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!
Eel sauce, or unagi no tare (うなぎのたれ), 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.
Table of Contents
What Is Eel Sauce
What is that caramelized brown sauce with a syrup-like consistency that goes with unagi? Well, the irresistible glossy sauce is Eel Sauce or Unagi Sauce.
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 the same as teriyaki sauce, you might wonder if eel sauce is the same. Yes, both sauces are similar, but you’ll notice the slight differences in the richness and sweetness.
If you want authentic Japanese teriyaki sauce, get my recipe here.
How to Make Eel Sauce
Making homemade unagi sauce is as simple. You only need four ingredients to create a rich, umami-packed sauce.
The Ingredients You’ll Need
- Sake (Japanese Rice Wine) – Adds umami to the sauce (the alcohol will burn off during cooking, so it’s suitable for all ages).
- Mirin (Sweet Rice Wine) – Adds a mild sweetness and luster to the sauce.
- Soy sauce – Use Japanese soy sauce as it tastes different from Chinese, Korean, or Thai. Use Gluten-Free Soy Sauce or Tamari to make a gluten-free sauce.
- Sugar – Besides sweetness, sugar is a thickener, so it’s easy to pour.
Sake, mirin, and soy sauce are essential staples for Japanese cooking, so it’s worth stocking up if you’re thinking of cooking your favorite Japanese recipes.
Note: Authentic unagi sauce does not use rice vinegar as it adds an acidic tang and does not contribute to the integrity of the sauce. Also, don’t add garlic, ginger, or cornstarch to the sauce. It wouldn’t be unagi sauce with all these additions or it’ll overwhelm the unagi.
The Cooking Step
- Combine the mixture in a small saucepan and simmer on medium heat 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 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.
Recipes for 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.
How To Store
Store leftovers in an airtight container or jar in the fridge or freezer for 2-3 months.
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
Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
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.
You have soy sauce in this recipe. But is it the dark soy sauce or the lighter soy sauce? Which do we use?
Hi Olivia! Japanese do not have dark or light soy sauce like Chinese soy sauce. 🙂 We only have light-color soy sauce which is used in western part of Japan. Here’s the soy sauce I use: https://www.justonecookbook.com/pantry_items/soy-sauce/
Always best to list the ingredients in the order they are to be used…
Fixed, thanks for letting me know!
Try adding just the tiniest drop of liquid smoke. Makes it spot on.
Thanks so much for your tip! I’ll try it next time!
I made this but with about half the cooking time (10 minutes) it formed into toffee when cooled. It still tasted great on the eggplant, it wasn’t burned it was just solid in my pan and no good to store what was left. Any idea what I did wrong?
Hi Toni! Sounds like your heat was on higher than “simmer”. It should be thick sauce, and it looked like you passed that stage and all the syrupy sauce turned into “toffee” after evaporation. You just want to cook slowly (simmer) and let the water evaporate so that the sauce is slightly thicker (not watery) so you can brush on the unagi and the sauce stays on top instead of running down. 🙂
Thanks for the excellent recipe! I really enjoy when pictures are included that show the steps in the process. Very nice. :^D
Hi Alan! Thank you so much for your kind feedback! 🙂
One more recipe to try. Right now!
I am so happy I found your blog!!! Yesterday I made the Miso Ramen again for my relatives that are visiting and they loved it! I’ll make the unagui sauce because my kids love unagui maki and they will have it today for lunch but I was missing the sauce…As always, I can count on you!
Thank you!
Hi Denise! This homemade Unagi Sauce is so delicious and I hope you and your family liked it. I’m so happy to hear you and your relatives enjoyed the ramen recipe! It’s pretty easy to make, but so delicious! 🙂 Thank you for trying out my recipes and writing the kind feedback. 🙂
Can excess Unagi sauce be stored and for how long? Does it need to be refrigerated the whole time or can it be bottled and shipped to a vacation destination? Thx
Hi Dianne! If we don’t put water or vegetables (for example), theoretically it doesn’t go bad. However, I’d recommend to keep in a bottle or air tight container, and keep in the fridge. When you use it, make sure to boil it first. If you keep it longer, you should at least boil it once a week. You can also keep in the freezer too. 🙂 Hope this helps!
