Crispy on the bite, yet delicately soft, this pan-fried Teriyaki Tofu is incredibly flavorful! Enjoy this Japanese dish as an appetizer, or even as the main dish accompanied with rice and a few of your favorite sides. It’s a dynamic recipe for anyone to try, with easy options to turn the dish into vegan or gluten-free!
There are so many delicious ways to enjoy tofu in Japanese cooking. We stir-fry, simmer, deep-fry, or steam tofu. We even eat it as Cold Tofu in the summer. One of the most popular tofu dishes you may already know is Agedashi Tofu, which is tender creamy tofu bites in a crunchy deep fried shell soaked in dashi broth.
Today, I’m sharing another fried tofu recipe with this pan-fried Teriyaki Tofu (照り焼き豆腐). This is the game-changer recipe to make for that person in your family who is so certain they do not like tofu. It looks elegant – but it is surprisingly easy to create – with a crispy, crunch on the outside to sell it at first bite, and a melt-in-your-mouth smoothness to make it memorable. This pan-fried Teriyaki Tofu is incredibly flavorful, and fun to serve as an appetizer, side dish, or even the main dish.
Easy 3-step Teriyaki Tofu
First time cooking tofu at home? Here are 3 easy steps to make delicious teriyaki tofu:
Step 1: Drain tofu well and slice
The first thing you want to do is open the tofu package and start draining the tofu. If you drain for 15 minutes, it’s plenty. Cut the tofu into half inch slices.
Step 2: Coat with potato starch and pan-fry
Prepare a tray/dish with potato starch. If you don’t have potato starch, you can use cornstarch.
Heat the oil over medium heat, and start dredging tofu in potato starch. Shake off any excess starch and place the tofu in the frying pan. Be patient as you pan-fry the tofu. Try not to keep flipping the tofu. Wait until one side is firmed up and nicely seared before you flip it around to cook on the other side.
Step 3: Add homemade teriyaki sauce and coat the tofu
Once all sides of the tofu are evenly browned and crisp, pour in the teriyaki sauce. You should hear some nice sizzles from the hot frying pan. The moisture in the sauce will evaporate as the sauce thickens. Gently coat the tofu with the sauce, and sprinkle katsuobushi over for an extra umami boost! To serve, garnish the tofu with green onion and red pickled ginger.
Delicious Variations for Japanese Pan-Fried Tofu
When this pan-fried teriyaki tofu becomes part of your regular rotation, you will probably want to try it with different types of sauces. Here are my quick and easy variations that my family loves!
1. Homemade Ponzu
Okay, if you are not into homemade ponzu, you can purchase it too (but you will be surprised how easy and SUPER delicious homemade ponzu is, trust me). Instead of teriyaki sauce, use ponzu sauce and sprinkle grated daikon and green onion. Sprinkle shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) for a kick.
2. Tonkatsu Sauce
Give this tofu dish a street food vibe reminding you of delicious okonomiyaki or takoyaki. Season with tonkatsu sauce and sprinkle aonori (green nori), zigzag some Japanese mayo, and garnish with green onion and red pickled ginger. Kids love it!
3. Sesame-Soy Dipping Sauce
This is another versatile sauce that goes with a wide variety of Asian finger foods or appetizers. Whisk together soy sauce, rice vinegar, a pinch of sugar or honey, sesame oil, chopped green onions, chopped garlic and toasted sesame seeds, you’d have a marvelous sauce for the pan-fried tofu. Feel free to add in some fresh chopped chili peppers if you like.
4. Garlic-Chili Sauce
If you like things spicy, you can smother the pan-fried tofu with a quick homemade garlic-chili sauce. It’s as easy as chopping up some garlic and mixing it with Sriracha sauce or sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey/ sugar and a generous squeeze of lime juice. This version will really kick-start your palate.
Make It Vegetarian, Vegan or Gluten-Free
For those of you who are vegetarian and vegan, all you need to do is to omit the last ingredient – katsuobushi or dried bonito flakes. Super easy conversion.
If you are gluten-free, simply swap soy sauce with gluten free soy sauce.
