Teriyaki Sauce Homemade Easy DIY Step-by-step Guidebook

Sauces can turn leftovers and freezers into some magically good dishes. The magical sauce we talk about here is Teriyaki Sauce. This article is about “how to make a teriyaki sauce easy” so it will tell you exactly how to make teriyaki sauce from scratch. That’s right! You will be able to do Teriyaki Sauce homemade with this easy DIY guide in your kitchen.

What Ingredients to Prepare for Teriyaki Sauce Easy DIY?

The crucial ingredients of teriyaki sauce (glaze), traditionally, are:

• Sugar
• Mirin/ Sake
• Soy sauce

This is a bold and sweet sauce along with some undertones as well. The term “teriyaki” originated in Japanese cuisine. The recipe appears in the 17th century. “Teri” shows the shine on food which is produced from sugar, however, “yaki” means the recipe of grilling.

Now, we go step-by-step through the Guidelines for Teriyaki Sauce DIY.

The Guidelines for Teriyaki Sauce DIY Step-by-step

In this part, we will show you step-by-step how to prepare for the teriyaki sauce, how to cook the basic one, the spicy one and the thick one. After that, we will give you something to expect out of that teriyaki homemade sauce.

#1. A Basic & Easy Step-by-step Guidelines on How to Make a Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

In this section, we will show you a recipe for homemade teriyaki sauce. The first thing to do is to prepare 4 vital Japanese pantries such as sake, soy sauce, sugar, and mirin with the following amounts for 2 servings:

• 2 tbsp of soy sauce
• 2 tbsp of sake / 2 tbsp of mirin / 2 tbsp of vinegar
• 1 tbsp of sugar

The American-style teriyaki sauce requires some grated garlic and ginger which improve the smell of teriyaki. Mixing these 3 basic ingredients is the simplest way to make teriyaki sauce homemade easy and quick. You can adjust the amount of sugar to the level of your taste and don’t forget to do so with water when you want it to be thicker or thinner. Below is how is teriyaki made step-by-step:

1. Stir the soy sauce, mirin/sake/vinegar, sugar together in the heated saucepan. You should add each ingredient one after another, soy sauce then sugar then mirin/ sake/ vinegar. You can add 1-2 tbsp of water if you don’t want to sauce to get too thick.
2. Decrease the heat and keep going until the sauce is a bit dense. The process usually takes 20 minutes.
3. Get the pan out and wait for the sauce to rest. Finally, keep this sauce in a bottle and put it into the fridge or use it right away.

#2. How to Thicken a Teriyaki Sauce

Above, we have a simple and basic way on how to make a teriyaki sauce easy and quick. Now, let’s get down to some tips that help your teriyaki sauce thicker.

First, we go back to the tradition: Japan – where the sauce came from. Based on Japanese cuisine’s opinions, a teriyaki sauce doesn’t need to be too thick. The American-style teriyaki sauce is thicker than the original one from Japan.

What we do is basically adjusting the amount of each ingredient in the recipe and add in some other ingredients. Here are a few tips on how to make a teriyaki sauce thicker:

• Use the cornstarch or potatoes or both in the mixture of teriyaki sauce: For the potatoes, you should have it smashed and well-cooked before add it in. The tip here is to put it in the mixture gradually, you can see the sauce thicken to the level you want to stop adding in anything.
• Use the heat to thicken the sauce: This is the old Japanese technique. When your teriyaki sauce is well cooked, you turn on the heat with the higher level for a few seconds, when the sauce starts sizzling and the color gets darker. You decide when to stop but we only need a few seconds since the sizzling sound starts.

Doing this at home as it’s better than the store-purchased products because they may add some chemical substances to make the sauce thicker. Making this sauce thicken at home can make sure that it has no preservatives or additives.

One more thing, some people might wonder how to make teriyaki sauce quick when you need them to be thicker. The answer is to improve the cooking skills so that you can perform faster and more accurate actions. To thicken the sauce, you need more ingredients and more time with the heat so technically, there is no magical way to rush the process.

#3. How to Make Teriyaki Sauce Spicy

If you want to add some spicy flavor to your teriyaki sauce, that’s not a problem, even you are doing it at home. You need to prepare these additional ingredients with the exact amount for 2 servings:

• 2 tbsp of minced ginger
• 1 smashed garlic
• 1 fresh chopped chili (You can adjust the amount to make sure it’s not too spicy)
• ¾ tbsp of Sesame oil

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to make spicy teriyaki sauce:

1. First, in the order, you put in minced ginger and smashed garlic with some oil.
2. Then do the 3 steps of the simple teriyaki sauce above with water, soy sauce, and mirin/ sake/ vinegar.
3. Next, adjust the heat down, let the mixture be simmering then add in some sugar. Wait for the sugar to be well mixed with the mixture in about 1 minute.
4. Then you put in chopped chili and turn the heat on for a bit if you want the sauce to be thicker.

After doing that, your sauce is ready to serve with the hot spicy taste.

#4. What Should You Expect Out of Our Teriyaki Sauce?

The expectation is quite clear for a teriyaki sauce:

• With a normal teriyaki sauce, you should see the dark brown color. The liquid should be smooth and well mixed. The taste is a bit sweet and sour.
• For a thicken teriyaki sauce, you can see the liquid a little more dense. The color is also darker than the normal sauce.
• How about the spicy teriyaki sauce? The color is brighter but the taste should be spicier.

If the result comes exactly what it looks and tastes, you succeed in making the Teriyaki Sauce at home.

