Sweet, savory, and full of flavor, this delicious Homemade Eel Sauce recipe is the dream sauce for Japanese broiled eel fillets and BBQ dishes. You only need four ingredients!
Have you tried grilled unagi (eel) before? What is that caramelized sweet, sticky and salty sauce that goes with unagi? Well, the irresistible dark brown sauce is Eel Sauce or Unagi Sauce (うなぎのたれ). It’s so easy to make and fantastic as a glaze or marinade on BBQ dishes, dragon rolls, or rice balls too.
Table of Contents
What Is Eel Sauce
Eel sauce is unagi no tare (うなぎのたれ) in Japanese, and it is a thick and sweetened soy sauce. Traditionally, it is used on grilled eel or dishes that feature grilled eel, such as unagi don or unagi sushi and doesn’t contain eel. Although many commercial sauce brands are available, the best eel sauce is the homemade version.
What Does It Taste Like
It tastes savory-sweet from the sake, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Since the ingredients are exactly the same as teriyaki sauce, you might be wondering if eel sauce is basically the same as teriyaki. Yes, both sauces are essentially similar, but you’ll notice the slight differences when it comes to the richness and sweetness.
If you’re interested in making authentic Japanese teriyaki sauce, get my recipe here.
How to Make Eel Sauce
Making this sauce at home is as simple as one can imagine. You only need four basic ingredients to create a rich, umami-packed sauce. And that’s how we make it in Japan!
The Ingredients You’ll Need
- Sake (Japanese Rice Wine) – It adds umami to the sauce. Sake is sold at major Japanese/Asian grocery stores or well-stocked liquor stores.
- Mirin (Sweet Rice Wine) – Adds a mild sweetness and luster to the sauce.
- Soy sauce – Use only Japanese soy sauce as it tastes different from Chinese, Korean, or Thai soy sauce. Learn more here. Use Gluten-Free Soy Sauce to make the gluten-free version of the sauce.
- Sugar – In addition to sweetness, sugar helps thicken the sauce naturally.
Sake, mirin, and soy sauce are basic staples for Japanese cooking, so it’s worth getting them if you’re thinking to cook all your favorite Japanese recipes at home.
Note: Authentic unagi sauce do not use rice vinegar as it adds an acidic tang and does not contribute to the integrity of the sauce. Also, please don’t add garlic, ginger, cornstarch to the sauce. It wouldn’t be unagi sauce with all these additions.
The Cooking Step
- Combine the mixture in a small pot and let it simmer until the sauce caramelizes and thickens to your desired richness.
The great thing about making the sauce instead of buying the bottled variety is you can decide on the balance of sweet and salty. Plus, there are no additives or preservatives.
How To Use Eel Sauce
Aside from regular unagi dishes, unagi sauce is finger-licking delicious on BBQ. Think grilled fish, pan-fried chicken, tofu, mushrooms, and onigiri rice balls. All you need is a light brush or a drizzle of this sweet-savory sauce to heighten the flavor. In addition, you can use it as a marinade for meats or as a dressing for noodles. We don’t typically use it as a dipping sauce though.
If you’re looking for a new flavor to add to your grill menus this year, try out this recipe! It is one of my favorite for summer cooking.
You can also double the batch and store the leftover sauce in an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 months.
How to Use Eel Sauce
Unadon (Grilled Eel Rice Bowl)
Yaki Onigiri (Grilled Rice Balls)
Where To Buy Eel Sauce
You can purchase the bottled variety in the condiment section of Japanese grocery stores and well-stocked Asian supermarkets. If that’s not an option, find it on Amazon.
More Authentic Japanese Sauces to Make at Home
- Teriyaki Sauce – the way we make it in Japan!
- Tonkatsu Sauce
- Ponzu Sauce
- How to Make Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise
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Homemade Eel Sauce (Unagi Sauce)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. To make a larger batch of Unagi Sauce, see Notes below for the ingredients list.
- In a small saucepan, add ¼ cup mirin, 1½ Tbsp sake, and 2½ Tbsp sugar. Turn on the heat to medium and whisk all the ingredients together.
- Then, add ¼ cup soy sauce and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and continue simmering for 10 minutes. Toward the end of cooking, you will see more bubbles.
- Turn off the heat and let it cool. The sauce will thicken as it cools. It‘s now ready to use.
