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Homemade Teriyaki Sauce 照り焼きソース (たれ)

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Savory and versatile, Teriyaki sauce has becoming the mainstay seasoning outside of Japan. Learn how to make delicious and easy homemade teriyaki sauce in this recipe.

Teriyaki Sauce | Easy Japanese Recipes at JustOneCookbook.com

I’ve received many requests from readers over the years who wanted to make their own homemade teriyaki sauce.  It’s actually really easy.  If you aren’t aware, Teriyaki (照り焼き) in Japanese actually describes a cooking method.  In Japanese, “teri” (照り) means luster and “yaki” (焼き) means grilled/broiled/pan-fried.  It’s not the sauce we refer to, but rather how the food is prepared (the shiny food being grilled/broiled/pan-fried).

Fun Fact: Grocery stores in Japan don’t carry bottled Teriyaki Sauce (unless they are imported).

When the food is prepared in “teriyaki” style, we use soy sauce, sake, mirin (and sometimes sugar) to season.  Mirin (sweet cooking rice wine) gives the food a nice luster and it’s an important ingredient for teriyaki style cooking. Since the meaning of ‘teriyaki’ has been deviated by simply referring to a Japanese sauce outside of Japan, I’d just refer it as a sauce in this post.

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How to Make Authentic Teriyaki Sauce

To make my basic homemade teriyaki sauce, you just need to remember the main 4 components: combine equal parts of soy sauce, sake, mirin and then add sugar to your liking. 

2 Tbsp soy sauce : 2 Tbsp sake : 2 Tbsp mirin : 1 Tbsp sugar

Each time you make the sauce, the teriyaki flavor could be a little different depending on the ingredients you are using.  For example, you might add grated/minced ginger or garlic to the sauce to produce a slightly different flavor.

How to Thicken Teriyaki Sauce:

  1.  Thicken the sauce by cooking the sauce for extra long time.  This allows the sauce to become a bit thicker consistency.  I rarely use corn starch mixture to thicken the sauce unless I need to coat the food well with the sauce.
  2. You can thicken it with corn starch mixture (2 Tbsp water + 1 Tbsp corn or potato starch).

Remember, there is no “perfect” teriyaki sauce that fits to all kinds of food.  That means you can make it differently each time you make a teriyaki recipe. Homemade teriyaki sauce is healthier than store bought ones since it does not contain any additive.

From teriyaki chicken, teriyaki salmon to beef teriyaki, teriyaki sauce is versatile and can be used as a marinade, seasoning or a glaze over a dish. Once you start experiment with your own teriyaki sauce, you will have fun dishing out different delicious recipes with this all-purpose seasoning.

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Teriyaki Sauce
Teriyaki Sauce | Easy Japanese Recipes at JustOneCookbook.com
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Course: Condiments, How to
Servings: 150 (ml) (150 ml = ⅔ cup)
Ingredients
  • 4 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 4 Tbsp mirin
  • 4 Tbsp sake
  • 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
Instructions

  1. Gather all the ingredients.

  2. In a saucepan, combine all the ingredients.  Bring to a boil and lower the heat to medium low heat.  Cook for 10-15 minutes until the sauce is thicken.  When you mix the sauce or tilt the saucepan and you see small bubbles rise, the sauce is ready.  

  3. Pour the sauce to a sterilized jar and keep the jar open until cool.  The sauce will thicken as it cools.  Store in the refrigerator up to 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator.

Recipe Notes

Substitute for 4 Tbsp Sake:

  • If you can take alcohol: Use 4 Tbsp dry sherry or Chinese rice wine
  • If you can't take alcohol: Use 4 Tbsp water

Substitute for 4 Tbsp Mirin:

  • If you have sake: 2 Tbsp sake + 2 Tbsp water + 1½ tsp sugar
  • If you don't have sake: 4 Tbsp water + 1½ tsp sugar

 

 

Recipe by Namiko Chen of Just One Cookbook. All images and content on this site are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you’d like to share this recipe on your site, please re-write the recipe in your own words and link to this post as the original source. Thank you.

