It’s empowering to learn how to make your own sauces and condiments. Most sauces aren’t difficult to make, and home cooks only assume they’re difficult because of how readily available these items are on our grocery store shelves. 

But after you learn the easy teriyaki sauce recipe below, you’ll never buy a bottle again. This thick, sweet sauce comes together in under ten minutes and contains none of the preservatives you may find in store-bought varieties. Plus, the sauce tastes just as fresh as the kind you’d eat at your favorite Japanese restaurant. 

Teriyaki is more than just a sauce. It’s a style of cooking. Think back to your favorite Japanese restaurant. You probably first tried teriyaki as a glaze on a grilled dish, right? The famed Japanese teriyaki sauce refers to the traditional preparation style, no matter how people use the condiment now. 

The word “teriyaki” contains two parts. “Teri” means “shine” and “yaki” means “grilled” in Japanese. Traditional teriyaki sauce ingredients include two different types of rice wine: mirin and sake. When prepared authentically, the glaze only contains soy sauce, these two wines, and some sugar. 

Since you may not stock mirin or sake on your bar at home, the honey teriyaki sauce recipe below duplicates these flavors in a mix of sugars, spices, and water.

Preparation time: 1 minute

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Total time: 6 minutes

Servings: 12 two-tablespoon servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup soy sauce

• 1 ¼ cup water, divided

• ½ teaspoon ground ginger (or substitute for minced fresh ginger)

• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder (or 1 clove garlic, minced) 

• 5 tablespoons packed brown sugar

• 1-2 tablespoons honey

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Preparation instructions 

1. Add the soy sauce, 1 cup of water, ground ginger, garlic powder, brown sugar, and honey to a saucepan and whisk to combine the ingredients.

2. Cook the mixture over medium-low heat for 2 minutes. 

3. In the meantime, whisk together the remaining one-quarter cup of water and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. 

Chef’s tip: Cornstarch mixed with water is known as “slurry.” Cooks use cornstarch as a thickening agent, and slurry is especially efficient because you whisk out any pesky chunks of cornstarch. If you just added the powder straight to your recipe, you might end up with chunks. You can use slurry to thicken all sorts of sauces, from Italian creams to different Asian condiments and broths.

1. Mix the cornstarch slurry into the simmering mixture and stir well to combine. The sauce will immediately thicken up. If the sauce gets too thick, you can thin it out by stirring in some water. 

2. Remove the sauce from the heat and enjoy as a condiment or marinade. 

Recipe adapted from Food.com

Nutrition Information

• Nutrition Information

• Calories: 36

• Fat: None

• Saturated Fat: None

• Cholesterol: None

• Sodium: 1199 milligrams

• Carbohydrate: 8.1 grams

• Fiber: 0.2 grams

• Sugar: 5.5 grams ‍

• Protein: 1.4 grams

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How to use teriyaki sauce

Teriyaki sauce marinade

‍Use teriyaki sauce to infuse your food with flavor. You can rub the condiment over raw meat or tofu before cooking. For best results, place the food you wish to marinate in a plastic freezer bag with plenty of teriyaki sauce. Close the bag and shake it gently to coat the food well. Refrigerate the marinated ingredients for up to eight hours, and then, when you go to grill or sauté the food, generously brush on more sauce. If you’re in a hurry, you can also skip the marinating step entirely and brush the sauce on meat or fish right before grilling. Speedy teriyaki salmon, anyone? 

Teriyaki sauce chicken

‍It’s simple to add teriyaki to a stir fry with vegetables, poultry, or meat. Heat the neutral oil of your choice or sesame oil in a skillet and sauté cubed chicken (or tofu, if you’re vegetarian) until tender and cooked through. Then, in the last couple of minutes of cooking, add teriyaki sauce and a splash of water. Let the liquid reduce down, and you’ll end up with a flavorful, take-out style teriyaki chicken dish. 

Variations

Teriyaki sauce without cornstarch

‍You can try a more authentic teriyaki sauce recipe if you don’t like the sticky texture that cornstarch creates. In this preparation, sugar and alcohol help the marinade reduce into a thick sauce, and you won’t have to use even a pinch of cornstarch. To make, add the following ingredients to a small saucepan over medium-low heat: one-half cup of sake, one-half cup mirin, one-half cup soy sauce, and one-quarter cup sugar. Stir well to combine and simmer until thick, around 15 minutes. ‍

Gluten-free teriyaki sauce

‍If you’re gluten free, you likely can’t buy many ready-made teriyaki products. You’re a perfect candidate for making delicious teriyaki sauce at home, with one simple gluten-free substitution: Use tamari or coconut aminos in place of traditional soy sauce in your recipe. Regular soy sauce is often an ingredient in these condiments, and it contains a mix of soy and wheat. Tamari is a wheat-free soy sauce by definition, and coconut aminos taste a lot like soy sauce. Remember that tamari and liquid aminos are saltier than traditional soy sauce, so start with smaller amounts of these ingredients and scale up as needed.

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If you’re ready to start making your own condiments at home, Gopuff can help you gather ingredients. Gopuff will bring you produce, spices, rice wine, and yes, pre-made teriyaki sauce in minutes. If you can find it on the shelf at a grocery store, we can deliver it to your door.