Is there a way to skip the boiling at the end, or is that non-negotiable?
Hi Amy! Without simmering the sauce will not be thicken, so it’s very watery. Unagi sauce should be thick and flavor is rich. With the thick sauce, it stays on top of unagi. 🙂 Hope this helps!
Thanks, oh and also, is this the same thing as eel sauce? I heard it was but I thought eel sauce had eel in it.
We call it Unagi Sauce and I guess direct translation is “eel” sauce. No Unagi in it though but during the cooking process, we put unagi head and tail in it for flavor (the part we don’t put on top of rice). Hope this helps!
hi, I love your recipe so much but I wonder is there the difference from unagi hand-made and the one bought from shop ?
Oh yes! Homemade taste much better in my humble opinion. If you have time and all the ingredients, I highly recommend for homemade one. Once you taste it, you won’t go back to the store bought. 🙂
If I want to substitute mirin and sake what can i use and what are the proportions?
Hi Smilem. Please know that sake and mirin are very important ingredients in Japanese cooking and if you cook without them, the final result will not be the same.
So I highly recommend buying them if you want to cook Japanese foods (and we always use them).
However, if you cannot use alcohol, then the best you can substitute with is water and sugar. I know it’s not the same flavor at all…but you need sweetness from sugar for mirin, and water to add more liquid (so it’s not too much soy sauce flavor). I hope this helps! 🙂
Thanks for the recipe and well assembled site. Will definitely follow you.
Hi James! Thank you for your kind feedback! I’m happy to hear you enjoy my site. Thank you for following! 🙂
Hello Nami,
This is a great blog, I really enjoy it. I am just wondering can I make this sauce without sake? Thanks.
Hi Pauline! In Japanese cooking, sake is included often for certain purpose (to reduce the smell of fish/meat, to tender the meat/fish, make the sauce mild, etc). Without sake the result won’t be the same, but you can omit it if you cannot use it. 🙂 Just to make sure, if you cannot use sake because of alcohol content, mirin has sake in it too, so you may want to avoid it also. Don’t worry, you can make it with soy sauce and sugar, and adjust with water if it’s too strong (as you will be lacking liquid from mirin and sake). Hope this helps! 🙂
Hi Namiko,
I don’t usually have sake in my kitchen is it okay to replace it with some other white wine or Chinese cooking wine? I have mirin in my kitchen but just not sake.
Hi Patricia! You can use Chinese cooking wine. 🙂
This site is exceptional! Thank you Nami, I appreciate it greatly, especially the hyperlinks of ingredients within the ingredient table on how to make them.. Extremely nice and professional.. definitely the “AsiaN” touch on that one;-)
Hi Serge! Aww thank you so much for your kind compliments! Well, I really wish to make my blog even more organized but I just don’t have enough time to clean up and organize my blog…. 😉 Thank you!
um could you replace mirim with honey
Hi Thor! Um… it’s a tough question. Mirin and honey are quite different in sweetness and flavor (fragrance too). For this particular dish, I think it’s a bit strange to use honey… For some recipes (like baked goods, marinades, etc), mirin can be replaced with honey and it will work, but for Unagi sauce, I just don’t think it’ll work… You can replace with sugar though, if you cannot/don’t want to use alcohol. Hope that helps! 🙂
thank you so very much um could you post more things with honey??
I’m currently working on Japanese Honey Sponge Cake. If you like honey, I hope you enjoy this dessert. 🙂
So far I have these recipes that I used honey:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/tags/honey/
Hope that helps.
it sounds good cant wait
Thanks so much for this recipe! We love Unagi. I am going to try this on different fish as I haven’t seen eel in my local supermarket.
Hi Kerry! If you don’t have a Japanese grocery store around, try Chinese/Korean market. They should carry at least one kind of packaged precooked eel. 🙂 Hope you enjoy this sauce!