You can make your own teriyaki sauce at home without too much fuss and skip the extra additives and sweeteners found in store-bought versions. All you need is four basic ingredients.
Kitchn explains in its simple teriyaki sauce recipe that the base for this condiment starts with tamari or soy sauce. Tamari is wheat-free, thicker and richer in color and flavor than soy sauce.
In addition to soy sauce or tamari, this teriyaki sauce recipe calls for light brown sugar, sake and sugar-free mirin. Mirin is sake’s sweeter, less-alcoholic cousin. You can also substitute dry sherry or a sweet marsala wine for the mirin if you’re in a pinch, according to Bon Appétit.
You can also add some ginger or lime if you’re so inclined. To make it, bring all the ingredients to a boil in a pot on the stove and then let them simmer until reduced by half.
If you’d like to try another version of a teriyaki sauce recipe that has a few more ingredients, The Daring Gourmet has a Westernized version that uses soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, honey, sesame oil, mirin and water mixed with cornstarch.
Allrecipes also has a popular teriyaki sauce recipe that adds garlic powder.
What can you use teriyaki sauce on? Try it as a glaze on meats and seafood and in salad dressings, stir-fries and noodle dishes. It’s also good as a dipping sauce. If you plan on marinating something in teriyaki, skip the cornstarch step in the recipes from Allrecipes and the The Daring Gourmet so you have a thinner solution.
Teriyaki sauce was most likely created in Hawaii by Japanese immigrants who came to work in the sugar and pineapple fields on the islands and added their cuisine to the melting pot of food that now remains. Fun fact: In Hawaii, soy sauce — which is a key ingredient in teriyaki sauce — is often called by its Japanese name, shoyu.
Have you ever made your own teriyaki sauce?
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