Learn how to make this absolute authentic teriyaki sauce recipe from the native!
Teriyaki sauce is a simple but savory sweet Japanese essential sauce made from just 4 ingredients – soy sauce, sake, dried dashi kelp, and raw cane sugar.
The best homemade teriyaki sauce is SO much better than the bottled just super-sweet kind.
It’s thick, sticky, sweet, and has a no-comparison rich flavor, making it the perfect glaze over beef, pork, chicken, salmon, veggies, and more.
You’ll never go back to store-bought once you make this and you’ll know American teriyaki sauce was twisted a big time.
So if you love restaurant-grade/ Japanese authentically teriyaki sauce, then stick to this recipe of only 4 basic ingredients, without MIRIN.
In other words, you can go back to other recipes that are arranged to your cultural preferred taste.
- Essentials To Make Absolute Authentic Teriyaki Sauce
- Substitutes For Mirin
- What Is Different Between Yakitori And Teriyaki Sauce
- How To Make The Authentic Japanese Teriyaki (Yakitori) Sauce
- Absolute-Authentic Japanese Teriyaki Sauce Without Mirin
- EASY TERIYAKI MEATBALLS
- Can You Make TERIYAKI SAUCE WITHOUT Japanese Cooking Essentials
- Teriyaki Sauce 2
- The Recipe Using Teriyaki Sauce
- Make Japanese Essential Sauces And Dressing At Home
Essentials To Make Absolute Authentic Teriyaki Sauce
By adding dried kelp to teriyaki sauce, the vegetable amino acids of kelp produce a synergistic effect of umami with any other food, but, especially, meat and seafood.
It’s actually a chemically based technique!
Moreover, dried kelp makes the sauce thick and sticky uniquely.
Many native Japanese teriyaki sauce recipes use only soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake. It’s true.
Honestly, you can make Teriyaki sauce with those ingredients.
However, this recipe brings so much better taste with a rich Umami flavor.
So, I highly recommend using dried kelp to make Teriyaki sauce.
Rishiri kelp is harvested mainly in the northern Hokkaido area (Rishiri Island, Rebun Island, Wakkanai region, etc.)
It is dark brown and has dried harder than other dried kelp. The soup stock is clear with a rich aroma and also goes well with bonito dashi broth. It is especially popular in Kyoto cuisine.
What’s Dried Kelp
Dried kelp called “Kombu” / “Dashi Kombu” is mainly used to make Dashi broth in Japanese cooking. It has a subtle but great savory (Umami) flavor when adding dishes such as soups and stews.
“Dashi” is the basis of the taste of Japanese cuisine. “Dashi” is characterized by its rich and gentle “umami” even if it is hidden in other seasonings.
The kelp is rich in glutamic acid, which is a plant-derived umami component. It has also rich in calcium and iron, minerals and helps to boost the immune system.
Note that Dashi Kombu is different from eatable Kombu (kelp.) Make sure it is “Dashi Kombu”, not a regular edible Kombu before purchasing.
Japanese Dark Soy Sauce
Personally, I usually use Kikkoman dark soy sauce– it’s easy-to-get, and authentic Japanese soy sauce.
If you want to upgrade soy sauce, Yamasa Organic Marudaizu Soy Sauce is highly recommended.
A high-quality, rich soybean flavor, this organic soy sauce is free from all preservatives and artificial flavors.
Soy sauce is very high in sodium as you know, you can use low sodium soy sauce instead. (Yamasa Low Sodium Soy Sauce)
However, the teriyaki sauce will not be last longer compared with the sauce made of regular soy sauce.
It’s better to consume within 1 month if you use low sodium soy sauce.
Substitutes For Mirin
You can see many Japanese recipes that require “Mirin” in their ingredient, as I said, most of the other Teriyaki sauce recipes ask you to use Mirin/ sweet rice wine.
Don’t worry, I don’t use Mirin at all in my recipes.
I have been cooking without Mirin for about 18 years, I haven’t had a problem so far.
What’s Mirin???
Mirin is called rice wine in English, a traditional condiment made from glutinous rice, koji rice, and distilled liquor, and aged for 40 to 60 days.
It contains about 14 percent alcohol and adds a mild sweetness, mellow rich flavor, and a shiny glow finish.
In other words, you can easily find a substitute for Mirin for the purpose of adding sweetness and rich flavor.
What To Use If You Don’t Stock Mirin
If you want to minimize condiments in the kitchen pantry, you don’t have to buy Mirin just for Japanese cooking.
Actually, Mirin can be substituted by common ingredients that you may already have in your kitchen. To make 1 tablespoon of Mirin,
- 1 tablespoon of Japanese Sake (not cooking sake) or white wine (sweet) + 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of Japanese Sake (not cooking sake) or white wine (sweet) + 1 teaspoon of honey
- 1 tbsp of Sherry
Please, please, do not use “Rice vinegar” as the substitute for Mirin. It’s a completely different condiment.
What Is Different Between Yakitori And Teriyaki Sauce
Both sauces are made of Soy sauce, Japanese Sake, Mirin, and Sugar.
Technically, there is no difference between “Teriyaki” sauce and “Yakitori” sauce in home cooking.
