How to Make Teriyaki Sauce at Home

It's always more fun to DIY. Every week, we'll spare you a trip to the grocery store and show you how to make small batches of great foods at home.

Today: Stephanie Le from I Am a Food Blog is pulling back the curtain on teriyaki sauce, and revealing that you only need 5 ingredients to make it yourself.

Even though it's common to see bottles of teriyaki sauce at grocery stores in the US and Canada, teriyaki sauce is not actually sold pre-made in Japan. The word “teriyaki” actually refers to the cooking method -- teri, meaning shiny, and yaki, meaning grilled -- rather than to a particular sauce.

A friend explained this to me when we were having dinner at my place (it was a DIY takoyaki party). I had purchased the takoyaki sauce, but he told me that it would have been just as easy to make it at home. That got us chatting about the various so-su (sauces) of Japan, and of course, I brought up teriyaki. He said it was just a combination of soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar, but he didn't teach me how to make it.

More: If a DIY takoyaki party sounds fun to you, try hosting a DIY okonomiyaki party, too. 

The next day, I was eager to give homemade teriyaki try. I found that combining those four ingredients yielded a sauce with the essential flavors of teriyaki, but it lacked that typical luster and thickness. After I added just a touch of cornstarch for thickness, however, it was perfect.

Now, I never buy teriyaki sauce. I like to use my homemade versioh with chicken or noodles, or simply as a dipping sauce. It's also fantastic for barbecue; just make sure to brush it on when your meat is almost done to avoid over-charring. 

More: Use your homemade teriyaki sauce to make tangy salmon fillets.

If you can't find mirin, you can leave it out and add extra sugar to compensate, though I find that mirin adds shininess and an extra layer of depth to the sauce.

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

Makes 3/4 cup sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup sake
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Combine the soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar in a saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. 

In a small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and the water, then whisk this slurry into the sauce.

Turn the heat to medium, and reduce the sauce until it's slightly thick, 2 to 3 minutes (or longer if you want a thicker sauce). Taste, then adjust with soy sauce and sugar if needed. The sauce will keep for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Photos by Stephanie Le