 

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  1. Junny

    Hi, I feel like I’m on a quest to create a Teriyaki sauce. So this post is really enlighten me. 🙂

    For the recipe, it’s written mirin could be substituted with sugar so since I can’t use either mirin or sake, the recipe will have 5 tbsp sugar?

    1
    Reply to Junny'> Reply

    • Hi Junny! Yes, but if you prefer less sweet, add sugar one Tbsp. at a time to get your favorite sweetness. 🙂 Mirin creates nice luster and texture to the sauce, but sugar and soy sauce can create similar flavor. Depending on the usage of your sauce, adjust the thickness with water/cornstarch. Hope that helps! 🙂

      2
      Reply to Nami'> Reply

  2. Vivi

    Hi Nami, I tried this and it is wayyyy better than any store bought teriyaki sauce. I marinated extra firm tofu in the sauce, grilled it to get a crust, then brushed on more sauce and served it over rice 🙂 My vegetarian brother in law loved it! Thank you!!!

    4
    Reply to Vivi'> Reply

    • Hi Vivi! Yay, so happy to hear your brother-in-law enjoyed it! I really like the flexibility in home cooking as we can change things up depending on the ingredients or how you feel like on that day. 🙂 Sometimes I make it sweeter and sometimes less sweet…or thicker or less thick. Versatile when it’s homemade. 🙂 Thank you so much for trying this recipe! xo

      5
      Reply to Nami'> Reply

  3. Lorn

    Hi Nami!
    Thank you for your recipes! We’ve made your sukiyaki and it was so good 😀
    Can I make a batch of the teriyaki sauce and keep it in the fridge for future use? I was thinking of putting it in a bottle 🙂 And If I can, how long can I keep it in the fridge?

    Thank you!

    6
    Reply to Lorn'> Reply

  4. Cristina

    Hi! In the post you mention for a authentic teriyaki sauce to equal parts of soy sauce, sake, and mirin, but does it still contain the corn starch? Just want to make sure I get it right and would love to try it the way it is meant to taste. Thanks!!

    8
    Reply to Cristina'> Reply

    • Hi Cristina! Thank you for your question. Adding corn starch is really optional. If you like the sauce to be thicker, then you can add. A lot of Japanese “teriyaki” dishes doesn’t include it, but we reduce the sauce so it’s a little bit thicker (not like corn starch thickness) because mirin and sugar will caramelize and will be naturally thick. To summarize, I basically add corn starch depending on the recipes. Hope I answered to your question. 🙂

      10
      Reply to Nami'> Reply

  6. Constantine Aperio

    Is not the teriyaki sauce ingredients relatively similar to mentsuyu soup base except with the addition of sugar and the reduction of the teriyaki sauce (I understand that your mentsuyu also contains katsuobushi.) In a future post could you also expand on the myriad of ways the mentsuyu base could be used other than the a cold noodle dipping sauce. Thank you.

    14
    Reply to Constantine Aperio'> Reply

    • Hi Constantine! Mentsuyu always have dashi in it, and it’s considered more like soup or dipping sauce rather than “sauce” over something. However, there are a lot of recipes that uses Mentsuyu instead of soy sauce just to change flavors (as it goes well).

      For example, I like to use Mentsuyu for yaki udon (while a lot of people use soy sauce) and Japanese mushroom pasta. It’s fun to experiment with mentsuyu. Hope this helps. 🙂

      15
      Reply to Nami'> Reply

  7. Chrissy

    I too have been on a quest for the perfect teriyaki sauce! I love making sauces and anything humanly possible from scratch to avoid preservatives and unecessary ingredients, so I wanted the most authentic way to make it and I think I found it
    Thank you!!!