To Use
- Use this Homemade Eel Sauce when you broil or grill freshwater eel fillets in recipes like Unadon (Grilled Eel Rice Bowl), Eggplant Unagi Donburi, and Unagi Chazuke. You can also use this versatile sauce to make Yaki Onigiri (Grilled Rice Ball) and Dragon Rolls.
To Store
- You can store the sauce in an airtight jar and keep in the refrigerator for up to 2–3 months.
Notes
For the full amount Unagi Sauce (extra will keep for 3 months)
- ¾ cup (180 ml) soy sauce
- ¾ cup (180 ml) mirin
- ½ cup (100 g) sugar
- ¼ cup (60 ml) sake
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: The post is originally published on May 6, 2013. The new images have been added to the post in May 2019.
Is there a preference for the type of sugar used for this recipe?
Hi Andrea! Thank you so much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Nami uses organic cane sugar (natural blond/tanned color sugar; She gets one from Trader Joe’s), but other sugar would work.
We hope this helps!
Just wish to say your yaki onigiri and unagi sauce recipe maintain Japanese umami flavours. It never ceases to surprise me when gaijin san substitute ingredients and say it is the same. As a gaijin too
it is apparent some readers must not have ‘ lived Japan’ to appreciate the subtleties of its food and umami delights. Your site is perfect Nami san.
Hello there, Daivd! Thank you for reading Nami’s post and for your kind words.
We appreciate your love and support. Happy cooking!☺️
This is basically Teriyaki sauce, There is no eel or fish base in the sauce. I bacally used this recipe but added fish sauce and adjusted the sugar to taste and I used agave nectar instead of sugar. Keep in mind that there is sugar in Mirin and you want a sugar salt balance
Hi William, Thank you for your feedback. Yes. There is no eel in the sauce and uses it for many dishes.
We hope you have a chance to read this recipe post. Nami explains what Eel Sauce is.🙂
As for sweetness, Mirin is our traditional ingredient, and it offers a delicate sweetness and a nice aroma to many Japanese dishes. So most Japanese recipes use Mirin and Sugar to balance the flavor and taste.
Here is a post about Mirin: https://www.justonecookbook.com/mirin/.
We hope this helps!
Ohhh myyyy god… it’s so gooood. Perfect bliss point between salty and sweetness. The taste was so addictive, couldn’t stop eating the sauce on its own haha. Thank you very much for sharing such a great yet simple recipe. It tastes even better than the one from restaurants.
Forgot to mention, I marinaded the sauce and cooked it with salmon. It made my salmon taste so divine.. ❤️😋 just have to find the way to make the skin stays crispy. Any tips? 😊
Hi Aoh! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and your kind feedback!
We are glad to hear you enjoyed homemade Unagi Sauce!
To make the skin crispy, brush the sauce and put it in the oven for a few minutes, or use a broiler and cook the skin sides until it gets crispy. You can also use Cooking Torch.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/unagi-don-unadon/
We hope this helps!
Great recipe and very simple! Do not make the same mistake as me and attempt to microwave this instead of boiling. I made a mess in the microwave lol
Hi Sushilover! Thank you for reading Nami’s post and trying her recipe!
We hope you try Nami’s Unagi recipes next time! 🤗
https://www.justonecookbook.com/unagi-don-unadon/
https://www.justonecookbook.com/unagi-chazuke/
https://www.justonecookbook.com/eggplant-unagi-donburi/
[…] from soy sauce and wasabi paste. Or get this Unagi sauce that you can drizzle on top. You can also make unagi sauce yourself! As for me, the Sushi Bake was already so flavorful I didn’t really need to add or […]
The sauce is soo good!! I don’t have sake, so i replace it with just water. It just taste like eel sauce at my favorite poke place. Now i can make my own poke at home!! How exciting!!
Hi Dmm! We are so happy to hear you found your favorite sauce!
Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback.🙂
Knoichiwa Namiko san…
I love JOC! its taught me so much!
I was wondering, how long can I store the tare in the fridge in an air tight container for?
Hi Ben! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post and trying her recipe!
The sauce can be stored in an airtight jar and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 months.
We hope this helps!
yes it helps a great deal! arigatou gozaimasu! ❤️
Hi Ben, My pleasure! Thank you for trying Nami’s recipe!
For an interesting twist, try substituting maple syrup for sugar. It’s quite good and maple work well with soya.
Hi David! Awesome! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your cooking experience with us! Happy Cooking!