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want to look for substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
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Crispy on the bite, yet delicately soft, this pan-fried Teriyaki Tofu is incredibly flavorful! Enjoy this Japanese dish as an appetizer, or even as the main dish accompanied with rice and a few of your favorite sides. It's a dynamic recipe for anyone to try, with easy options to turn the dish into vegan or gluten-free!
- 14 oz medium-firm tofu (396 g)
- ¼-⅓ cup potato starch/cornstarch (Roughly 60 g or more)
- 1-2 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc)
- 1-2 packs katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) (3-6 g, as much as you like)
- 1 green onion/scallion
- pickled red ginger (beni shoga or kizami beni shoga) (Kizami Shoga) (to garnish)
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Gather all the ingredients.
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[30 Minutes Before Cooking ] Wrap the tofu with paper towel and place it between two baking sheets or plates. Then put a heavy object on top in order to press and drain water from tofu for 20-30 minutes. Discard the water. Alternatively, you can wrap the tofu with paper towel and microwave it for 2-3 minutes.
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To make teriyaki sauce, combine 2 Tbsp sake, 2 Tbsp mirin, and 2 Tbsp soy sauce in a measuring cup or small bowl.
- Cut Tofu into small square pieces. The thickness should be about ½ inches.
- Chop green onion. In a non-stick frying pan, heat 1-2 Tbsp oil on medium to medium high heat.
- When the oil is hot, put potato or cornstarch in a tray or bowl. Coat the tofu with the starch.
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Shake off excess starch and gently place tofu pieces in the pan. Cook the tofu until the bottom side is crispy and golden brown. Flip and cook the other side.
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When both sides are nicely brown, pour in the Teriyaki Sauce.
- Flip tofu and shake the pan to evenly coat the sauce over the tofu. Sprinkle katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) before turning off the heat.
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Serve the tofu on the plate and garnish with green onions and pickled red ginger. Serve immediately.
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.
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on March 28, 2011. The images and content have been updated in May 2018.
Nami, I just love your recipes. Keep up the hard work with your blog, as it is a highlight of my day, as I’m sure it is for others! Thank you so much for including the variations for gluten free, vegetarian and vegan as well, I’m currently both gluten free and vegan for health reasons. Your blog is fabulous and I also love your husband’s restaurant reviews, even though I live nowhere near your area (I’m in Australia). Thank you so much! X
Hi DeLM! Thank you so much for your kind words, and it means so much to us! I started to feature more GF recipes using GF soy sauce, and I learned that many readers are interested in GF recipes. I look forward to adding more GF recipes in the future. Thank you for writing!
Hi, Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
Can you give me some tips on how can I make this recipe without burning? I’m really amateur making things with stove.
Hi William! The tofu gets burn when the sauce is reduced too quickly and there is no moisture in the sauce. Therefore everything has to be cooked BEFORE you add the sauce. If you want to make the tofu crispy, make sure you’re done so before sauce goes in. Then when the sauce is poured, you just have to quickly coat it. It will start to thicken as the moisture evaporate. If you want to keep thin sauce, then remove from the heat sooner. Otherwise, you can wait until it gets slightly slurry before transferring the tofu to a dish. 🙂 Hope that helps…
Hi Nami, Thanks for this piece. I’ve read it and found it really helpful for me.
Thanks so much Zunichiro!
This was sooooo good and very simple to prepare. Will definitely be making it again. 🙂
Hi Jenni! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
Hi- love this site and can’t wait to try more recipes!! I cook with tofu a lot, but last night for the first time I dipped the tofu in potato starch before pan frying in peanut oil. The potato starch got a bit gummy and caused the tofu cubes to stick together. Is this normal or did I do something wrong? My first thought is the oil wasn’t hot enough but I’m not sure. I’m going to try agedashi tofu, which I love, but I don’t want sticky, gummy tofu. Any advice?
Hi Jenny! Thank you so much for your kind words. I’m happy to hear you enjoy my site! Yeah the oil wasn’t hot enough, so the flour (potato starch) kind of dissolved. So make sure you heat up the oil hot enough. 🙂 Hope your Agedashi Tofu will be successful!