    16
    Reply to Chrissy'> Reply

    • Hi Piccolo! Well, Japanese cuisine doesn’t really have spicy food, as spice wasn’t available for a long time. Most of traditional foods are not spicy at all, and I think only recently we started to include spices in our cooking. Yet, it’s very rare to see “spicy” food even at Japanese restaurants. 🙂

      19
      Reply to Nami'> Reply

  9. umm saleem

    Hi Nami!!

    you can’t imagine how excited I m to find your recipe. its hard to find a non alcohol teriyaki sauce. I just want to make sure about the sugar that used as a substitute of mirin. so in total since i will not use miring, the sugar that i will use is 5 tablespoon?or the 2 tablespoon sugar is a brown sugar? I will cook the chicken tomorrow if God will. thank you in advance 🙂

    20
    Reply to umm saleem'> Reply

  10. Eddie Shuck Jr.

    Thank you so much for sharing. I lost my other recipe and found this one which was closest to the one I had. I made it with 2 1/2 tbsp sugar (didn’t have mirin) and just a pinch of cinnamon and it was perfect. Thanks again for sharing this wonderful recipe.

    25
    Reply to Eddie Shuck Jr.'> Reply

  14. S Lai

    Hi,
    What kind of soy sauce should I use? I use chinese soy sauce so not sure whether i should use the dark soy sauce (mainly used for color) or the light soy sauce (salty)? Going to make it tonight!
    Thanks for your advice?

    35
    Reply to S Lai'> Reply

  15. Neal

    How long will meat keep in teriyaki sauce? I made teriyaki beef for oshogatsu and barbequed most of it but still have some meat marinating. Are shoyu and sake preservatives or should I dump the batch?

    Thanks

    38
    Reply to Neal'> Reply

  21. jasmine

    Sorry, i’m confused! Does the recipe mean that if i do not have mirin (or sake to substitute), then the mirin ingredient becomes ‘4 Tbs water and 1.5 Tbsp sugar’?

    This would mean a total of 3.5 Tbsp sugar for the whole recipe, right?

    But according to 2 questions posed by your readers, they keep mentioning 5 Tbsp of sugar?? Please advise as my son adores teriyaki and has been bugging me to cook it for him!

    Thanks so much!

    52
    Reply to jasmine'> Reply

    • Hi Jasmine! I’m so sorry for the confusion. The recipe was originally suggesting 3 Tbsp. sugar for replacement. However, I have updated my substitute for Mirin page (https://www.justonecookbook.com/pantry_items/mirin/) and the new rule has been “1 Tbsp. mirin = 1 Tbsp. water or sake + 1 tsp. sugar”. So I changed this recipe’s substitution as well following to my rule.

      Some people don’t have both mirin and sake, some have sake, and some don’t take any alcohol due to religion. Therefore I wrote both version with sake and water for mirin’s substitute…

      If you have sake: 4 Tbsp. mirin –> 2 Tbsp. sake + 2 Tbsp. water + 1 1/2 tsp. sugar.

      If you don’t have sake or can’t drink sake: 4 Tbsp. mirin –> 4 Tbsp. water + 1 1/2 tsp. sugar.

      I hope this makes sense. And you’re correct, don’t miss the sugar for the teriyaki sauce. Total of sugar will be 3.5 Tbsp. 🙂

      53
      Reply to Nami'> Reply

  22. Katy

    Sorry to sound a bit thick but tried making the sauce with equal parts and it doesnt taste right so not sure what im doing wrong. Used 4 tablespoons soy sauce, Mirrin and Sake and then 2 tablespoons of castor sugar. Is this right? Just find the alcohol takes over a bit.

    55
    Reply to Katy'> Reply

    • Hi Katy! Assuming you use the right ingredients (Japanese soy sauce, right kind of sake – not like “nigori sake” etc, mirin, and maybe sugar), how did you make the sauce? Did you cook in the frying pan with the food still inside or you just mix in the mixing bowl and taste it? Alcohol smell should be completely removed after cooking. It should not smell it by smelling the sauce. Most alcohol is evaporated after leaving some umami from sake (made of rice so it gives sweetness). Whether you cook the sauce in a pan alone or over the chicken, you need to cook the sauce. The sugar needs to be melted and saicr will be thicken as a sign. Hope this makes sense. If you cook with food, the oil and flavors from food (like chicken) will mix with the sauce. It’s very common equation for what we consider teriyaki style cooking so it should work. But I also want to mention this is not like American teriyaki sauce flavors which is completely different from authentic sauce (just have to make sure you are not aiming for the same flavors…) Hope this helps, and let me know how I can help you.

