Teriyaki Sauce Recipe: 3 Ways to Cook With Teriyaki Sauce

Teriyaki is a Japanese cooking technique that involves glazing meat, veggies, or tofu in a traditional mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin before grilling or broiling them. In Japanese, “teri” refers to the lustrous, glossy effect of repeatedly brushing with the sauce during the cooking process, while “yaki” refers to the grilled or broiled preparation.

While basic teriyaki sauce recipes resemble an all-purpose tare sauce, you can incorporate aromatic seasonings like garlic powder, fresh grated ginger, apple cider vinegar, toasted sesame oil and sesame seeds, or a thickening agent like cornstarch. Homemade teriyaki sauce recipes can be made gluten-free by using tamari in place of standard soy sauce.

You can use teriyaki sauce to highlight a variety of delicious recipes:

1. 1. As a marinade or glaze: Teriyaki sauce is best known as a glaze in classic dishes like teriyaki chicken or teriyaki salmon, but it can also stand in for barbecue sauce on pork ribs. If you’re using teriyaki as a marinade, drip off any excess sauce before grilling so that the sugar doesn’t burn.
2. 2. As a stir-fry sauce: Use a drizzle of teriyaki sauce to finish a stir-fry with veggies, meat, or tofu, and your choice of noodles (which, unlike rice, won’t be weighed down by the thick sauce).
   
3. 3. As a condiment: Instead of a glaze, you can use teriyaki sauce as a dipping sauce for dishes like grilled chicken wings or kebabs.