Simply speaking, Yakitori sauce is categorized in Teriyaki sauce.
The same raw materials and in the same category, so why do we use different names?
It’s likely based on the purpose and hidden flavor.
For example, we call Yakitori sauce the sauce used for Yakitori chicken.
Besides, the specialty restaurants such as Yakitori restaurants or grilled eel restaurants, use the same sauce for decades to decades.
Actually, they dip grilled chicken or grilled eel into the sauce so the flavor from the food infuses into the sauce, which becomes more than Teriyaki sauce.
So, we call Yakitori sauce or Kabayaki (grilled eel) sauce for that situation.
By the way, Teriyaki sauce (also teriyaki flavored dishes) in the US and other countries is a completely different taste from authentic Japanese flavor.
Therefore, in Japan, imported teriyaki sauce (such as Yoshida sauce) is often referred to as “gourmet sauce”.
How To Make The Authentic Japanese Teriyaki (Yakitori) Sauce
Since Teriyaki sauce is made of soy sauce, sake, and sugar, which has a high salt concentration and a low pH value, it likely doesn’t go bad so soon.
Rest homemade Teriyaki sauce in a fridge overnight before serving since the taste will be so much better.
This homemade teriyaki sauce will be kept for 2-6 months (as a guide) in the fridge.
Please let it cool down completely before refrigerating.
Besides, it’s better to consume within 1 month when you use low-sodium soy sauce.
You can also freeze the sauce, and consume it within 1 year.
You may wonder if the sauce will not be thick enough just after made, but it’ll be thicker the next day.
Absolute-Authentic Japanese Teriyaki Sauce Without Mirin
Ingredients
- 2 cups Dark soy sauce (Kikkoman)
- 2 cups Japanese Sake
- 2 cups Raw cane sugar
- Dashi kelp (2 X 5 inches)
Instructions
- Add Japanese sake into a saucepan, and bring it to a boil over medium-low heat.
- Once sake boiled, cook it for 2 minutes to burn off the alcohol.
- Turn the stove down to low heat. Add the remaining ingredients.
- Simmer the sauce for 30 minutes over low heat until it becomes reduced by half. *Skim the scum off if needed.
- When the sauce is simmered for 30 minutes and is reduced by half, turn off the stove and let it cool.
- Take out the dashi kelp. Rest the sauce overnight in a refrigerator.
- The sauce can be kept for 2-6 months.
Video
Notes
EASY TERIYAKI MEATBALLS
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground meat (beef, pork, chicken, turkey, beef&pork mix)
- ¼ cup bread crumbs
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ cup onion, minced
- salt & pepper to taste
- ½ cup my authentic Japanese Teriyaki Sauce *Recipe on the post
Instructions
Prepare The Ingredients
- (Make TERIYAKI sauce) See the post to make my authentic Japanese Teriyaki sauce the day before.
- Sautee minced onions until they turn light brown. Let them cool.
- Soak the bread crumbs in the milk.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line parchment paper on a baking pan, and set aside.
Make Meatballs
- In a large mixing bowl, add your choice of ground meat, soaked bread crumbs with milk, sauteed onion, salt, and pepper.
- Combine them well with your hands.
- Make the meat into balls.
- Arrange the balls on the baking pan.
- Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes.
- When meatballs are done baking, let them cool until they become warm. (not hot.) Then, transfer to a non-stick skillet.
- Then, transfer to a non-stick skillet. Pour Teriyaki sauce over the meatballs and bring to a boil.
- Immediately, shake the skillet continuously until the sauce will thicken once it gets boiled.
- When the Teriyaki sauce will be reduced by one-third and enough thicken, serve and enjoy.
Notes
Can You Make TERIYAKI SAUCE WITHOUT Japanese Cooking Essentials
Teriyaki Sauce 2 is a recipe that doesn’t require special Japanese cooking ingredients such as Dashi kelp, and Japanese sake.
You may wonder if the sauce will not be thick enough just after made, but it’ll be thicker the next day.
If you want to make your sauce even thicker, you can reheat the sauce and add arrowroot powder or cornstarch solution.
Just mix 1 tablespoon of either powder with 1 tablespoon of water.
Then stir it into the sauce when it’s nearly done simmering.
Teriyaki Sauce 2
Ingredients
- 2 cups Dark Soy Sauce
- 2 cups Japanese Sake or White wine
- 2 cups Raw cane sugar
- 1.5 tsp Chicken bouillon
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1 tsp Grated garlic
Thicken The Sauce
- 1 tbsp arrowroot powder/corn or potato starch
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
- Add Japanese sake/ white wine into a saucepan, and bring it to a boil over medium-low heat.
- Once sake boiled, cook it for 2 minutes to burn off the alcohol.
- Turn the stove down to low heat. Add the remaining ingredients.
- Simmer the sauce for 30 minutes over low heat until it becomes reduced by half.
- When the sauce is simmered for 30 minutes and is reduced by half, turn off the stove and let it cool.
- Thicken the sauce if desired. Mix 1 tablespoon of either powder with 1 tablespoon of water. Then stir it into the sauce when it’s nearly done simmering.
- Rest the sauce overnight in a refrigerator.
- The sauce can be kept for 1 month.