What to Serve with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

Here is the answer to how to use Teriyaki Sauce that you have just made. Below, we picked 3 delicious dishes that you can do to serve with Teriyaki Sauce. Let’s check it out!

#1. Beef Steak with Teriyaki Sauce DIY

The first dish that we would like to introduce to you is Beef Teriyaki. At now, let’s begin with this list of ingredients:

• ⅔ lb of beef
• 3 tbsp of oil
• 30g of chopped garlic
• 15g of minced ginger (optional)
• 5 tbsp of teriyaki sauce that you made.

Here is how we do it:

1. Heat the pan and pour 3 tbsp of oil. Fry the garlic until it turns crispy yellow then put the garlic to the dish, keep the oil in the pan. If you want some ginger, you can add it to this step with the garlic.
2. Season your beef with a pinch of salt. Place the salted side of the beef on the hot frying pan and turn the other side when it’s brown. You can feel the tenderness of the beef by using your finger/ cooking utensils pushing down on the beef.
3. Pour the teriyaki glaze you made into the hot pan with beef steak. Turn the beef regularly or use a spoon to spray the sauce evenly on the beef’s surface. Lower the heat to keep the dish from being burnt.

Depend on if you want a medium-rare or a well-done beef steak, you will decide when to turn off the pan. Now, it’s time to serve the dish with fried garlic (and ginger). The rest of the sauce inside the pan should be sprayed evenly on the dish. Here you go, a beautiful & lovely beef steak for a meal!

#2. Classic Chicken Teriyaki

The chicken teriyaki can be cooked along with the traditional cooking recipe. Thus, it is well-suited for your dinner as well. Here is what to prepare:

• 1 pound of chicken thighs
• 30g of Cornstarch
• 15g of Black pepper (optional)
• 3 tbsp of oil

How you do it, let’s see:

1. Slice the chicken thighs into the small pieces but not too small, you will want to the moisture within the chicken.
2. Spread the cornstarch all over the chicken pieces. This will prevent the chicken from breaking into pieces and the sauce afterward will look smoother.
3. Heat the pan with 3 tbsp of oil. When the pan is hot enough, place the chicken piece by piece into the pan. Slowly fry the chicken until the chicken thigh is halfway cooked.
4. Pour the teriyaki glaze into the frying pan and start to stir fry the dish. The chicken will move nicely among the teriyaki sauce. And remember to be careful not to break the chicken thighs.
5. After the color turns into a smooth brown, the dish is ready to serve.

You can have This Classic Teriyaki Chicken with hot steamed rice or noodles, both are amazing.

#3. Salmon Fillets & Skin with The Homemade Teriyaki Sauce Style

The Salmon Fillet and its crispy skin match the teriyaki sauce, the thicken version or the spicy one, both very well. Here is what to prepare for the dish:

• Two salmon fillets with skin (300g-340g ~ ¾ lbs)
• 3 tbsp of oil
• Pure Ginger Juice (15g)
• 1 tbsp of honey
• Teriyaki sauce (glaze) you prepare
• 30g of Spring Onion (For garnish only)
• Fresh sesame (For garnish only)

Now, let’s dive right into what we should do to make this great cooking recipe:

1. Spread cornstarch over the pieces of salmon that you want to cook. Chop the spring onion and put it in a small bowl.
2. Heat the pan with 3 tbsp of oil. Fry the salmon fillet one side to another. You may want to rest the salmon on another dish as we think you don’t want to overcook the salmon.
3. Pour the teriyaki glaze into the hot pan with a little oil left from the salmon fry. Heat it until it boils and starts to thicken. Mix the sauce with ginger juice/ minced ginger. Ginger is tasty for a fish dish. Now, you put back salmon into the pan and spread the sauce all over the salmon fillets.
4. At last, this is an optional step. You can add a tbsp of honey real quick into a hot pan and turn off the heat. Stir the sauce a little bit and serve the dish.

This is a great dish to eat with rice or noodles. Of course, you can serve it among some grilled dishes, too.

#4. Japanese Grilled Teriyaki Pork

This is exactly what we called “save the best for the last”. We will show you how to cook this grilled pork with teriyaki from the point where there is no teriyaki sauce. Things to prepare:

• ⅔ lb of Pork belly/ Pork ribs
• 30g minced garlic
• 2 tbsp of honey
• 2½ tbsp of soy sauce
• 2 tbsp of mirin/ sake/ vinegar
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• Oil & Coal (For a coal Grill)/ Electric Grill

Here are the steps to do the Japanese Grilled Teriyaki Pork:

1. Marinade the pork with minced garlic, honey, soy sauce, mirin/sake/vinegar, and sugar for at least 30 minutes.
2. Heat the pan and prepare the coal to be burnt in the coal grill/ get the electric grill ready.
3. When the grill is ready, put the pork on the grill for grilling. Remember to switch sides of the pork to evenly cook it. For a thick piece of pork belly, you may need to slice it thinner to grill properly.
4. When the pan is well heated with oil, pour the pork marinade in to make the sauce. First, turn the heat up to cook the sauce properly.

After that, lower the heat to simmer the sauce and let it get thicker gradually.
After the pork is cooked with a smokey flavor, you can serve it with the sauce. This is a great recipe for a camping option.

Final Words

We hope that you can find some interesting information about teriyaki sauce DIY here. We think that this sauce can become a great buddy for many family meals. We wish you the best of luck, good health and the success of making your own teriyaki sauce. If you have a comment or a question, please post it below or you can contact us via email on the contact page. Thanks for visiting Kitchen Bar!