinade you can skip adding the cornstarch and extra water.
Here are some of my favorite ways to use this sauce:
As sauce with grilled chicken
Add it to chicken pieces and broccoli and serve over rice
As a glaze for salmon
Mixed into noodles
In any stir fry
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce Video
If you want to watch how this teriyaki sauce is made, watch the video above.
Storage
I usually make this teriyaki sauce when I need it, but it’s also great to just have on hand for an easy dinner.
I store it in a mason jar in the refrigerator. I will usually try to go through it in a week or less, but really, it should be good for 2-3 weeks if stored properly.
I have not tried to freeze this, although I’m assuming it would freeze well.
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An easy homemade teriyaki sauce recipe made from pantry staples. This sauce is bold and thick and is great as a marinade or as a sauce served with your favorite meats or vegetables.
Ingredients
1cup(8 oz) water
5tablespoons(67 g) packed light brown sugar
1/4cup(2 oz) low sodium soy sauce
1-2tablespoonshoney
1large clove garlic,minced
1/2teaspoonground ginger
2tablespoonscornstarch
1/4cup(2 oz) cold water
Instructions
Combine the 1 cup water, brown sugar, soy sauce, honey, garlic, and ginger in a medium saucepan and set over medium heat.
In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with the 1/4 cup water and whisk until dissolved. Add the cornstarch mixture to the saucepan.
Heat the sauce until it thickens to your desired thickness. If the sauce becomes too thick, add more water to thin it out.
Nutrition information provided as an estimate only. Various brands and products can change the counts. Any nutritional information should be used as a general guide.
Authentic Japanese teriyaki sauce combines soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake to create a distinctively sharp taste, with Westernized versions incorporating honey, garlic, and ginger for added edge. Cornstarch is often added to teriyaki sauce as a thickener.
A simple and effective substitute for teriyaki sauce is a combination of soy sauce and brown sugar. The soy sauce provides the salty umami flavor, while the brown sugar adds sweetness and helps to caramelize the dish. To make this substitute, mix one part soy sauce with one part brown sugar.
Home cooks should be aware of the two versions of teriyaki sauce when they go shopping. The thinner teriyaki sauce makes for a better a marinade, though in our teriyaki taste test, we determined you're better off making your own teriyaki marinade at home than buying a bottle of the thin stuff.
Add the cornstarch mixture to the teriyaki sauce, whisking until dissolved. This teriyaki sauce will give you about 1 cup of teriyaki sauce. This sauce keeps well in the fridge in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
You can always buy mirin online, but if you're really in a crunch, you can sub in a dry sherry or a sweet marsala wine. Dry white wine or rice vinegar will also do, though you'll need to counteract the sourness with about a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar for every tablespoon you use. And once you do? Congratulations.
Marinating meat provides juice flavor and a tender meat consistency (via MadamnGRecipe). In contrast, teriyaki sauce adds instant flavor gratification and has a consistency that is usually thicker than a marinade. It is used for basting or pouring over meat as it cooks.
Hoisin Sauce is Chinese and based on fermented soybean paste, whereas teriyaki sauce only has a small component of soy sauce. Hoisin sauce is therefore much thicker and saltier compared to its Japanese counterpart, as teriyaki sauce tends to be sweeter.
If you want to turn your teriyaki marinade into a sauce you can serve with your meal, simply add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and ½ cup of water to the other ingredients. Simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce the sauce until it thickens to your desired consistency.
Teriyaki sauce typically contains soy sauce, sugar, and mirin (a sweet rice wine), while soy sauce is made from soybeans, wheat, salt, and fermenting agents.
Panda Express Mandarin Sauce is the same savory sweet condiment that you get over chicken at the popular fast food joint. You can now enjoy it in your own home with beef, pork, poultry, veggies and more. This Panda teriyaki sauce is free of high fructose corn syrup for a more wholesome experience.
You make up a base of mirin, soy, dashi, sake, etc and baste the fish (or whatever) as you cook it in the pan. The base reduces with the juice of the meat and you get teriyaki. In short: they don't use teriyaki sauce, they make it as they make the dish. Good Japanese restaurants often make their own.
Homemade teriyaki marinade, on the other hand, usually doesn't have that long of a shelf life, because it often contains perishable ingredients such as garlic. So for homemade teriyaki, it definitely makes sense to freeze it. The easiest way to freeze teriyaki sauce is in an ice cube tray.
The USDA agrees, stating that shelf-stable soy sauce and teriyaki sauce are safe when stored at room temperature after opening and that quality, not safety, is why these products suggest refrigeration after opening.
Tamari and tahini have many more differences than they do similarities. Whereas Tamari comes completely from soybeans, tahini is made purely from sesame seeds. Unlike Tamari, tahini involves no fermentation. Instead, it is produced by grinding sesame seeds into a spreadable paste.
Ultimately, while teriyaki is of Japanese descent and a traditional method of preparing and cooking meats, the origins of the classic teriyaki dish that we know and consume today is Japanese-American. It is the by-product of American colonization, immigration patterns, and cultural collaboration.
The ingredient has been around for hundreds of years, but today's versions are varied. The sauce, which once had a base of soy sauce and mirin, now includes other star ingredients like onions, ginger, garlic, pineapple juice, sugar, and in some cases, even bourbon.
Teriyaki sauce has a complex flavour; a mixture of sweet and savoury, tangy and salty. The sweetness comes from the sweet wine and the caramelisation of the sugar, honey or syrup, which also gives the sauce its shiny glaze.
Introduction: My name is Chrissy Homenick, I am a tender, funny, determined, tender, glorious, fancy, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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