Easy Teriyaki Sauce Recipe

This 5-ingredient homemade teriyaki sauce recipe is so easy and delicious, you’ll never buy store-bought again. Use as a marinade, sauce, or glaze!

When I learned how to make teriyaki sauce, the days of buying store-bought sauce were over. I’m kicking myself for using the store-bought stuff for so long!

It’s the perfect one-stop solution for all your teriyaki recipes, whether you’re making teriyaki chicken, salmon, or using it as a glaze for veggies.

Key Ingredients

• Soy Sauce: I use low-sodium soy sauce or low-sodium tamari for the base of this sauce. It might seem salty, but trust me, it’ll blend beautifully with the other sauce ingredients.
• Sugar: To sweeten the sauce and balance the soy sauce, you need a bit of sugar. I use granulated sugar, which helps make the teriyaki sauce thick and glossy once cooked. Feel free to experiment with brown sugar, coconut sugar, or even honey, but remember that these might make the sauce taste sweeter. If you love honey, you may enjoy this honey teriyaki chicken!
• Sake: Don’t stress about buying expensive sake for this sauce! Use something you’d enjoy drinking, but it doesn’t need to be top-shelf. If you can’t find sake, mirin (a sweeter rice wine) works really well too. You can swap it in directly, or if you find it too sweet, slightly reduce the sugar in the recipe.
• Rice Vinegar: This adds a little zing to the sauce. You can usually find it near other vinegars at the grocery store. For substitutes, try white wine vinegar or plain white vinegar. Don’t worry if the sauce seems a bit strong after adding the vinegar, as the flavors will mellow as it cooks.
• Fresh Ginger: This is optional, but really tasty. I like to grate it finely with a microplane so it melts into the sauce.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

Tips for Making the Best Teriyaki Sauce

Tip 1: Make the basic sauce. Add your teriyaki sauce ingredients to a saucepan set over medium heat, then heat, swirling the pan around until the sugar dissolves. At this point, you’ll have a delicious sauce that’s perfect for marinades or as a sauce for cooking with veggies or proteins.

Tip 2: Turn this into a teriyaki glaze. Prepare the sauce as usual, but simmer it for an additional 5 to 10 minutes to achieve a thicker, glossy consistency, ideal for glazes.

Ways to Use This Sauce

Use as a marinade: This sauce is the perfect one-and-done marinade for a wide range of dishes. In general, the longer you marinate, the better the flavor. However, be mindful of the maximum marinating times to avoid affecting the texture of your food.

• Meats: Marinate cuts of chicken, beef, and pork for at least 30 minutes for great flavor. For a richer flavor, you can marinate them for up to 4 hours. Tougher cuts of beef, though, can benefit from a longer soak of up to 24 hours to help tenderize them.
• Seafood: Seafood is more delicate and absorbs flavors very quickly. Marinate salmon, shrimp, or other fish for no longer than 15 to 30 minutes. The ingredients in the sauce can begin to break down the proteins, which can make the seafood mushy if left for too long.
• Veggies and Tofu: Marinate tofu or your favorite vegetables for at least 30 minutes to a maximum of 4 hours. This allows the sauce to fully penetrate without making the texture too soft. I especially love substituting the soy sauce for teriyaki sauce in this baked tofu recipe.

Use as a glaze: Thanks to the sugar in our sauce, you can simmer it down to a glossy, thick glaze. Brush it over meats, poultry, tofu, or vegetables during the last few minutes of grilling, or use it to baste chicken, salmon, and pork while baking or broiling (as we do for this maple soy glazed salmon).

Add to stir-fries: Instead of using a stir-fry sauce, try this teriyaki sauce in your favorite stir-fry recipe. Consider these recipes as a starting point, but replace the sauce in each recipe with this teriyaki sauce: chicken stir-fry, veggie stir-fry, and chicken broccoli stir-fry.

Make teriyaki burgers: Brush teriyaki sauce over your burgers. We love this juicy burger recipe, turkey burger recipe, and these black bean burgers, which would all be amazing with this sauce.