      56
      Reply to Nami'> Reply

      • Katy

        Thanks very much for ur reply. I used Doragon Sake, Mirrin and Amoy Soy Sauce. I boiled the ingredients together in a saucepan then once boiling added the Sake. I tried to burn the alcohol off but could not get it to light. I will try again though using a Japenese Soy sauce and boiling all ingredients together instead of adding Sake later.

        57
        Reply to Katy'> Reply

        • Hi Katy! I looked up, and dragon sake (I never heard of it before) seems okay. However, I’ve never tasted Amoy soy sauce before. Try adding sake first. Traddtionally, sake and mirin is added first so it can be evaporated. Then add sugar or sweetner before soy sauce. Once soy sauce is added, no matter how much sugar you add, it will not become sweeter. So follow that order, even the interval is only a few seconds difference. 🙂

          58
          Reply to Nami'> Reply

    • Hi Shelly! I’m so happy to hear you like my recipes! You can use honey or any sweetener you normally use. 🙂 And of course decrease the amount too. This recipe is more like “typical” Japanese taste. 🙂

      60
      Reply to Nami'> Reply

  25. Samantha

    Thanks Nami!

    I think making our own is much better than store-bought ones! I have a huge bottle of mirin and don’t know how to use it.
    I will also try it with honey instead of sugar.

    Love your recipes! 🙂

    63
    Reply to Samantha'> Reply

  26. Darcy

    Hey when i try to make teriyaki with equal parts Sake (Gekkeikan), Mirin, Soy Sauce and sugar to liking it comes out bitter every time!!! I am so confused.. the first time i made it the turn out was perfect. But every time now it turns out bitter do you know the reason for this?

    first I add equal parts sake and mirin in pot with sugar to simmer for 5 minutes approx. then i add the soy sauce and simmer until the consistency starts to thicken. Taste it once cooled down and it seems to be bitter every time im so lost 🙁

    65
    Reply to Darcy'> Reply

    • Hi Darcy! Bitter, not salty? What kind of soy sauce do you use? Try to understand why it’s “bitter”. I understand if it was salty but bitter…? One part that can become bitter is that when you cook the sauce, maybe the burnt soy sauce gives bitterness?

      66
      Reply to Nami'> Reply

  30. Dannielle

    Are there regional differences? My great grandma’s recipe used homemade chicken stock instead of sake/mirin, and added ginger slices and granular garlic. Fresh garlic makes the sauce bitter. Perhaps her recipe was adapted during prohibition?

    Note: I keep seeing addictive when you mean additive.

    75
    Reply to Dannielle'> Reply

    • Hi Dannielle! Hmm I don’t think it’s regional difference (except for southern Japan use sweet soy sauce instead of regular soy sauce – so the flavor is sweeter), but more like personal preference.

      Some prefer to add garlic, ginger, vinegar to make variations. We don’t really have “chicken stock” in Japan except for granule kind (no liquid chicken stock) so we rarely use “chicken stock” unless it’s chinese dish (in fact, we call chicken stock Chuka Dashi / Chinese dashi).

      Thanks for noticing my typo. I only found one “addictive”… and fixed it. Thank you!

      76
      Reply to Nami'> Reply

    • Hi Rosalee! If you use this as marinade, I recommend wiping off the the marinade before you cook as it can easily burn the food before food is cooked through. It’s just the soy sauce gets easily burnt… so I usually recommend pouring the sauce toward the end of cooking. However, you can definitely marinate. In Japan, we don’t marinade with sauce for a long time as it can be too salty and lose the flavor of the ingredients, so we marinate about 30 to 60 mins at most. Hope this helps!

      78
      Reply to Nami'> Reply

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