My version of the traditional teriyaki sauce – perfect as a stir-fry sauce or marinade and ready in just a few minutes.

When visiting London, my family love to have Teriyaki Chicken and Rice Bowls from Itsu. Since discovering them, I’ve wanted to make a version at home and the first step was to perfect my teriyaki sauce.

I have to say I think I’ve done a great job as this sauce is yummy yummy yummy (yes, it deserves three yummys!).

A little note about ingredients

When you look at the ingredients list for this sauce you may be thinking, hmmmm I’m not sure I can get hold of all of that. Firstly, I’m pretty sure you should be able to (in the UK at least), as I said before I lived in a little town in North Wales and I can get them all in my small local Tesco, you’d have to be somewhere pretty remote to have worse access to shops!

Secondly, you can make substitutions and still have a nice sauce…

Reduced salt soy sauce – simply substitute for any other soy sauce (or Tamari if you want the sauce to be gluten-free).
Mirin – use white wine or sherry and add an extra teaspoon of sugar to your mix to replace the sweetness of the mirin
Rice wine vinegar – white wine or cider vinegar. I’ve even used red wine vinegar as I hadn’t realised I’d run out until I started cooking, it tasted delicious, just a touch more tangy.
Toasted sesame oil – Use another quite plain oil such as sunflower or peanut oil and mix in a teaspoon of toasted sesame seeds to replace the nutty flavour of the sesame oil.

Each of these substitutions will change the flavour a bit (and I’ve not tried all combinations), but with each of them you’ll still end up with a decent Terikayi-style sauce in the end.

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Teriyaki Sauce

My version of the traditional teriyaki sauce – perfect as a stir-fry sauce or marinade and ready in just a few minutes.

5 from 3 votes

Print Rate Save

Active Time: 7

Cook Time: 4

Total Time: 7

Servings: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS

4 tbsp reduced salt soy sauce - you can also use regular soy sauce if that’s what you’ve got in the cupboard
4 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 inch cube fresh ginger

INSTRUCTIONS

Finely grate the ginger (1 inch cube)
Put all of the ingredients (grated ginger, 4 tbsp reduced salt soy sauce, 4 tbsp mirin, 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar, 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil, 3 tbsp dark brown sugar) into a bowl and give it a good stir.
Heat a wok or frying pan until sizzling hot. Add the ingredients and turn the heat down to low. Simmer for 3-4 minutes until it has reduced to about half the volume you started with, it will also darken in colour and become glossier. Stir constantly.
Remove from the heat and it’s now ready to use.

NOTES

If you’re making this as a marinade rather than a stir-fry sauce then simply stop at step 2 and use it to marinade your chosen meat or fish.

Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a comment and rating at the bottom of the page to let others know what you thought.

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NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.

Course: Sauce

Free From/Suitable For…

Suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans
Dairy-Free
Egg-Free
Nut-Free

The sauce can be made gluten-free by switching the soy sauce for Tamari.

The ingredients for this recipe are easily available free from all these allergens. However, please ensure you double-check allergen information for all ingredients.

Comments

Terry Akki says
January 08, 2021 at 2:52 pm

Dead easy, absolutely bang on and delicious. I did add only half the sugar though….I served it over air fried teriyaki flavour tofuu. DEEELICIOUS.
Kelly says
February 18, 2020 at 3:28 am

Love your recipe! Usually double or triple it. I have normally cut the sugar by about a 1/3. I even canned some to ship to relatives. When canning I omit the ginger and use a red pepper flake for spice. Thank you so much for saving my opinion of teriyaki!
The Nosey Chef says
July 28, 2018 at 4:42 am

We made this last night. I did my research first and decided that yours was the most authentic I could find that did not use USA cups. We will be posting our adaptation soon (with acknowledgment and permalink).
Neha says
January 31, 2018 at 4:10 am
Sauce looks tempting Charlotte. I am gonna try it soon 🙂
- Charlotte Oates says
  January 31, 2018 at 10:22 am
  Thanks, I hope you enjoy it.
tapsmon says
June 21, 2017 at 5:26 am
why the sesame oil and vinegar. Teriyaki does not use sesame oil and vinegar at all. And that is a lot of sesame oil to use.
- Charlotte Oates says
  June 21, 2017 at 10:00 pm
  On my blog I make recipes the way I like to eat them as I go back and cook them again and again. Sometimes that means they can deviate a bit from the more traditional versions. I’ve added the oil and vinegar simple because I prefer the sauce with them.
Kristen walker says
April 23, 2017 at 2:37 pm
Lovely sounds great, I will try it
Avril Berry says
October 01, 2016 at 4:12 pm
Thanks Charlotte – sounds great – think I will use it on the salmon this evening!
Avril
- Charlotte Oates says
  October 01, 2016 at 4:34 pm
  Excellent, I hope you enjoy it.
Ridhima says
February 01, 2016 at 5:07 pm
Looks super yum! Can’t wait to try!!
- Charlotte Oates says
  February 02, 2016 at 9:25 pm
  Thanks Ridhima, I hope you enjoy it.
beth says
January 31, 2016 at 10:21 pm
Looks great. Will have to give it a try. I’m sure I’ve got all the ingredients in my cupboard anyway
- Charlotte Oates says
  January 31, 2016 at 10:29 pm
  Great, I hope you enjoy it Beth x