Hi Namiko, what can I use in place of Sake for the Teriyaki sauce? Where I live, Sake is not available. Thank you.
Hello! You can use water instead. 🙂 Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Dear Chui,
I don’t know if you can get this where you live, but I sometimes use a mild Sherry instead of sake.
All the best,
Neeltje
Hi Nami,
I just made this recipe for dinner and it was delicious! I love your website and have been a fan for about a year now. Your instructions are very detailed and your recipes always turn out perfectly. Thank you!
Hi Sesame! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it and my recipes work out for you! Thank you for taking the time to write your kind feedback. xo
Dear Nami,
Thank you so much for your lovely recipes! I always enjoy them a lot and they bring regular 懐かしい！to our home. ^_^
For Monday I would like to try to take a Bento to work. I thought for the protein I might go with the Teriyaki – Tofu. Do you think it could work? Or would the tofu get soggy?
All the best and thanks also for the vegan options in sour recipes, I love them!
Neeltje
Hi Neeltje! Thank you for your kind words. I’m happy to hear you enjoy my recipes. 🙂
I hope what I am trying to say will make sense. The tofu doesn’t become soggy (especially if you drain well and cook), but the coating for tofu may be. However, it’s not that bad. Some recipes may not work well for bento menu but I won’t consider this is one of them. Sure, it’s not hot and the coating gets soggy but I would be okay because of the strong flavor for this dish. When it’s weak flavor (let’s say you don’t add much sauce), room temperature bento never tastes good… but once tofu is coated with strong flavor sauce, it is still delicious in bento. If you are someone who’s not used to bento, I may worry about teriyaki tofu not being in a perfect condition… but it seems like you know what to expect in bento so I’d say you should go for it. 🙂
Dear Nami,
thank you so much! It makes perfect sense and I will definitely try it. 🙂
Have a lovely Sunday!
Thank you, Neeltje! You too!
Hi Namiko! I’m a big fan of your recipes and I’ve tried to learn my way around tofu at home lately so I thought I’d give this a try. When I make this, is it supposed to come out crispy? I tried it a few times but it seems to come out almost a bit slimy, and it take a looong time to sear. Sounds like I should be turning up the heat, but then the sizzling gets a bit too powerful and oil gets all over the stove top :’) Do you have any advice?
Thanks for all that you do, I appreciate it!
Hi Dylan! First of all, I highly recommend this oil splatter shield. I use it often to keep my stove clean as much as possible.
https://amzn.to/2llBPe0
To make it crisper, it helps if you add a bit more oil. You don’t want to steam it. I’m not sure what type of pan you use, but additional oil should help crisp up. 🙂
Hi Nami,
I made this but the outside was chewy not crispy, any advice for next time?
Thank you, Patti
Hi Patti! Thank you for trying this recipe! If you have more sauce, it’s hard to keep the outer layer crispy, but you can either reduce the sauce or cook on the pan for a longer time to make it more char. Either works. And make sure you have enough oil to make the tofu crispy (this is before adding sauce). Hope this helps? It won’t be crispy like chips or cracker “crisp” though due to the sauce.
Easy and yummy! I’m an American vegan living in Kyoto, Japan, and I am soooo appreciative of these recipes helping me to identify bottles of things that I can’t read in supermarkets, and to make simple, delicious meals with all the fabulous new ingredients available to me. This tofu was great, I’ll be making this a lot. I used more oil than I needed to because I was worried it was going to stick to the pan, but nope! I used a nonstick pan and it barely needs any oil. Thanks for the great recipes and tips!
Hi Katie! Thank you for your kind words! How’s being vegan in Kyoto? I assume there are more vegan restaurants there than several years ago. Hopefully, there are more options these days. Glad the tofu didn’t stick to the pan. Thank you for the feedback! 🙂
Oh, wow. Actually, WOW. I’ve never been adverse to tofu, but tend to regard it as neutral, at best. However, I can’t stop eating this teriyaki tofu! I turned away from the stove, for a moment, and all the slices suddenly went a wee bit beyond “golden brown” … not a bad thing, but probably a slightly different flavor than suggested. The sauce evaporated almost instantly, and made an instant coating. I sprinkled some bonito over the top of one piece, but, though I liked the flavor and appearance, the fishy smell detracted somewhat, for me, and I didn’t repeat the garnish. (Both my cats are actually circling, as I’m typing this!) I’ll definitely be making this teriyaki tofu, again, in the very near future. Delicious.
