Easy Teriyaki Sauce 日式照烧酱

Ah...teriyaki sauce. Vastly popular and many variations. I bet you have tried it at least once in this lifetime of yours. But hey, do you know that teriyaki sauce is one of the simplest sauce to make with only four (and some three) ingredients? And it only takes you 10 - 15 minutes to make.

The core ingredients for this teriyaki sauce are mirin, sake, shoyu (Japanese soy sauce) and sugar. Looks easy right? I have to admit I had trouble finding the ingredients. It took me to a few places before I got my hands on the sake and mirin. And mind you, I am living in an Asian country whereby Asian groceries are easily available. Even now, I am not sure if I got the correct sake and mirin because it is written in Japanese! I only have to trust the assistant who gave me these two precious bottles of condiment.

In my first attempt, I definitely over-reduced my sauce.  It was thick and I ended up adding a little water to dilute the sauce. Do be careful as to when you take it off the fire. Mine does not look thick when it was taken off fire but the moisture continued to evaporate thereafer, making the sauce a bit salty. The flavour combination was definitely there. The whole kitchen was filled with such pleasant appetizing smell of the evaporating condiments that I felt hungry just by sniffing the air. If the smell is poisonous, I am bound to die....ten fold!

There is really no one fix measurement for making this teriyaki sauce. This is because different brands of condiment might differ slightly in the degree of sweetness or saltiness. What is given below is just a guide, a guide that works for me. Feel free to add or reduce (especially the sugar content) as you fancy.

Easy Teriyaki Sauce 日式照烧酱

Makes about 1/2 cup sauce

1/2 cup shoyu
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup sake
4 tbsp sugar (original recipe uses unrefined sugar)
2 cloves garlic, crushed (optional)
1/2 inch ginger, sliced thickly (optional)

Cooking Instruction

1. Put everything into a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring mixture to a slow simmer. Simmer for about 10-15 mins or until sauce is reduced by half.

2. Remove from fire and discard ginger and garlic (if any).

3. Cool sauce completely before storing in air tight jar in the refrigerator.




Check out my Sweet and Sour Sauce here: