The recipe for teriyaki sauce at home. How to make it and what it is eaten with.

And so, the recipe for teriyaki sauce. Yes, not just one, but six, we hope you will definitely choose yours.

What is teriyaki sauce

In appearance, this sauce is not much different from others: thick consistency and dark brown color. Teriyaki consists of 4 main ingredients, which in different recipes can change their proportions or be included with additional components.

Key ingredients of teriyaki:

• Soy sauce.
• Sake / mirin.
• Ginger.
• Sugar.
• Spices to taste.

Literally translated from Japanese, teriyaki also has its own special meaning: “teri” means shiny, and “yaki” means fried. And this sauce really adds shine to any dish, since when frying, the sugar included in the sauce caramelizes and covers the treat with a beautiful glossy crust.

In oriental cuisine, there is also a recipe of the same name for making shish kebab called “teriyaki,” which requires the mandatory use of this sauce: the meat is first soaked in this sauce and then fried.

In our modern cuisine, the term “teriyaki” can mean any dish that has been marinated in this mixture or served paired with this sauce.

What does Japanese teriyaki sauce smell and taste like?

The taste of teriyaki is sweet and salty, with a slight hint of caramel due to the often melted sugar. And if the Eastern version of teriyaki is traditionally sweet and salty with a distinct umami flavor, there is another version of this sauce – the Western one.

In the last recipe, the basic concept does not change, the teriyaki remains sweet and salty, but ginger, sesame and garlic are added to it. These additional components fill the sauce with a harmonious taste and make it more interesting.

Teriyaki smells more sweet than salty. And if compared to soy sauce, it has much more spice.

The sauce is not spicy, rather piquant, although its name tells many people otherwise.

The benefits and harms of teriyaki sauce

Often, for flavor saturation, natural sodium glutamate is added to the sauce, which makes the taste brighter and richer.

When a flavor enhancer enters into a chemical bond with proteins and fats, cooked foods become aromatic in smell and piquant in taste. It is often because of this flavor enhancement that teriyaki is considered somewhat unhealthy.

The addition of monosodium glutamate enhances the taste and smell of spices. If you add this sauce even to ordinary pasta, it will seem like an unearthly and delicious dish. At the same time, even after eating food, a pleasant aftertaste remains.

If we consider the advantages of the sauce from the other side, they can sharply turn into disadvantages, since any product cooked in teriyaki marinade quickly loses its natural taste and smell.

This is exactly what low-quality food producers take advantage of, using stale or stale food in their kitchens. Monosodium glutamate also has another not very useful property: it increases appetite, so you have to eat even more with it.

How to choose and where to buy

Making your own teriyake sauce is primarily about saving your budget. In its finished form, this store-bought mixture is not cheap. You can also notice the high cost of teriyaki in comparison with soy sauce: the royal mixture contains many more ingredients.

The Western store-bought version of teriyaki often does without mirin, but it contains ginger, garlic, sugar and sesame oil. Some versions of Western teriyaki often include green onions or pineapple juice.

And yet, if you go to the store, you can find 2 main types of teriyaki:

• Liquid – will be the best component in preparing the marinade.
• Thick – used universally and is considered a more profitable purchase than liquid sauce.

To really understand what consistency the sauce is in front of you, tilt the bottle a little and you will immediately determine its viscosity.

One of the Japanese companies produces a traditional (universal) version of Original teriyaki, which has the most intense taste, and its composition necessarily includes: mirin, sesame, ginger and the best oriental spices.

This type of teriyaki is suitable for dipping ready-made products, such as sushi, into it, and for using it as ketchup. By covering the dish (including when frying), it creates a thick layer of caramel.

If you don’t see teriyaki sauce in local stores, you can always order it online from a reputable seller. Also, when buying on the Internet, you can get acquainted with several varieties of teryaki at once and find out how one variety differs from another. It is extremely difficult to find such information in a regular supermarket.

Simple step by step recipe

If you need to serve chicken or fish in a special way, but without bothering, then teriyaki sauce can be prepared even with the help of a not too full refrigerator (from improvised products).

We will need:

• 0.2 liters of soy sauce.
• 0.05 l of water.
• 4 tablespoons of sugar.
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (lemon juice).
• 5 garlic cloves.
• 1 tsp dried ginger (if available).
• 3 tbsp sunflower oil.
• 2 tsp starch.

How to prepare the sauce:

1. Mix water and soy sauce in a saucepan and put on fire.
2. Add sugar until it is completely dissolved.
3. At the moment of boiling, add ginger, garlic, starch, apple cider vinegar and sunflower oil to the mixture. The future sauce will need to simmer over low heat for up to 7 minutes.
4. At this time, you will need to add enough starch to make the teriyaki thick enough.

So “homey” Teriyaki is very easy to prepare and then use as a marinade for chicken.

Classic teriyaki sauce recipe at home

Our respected Ilya Isaakovich Lazerson prepares this recipe. And we share it with you.

We will need:

How to prepare the sauce:

1. First of all, chop the garlic and ginger.
2. Next, pour soy sauce into a saucepan and add chili, honey, sugar and add ginger and garlic, boil for 10 minutes.
3. In another saucepan, begin to evaporate the juice of half an orange and mirin, at this time three zests.
4. We send the evaporated juice and zest to the soy sauce, wait for it to boil and remove all the thick ingredients with a sieve, leaving it on low heat.
5. Dilute the starch in a small amount of cold water and gradually add it to the sauce.
6. Add olive oil, mix well and turn off the heat.
7. Let it cool and the classic teriyaki at home is ready!

Spicy sauce

If you decide to really surprise your guests, then definitely cook teriyaki with spices. With them, the main dish will be spicy and rich in taste. By the way, this teriyaki is prepared without wine.

We will need:

• 150 ml soy sauce.
• 75 ml water.
• 1 tbsp wine vinegar.
• 1 tsp starch.
• 2-3 tsp of sugar.
• 1 st/l of honey.
• 1 tsp sunflower oil.
• 1 tsp sesame seeds.
• 1 tsp dried ginger.
• 1 tsp dried garlic.

As we can see, the recipe consists of a very small amount of ingredients, so you can prepare teriyaki in such quantities very quickly.

Recipe:

1. Pour in all the ingredients in the required quantities. Cane sugar can be replaced with regular sugar, rice wine with wine vinegar. Ginger and garlic – fresh will do, but later the mixture will have to be strained to remove the pieces.
2. In a dry frying pan, fry the sesame seeds until golden brown, then add vegetable oil and fry for another minute.
3. In the same pan, add sugar, ginger, garlic, wine vinegar and soy sauce. Wait for it to boil and cook for 1-1.5 minutes.
4. Dissolve starch in water. If the consistency of the sauce is not too thick, you can add another 1 tbsp of starch. Pour the starch solution into the pan and cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Add honey to the pan and cook until it is completely dissolved. If fresh ingredients (garlic and ginger) were used in the preparation, then now is the time when you can strain the mixture from the pieces of fresh ingredients.
6. After preparation, the sauce is poured into a suitable glass jar and stored in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 days.

Teriyaki with pineapple

The sauce recipe itself includes pineapple, which goes great with chicken.

We will need:

• Pineapple – 2 pcs.
• Onion – 1 pc.
• Garlic – 6 cloves
• Basil – 0.5 bunch
• Salt, pepper – to taste 
• Soy sauce – 4 tbsp. l.
• Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp. l.
• Water – 200 ml

Recipe:

1. Let’s start with pineapples: select ripe fruits and carefully cut off the top. Next, we take out the pulp from the fruit, cut it into pieces and set it aside for now.
2. Cut the onion to taste: into rings or finely, then fry it until tender
3. Add soy sauce and pineapple pieces with water to the onion, simmer until the moisture has evaporated slightly.
4. Add chopped basil to the almost finished dish and simmer for another 15 minutes.
5. Salt, pepper and add a little oil for shine, mix well and you’re done.

During the process, you can add chicken fillet and you will get a complete dish. The rice is served separately on the plate, and the chicken with all the ingredients is right inside the empty pineapple.

With honey

The recipe is very similar to the classic one, but it has its own nuances.

We will need:

• Half a glass of soy sauce.
• Half a glass of sugar.
• A quarter glass of water.
• 1 st/l of honey.
• 2 tsp starch, preferably corn starch.
• 1 clove of minced garlic.
• 2 tablespoons of mirin.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of red pepper flakes.
• 2 tsp fresh but grated ginger.

Recipe:

1. In a small container, combine everything except starch and honey.
2. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Pour 2 tbsp of sauce into a small bowl and add starch, mix.
3. Return this small part of the sauce back to the general container and continue cooking for another 10 minutes. After this, the sauce should become thicker.
4. Remove from heat and pour in honey, stir and leave to cool.

With orange

This orange teriyaki recipe goes well with salmon or salmon.

Sauce composition:

• 1 tablespoon of oil.
• A quarter cup of soy sauce, but not salty, low in Na.
• An eighth of a glass of water.
• 2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar.
• 1 tbsp wine vinegar.
• 3 tablespoons of fresh orange juice.
• 1 tsp starch, preferably corn starch.
• 1 tbsp water.
• Green onions and sesame seeds for garnish.

Recipe:

1. Add water, brown sugar and soy sauce, orange juice and vinegar to the pan.
2. After boiling, place on low heat.
3. In a small bowl, mix starch and water. Pour the resulting mixture into the sauce and boil for up to 3 minutes.

The resulting teriyaki sauce is poured over the salmon and topped with sesame seeds or green onions. This way the dish turns out not only tasty, but also bright.

How to use teriyaki sauce in cooking and what to eat it with

The sauce is universally applicable! Teriyaki is served not only in Japan, but also in other countries, as it goes well with a wide variety of dishes and products.

Pairs perfectly with fried meat (of any origin): chicken, grilled baked ribs, regular steaks, beefsteaks, kebabs, etc. But in order for the marinade to fit the dish perfectly, some rules must be followed:

• Meat – only from the fire.
• The sauce is cold and thick.

The sauce is also suitable for fried fish and potatoes, seafood, rice and seafood gourmet cuisine. Teriyaki can be used before cooking meat and fish as a marinade – simply soak the product in the sauce. The taste of the finished dish will definitely amaze you.

And another use for teriyaki is as a better dip. You can dip bread, French fries, crackers, carrots, sausage and any other snack into it.

What to replace

Don’t be afraid that you won’t be able to find some exotic ingredients; the sauce can be prepared using more familiar ingredients. You just need to know what to replace it with.

For example, regular brown sugar from cane, sake or mirin (rice wine) – white wine and sugar in the following proportion: 2 tbsp mirin = 1-2 tbsp sugar and half a glass of white wine.

With a slight stretch, teriyaki can be replaced with unagi sauce.

How and how much to store

If the newly prepared sauce is immediately poured into a clean glass vessel and refrigerated, the teriyaki can be used within a month. Store-bought sauce will have a slightly longer shelf life – about 6 weeks, provided that the product is stored in the refrigerator. Just in case, read the instructions well.

For long-term use, teriyaki can also be frozen. Frozen sauce can stay in the freezer compartment for up to six months, but physically it will not completely freeze due to the presence of a large amount of salt.

Friends, criticize and add your recipes in the comments, we will be glad! And here is another sauce recipe from chef Vasily Emelianenko.