Hi Chris! Haha your cats know what’s good! Bonito flakes are optional, we like to sprinkle a bit, but it is not necessary at all. Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m happy you enjoyed it! 🙂
Looks delicious! Could you use this method to make a pan fried version of Agedashi tofu as well?
Hi Keri! Hmmm… tofu from Agedashi Tofu is deep-fried. You can “shallow-fry” the tofu, with 1/2 inch oil in the pan but it won’t be fluffy/crispy like deep-fried version, I think. 🙂
Hi Nami, thanks for the recipe. I prepared it tonight and it was delicious! I used your teriyaki sauce recipe (https://www.justonecookbook.com/teriyaki-sauce/), because I have a bunch already made in the fridge, which I note has the addition of sugar whereas your teriyaki tofu sauce does not. I didn’t know I could make teriyaki sauce without something sweet. I’m wondering, if I omit sugar from the teriyaki sauce recipe, would it work for general use, or is this only something that would workout for tofu for some reason? I usually use it to top stir-fried vegetables. Thanks for the great site! Best, Rae
Hi Raechel! You can omit sugar but you can’t omit mirin. I use hon-mirin or mirin which is high in alcohol but it has really good taste. If you’re used to commercializing teriyaki sauce, you may feel it lacks sweetness. But you can always adjust (add more mirin – but remember it comes with more alcohol content). Some food tastes better with a bit more sweetness while others don’t. So adjust based on the recipe. Hope that helps! 🙂
Thanks for your prompt reply Nami :-). I use Eden Foods Mirin which I understand, from your All About Mirin page (https://www.justonecookbook.com/mirin/) is not hon-mirin. I choose it specifically because it omits sugar / corn syrup. I am wondering, if I made teriyaki using only soya sauce, Eden Foods Mirin and sake, do you think it would turn out? I don’t have any concerns about alcohol content, and I actually find commercial teriyaki way to sweet, although I do like the way your teriyaki sauce recipe (https://www.justonecookbook.com/teriyaki-sauce/) caramelizes once it hits the heat. Thanks for your thoughts.
Hi Raechel! Everyone has a different sweetness level they enjoy, so I can’t say it would be sweet enough; however, if you’re used to less sweet taste, I would say you can definitely try not adding sugar at all, then see how much you want to sweeten with sugar or additional mirin. 🙂 Every household makes teriyaki sauce with different ratios. Hope you find the perfect balance to your liking! Thank you again for writing! 🙂
So good, tofu nice and juicy.
Hi Will! Thank you for trying this recipe! Glad to hear you enjoyed it. 🙂
This was perfect! I didn’t have sake so I substituted chinese rice wine and I couldn’t tell the difference. Thank you for providing vegan friendly recipes!
Hi Mandy! I’m so much for trying this recipe! Yes, Chinese rice wine is fine. 🙂 I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback. xo
Hello, could I use silken tofu instead of medium firm tofu since I don’t have it? I noticed that in your agedashi tofu recipe there is an option to use silken tofu. (I haven’t made these recipes before.)
Hi Gianna! You can… but silken tofu breaks up easily and when you pan fry and flip the tofu etc, it can be quite tricky. For Agedashi Tofu, you place the tofu in the deep fry oil so it will be easier to handle than pan fry in the pan. 🙂
I’ve made these once already but I’m making them again tonight! So delicious.
Hi Taylor! AWESOME! Thanks so much for your kind feedback! I’m so glad you enjoy this recipe. 🙂
hi i was wondering, ive been trying to put less sodium in my cooking so ive been just omiting the amount of soy sause by half. is that okay or can you recomend a better way?
Hi Racquel! Yes, you can do that. 🙂 I think using less sauce and enjoying the natural ingredient taste is better for heath in general. 🙂