11 Tips For Making The Best Teriyaki Sauce

There's an important distinction to be made when talking about teriyaki and teriyaki sauce. In Japan, teriyaki is a dish that encompasses quite a few things. Yaki means grill, and the word teri is simply the Japanese word for shine. Teriyaki is the cooking technique that bastes proteins on the grill with a sweet, soy-based sauce. The sugar caramelizes, giving the meat a shiny finish common to all teriyaki-style foods. It's also traditionally made with three of Japan's favorite ingredients and little else. Soy sauce, mirin, and sake make up the majority of the sauce, while a little sugar might also be added. A pinch of an aromatic like ginger or garlic or the occasional chili isn't frowned upon, either.

Here, we equate teriyaki with the sauce we use in multiple ways, dipping and drizzling our way through loads of sweet-salty goodness. It's easy enough to make, so why not start trying it at home? That way, you can customize it to your liking and make as much as you want. My preference is the more traditional version that I've learned to make working in a Japanese kitchen, mainly for the simplicity, ease of preparation, and the fact that I can add as much shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) as I want. I do have a favorite store-bought brand, but after making loads of sauce myself, I realized just how salty the pre-made stuff is. If you're a fan of Japanese flavors and have a few basic ingredients on hand, I suggest you give it a go.

We suggest that you try the basic method at least once, just to get a taste of the traditional recipe. But after that, you can start adding nearly anything that tickles you. The most common additions are ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, or chili. While traditional Japanese cooking relies on a delicate balance of flavors, sometimes you just want a little more boldness on your plate. If that's the case, feel free to amp up your sauce as you go.

One of our key spice blends for bold teriyaki sauce is still Japanese, so you can rest assured that it plays well with the other ingredients (you didn't think we were going to say Everything Bagel, did you?). If you're not familiar with shichimi togarashi, you're in for a delightful surprise. The spice mixture, also known as Japanese Seven Spice, is a perfectly balanced mixture of heat, citrus, and smokiness, made with citrus peel, sesame seeds, ginger, ground peppers, and nori. Other ingredients, such as poppy seeds, Sichuan peppercorns, or shiso can be used as well, so read the label ingredients to find a blend you'll prefer.

Most old-school Japanese recipes don't suggest substituting honey for sugar in teriyaki because of the stronger flavor, but it is an ingredient you'll often see in more Westernized versions. If you prefer honey or even maple syrup and don't mind the flavor, then you can go ahead and squeeze some in. Substituting cane sugar for white won't make much of a difference, although dark brown sugar will add a subtle touch of molasses to your finished product.

When it comes to soy sauce, sake, and mirin, however, you might need to do a little research beforehand. There are hundreds of soy sauces out there — for the most part, you'll want to go with a Japanese version to begin. If you're gluten-free, try tamari instead (just read the label to be certain). As for mirin, two ingredients will make a decent substitute. Mirin is essentially sake with a higher sugar content, so you can feel confident mixing those ingredients into a pretty decent replacement. Our suggestion is two parts sake to one part sugar, two items you might already be using anyway. It also works in the opposite way if you have mirin but no sake; use mirin but reduce the overall sweetener in the sauce by one-third.

We've already mentioned the staggering amount of soy sauce available, including a sweet Indonesian version, a dark Chinese style, to Thailand's thick and syrupy version. In Japan, shoyu is the blanket version for most of the fermented soy-based sauces you'll find, and it's made from relatively few ingredients, just fermented soybeans, wheat, salt, and water. Using a higher-quality soy sauce ensures that you'll end up with a superior finished product, and if you're curious about what we think, we've already ranked 16 popular soy sauces just for you.

Depending on the Asian markets near you, you might have a harder time finding mirin or sake. In a smaller town, you might be tempted to purchase whatever you can find because it's the only one available. If you're desperate for a chicken teriyaki bowl right away, that might be your best bet. If you decide to get into the teriyaki lifestyle for good, you might need to branch out to online retailers to search for some better options. As far as sake is concerned, you do have the option of using drinking sake if you can't find the cooking version. But keep these two things in mind — first, cooking sake has salt added, so you might need to adjust for taste. Even more important, drinking sake is often far too expensive or delicious to be pouring into your dinner. However, it degrades within a few days of opening, so cooking with it is a great way to use up a week-old bottle.

More often than not, you'll likely find that store-bought sauce has far more ingredients than what you'll make at home, including preservatives and loads more sugar and salt than you might like. However, if it's what you've got on hand, you still have some options to give it more oomph. This first step might be obvious, but just in case it's not — taste it first. Before you roll your eyes, we mean really taste it. Is it bland, too sweet, too salty? Almost anything can be balanced out or fixed, with the exception of a bad aftertaste. Fish sauce, Worcestershire, a squirt of hot sauce, or even a little extra mirin should help to liven things up.

One of our secrets to making incredible sauces is to know just how important a splash of acid can be. A dribble of rice vinegar in a bottled sauce can cut through richness, add brightness to something a little flat, or even downplay too much sweetness or saltiness. We suggest rice vinegar because it works with the palate of Japanese flavors you already have going on, but apple cider vinegar or even a little lemon juice will work in a pinch. If you're dealing with either sweet or salty, remember that they balance each other pretty well. Just go slowly to avoid making things worse.

Once you've mastered your teriyaki sauce, it's time to get ready to eat. What are you going to do with that glistening, brown goodness? Obviously, a few things come to mind, like glazing some salmon and chicken wings or whipping up your own version of the Seattle teriyaki sandwich at home. But there are all sorts of other things you could be doing. How about this homemade teriyaki beef jerky? It also makes a terrific marinade for tofu or a dipping sauce for certain kinds of sushi.

One particularly overlooked segment of teriyaki-based recipes, however, is the teriyaki cocktail. It's true, imbibers. There aren't many, and we have to admit that we haven't tried any ourselves, but don't let it stop the more adventurous out there. The Teriyaki Tuaci is made with a vanilla citrus liqueur, a dash of soy sauce, and a ginger garnish. It's served in a chilled shot glass, so if it's not that great, at least it's over quickly. The Bloody Mariyaki is pretty much what you'd expect; it's basically just a Bloody Mary with the addition of two dashes of teriyaki sauce. This one actually sounds pretty good because the cocktail already has a nice savory base that the teriyaki umaminess will perk up.