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This easy 10 minute Teriyaki Sauce recipe is made with simple ingredients like soy sauce, honey, brown sugar, and cornstarch. It’s sweet, savory, and absolutely delicious! Use it on everything from chicken and salmon to stir-fries and noodles.
This teriyaki sauce is one of my must-have condiments for just about everything. You can use it as a marinade, glaze, dipping sauce, or stir-fry sauce. I use it to marinate baked teriyaki chicken and easy air fryer salmon bites, and use it to season slow cooker teriyaki shredded beef.
Deliciously sweet and salty, this teriyaki sauce is the best you’ll ever make! It tastes better (and is less expensive!) than anything you’ll get from the store. Best of all, homemade teriyaki comes together FAST and lasts for up to two weeks in the refrigerator.
Table of Contents
What is Teriyaki?
Teriyaki sauce is a popular Japanese-inspired sauce renowned for its glossy, sweet, and savory flavor. Traditionally, the term teriyaki refers to a cooking method in Japan where food (often fish or chicken) is grilled or broiled with a glaze made from soy sauce, mirin (a sweet rice wine), and sugar.
In Western cooking, homemade teriyaki sauce often includes additional ingredients such as garlic, ginger, and cornstarch (to thicken it), resulting in a rich, restaurant-style consistency. It’s commonly used as a marinade, stir-fry sauce, or finishing glaze for meats, seafood, tofu, and vegetables.
What’s in Homemade Teriyaki Sauce?
Teriyaki sauce gets its rich, balanced flavor from soy sauce and sugar, and brightness from vinegar or mirin. Fresh garlic and ginger add a warm, aromatic depth that makes it both savory and slightly sweet.
- Soy Sauce: Feel free to use low-sodium or regular soy sauce if you prefer. To make this recipe gluten-free, replace regular soy sauce with an equal amount of coconut aminos or liquid aminos or use a gluten-free soy sauce such as this San-J Tamari Gluten-Free Soy Sauce.
- Brown Sugar and Honey: Teriyaki sauce should be sweet. In this version, I add both brown sugar and honey. To make this recipe vegan, use only brown sugar.
- Rice wine Vinegar: A little acidity adds tanginess and helps the other flavors shine. Possible substitutions include apple cider vinegar or mirin (a type of rice wine similar to sake). Note: Mirin is somewhat sweeter and less acidic. I love using mirin, but it is less widely available.
- Garlic and Ginger: In this recipe, I added fresh ginger and garlic, but feel free to substitute with garlic powder and ground ginger if that’s easier. Use ½ teaspoon of ground ginger and ½ to 1 teaspoon of garlic powder.
- Sesame Oil (optional): Sesame oil adds wonderful flavor. If you don’t have any sesame oil on hand, omit it from the recipe.
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch is what makes teriyaki sauce thick and glossy.
For the full list and amounts of ingredients, scroll down to the recipe card at the bottom of the page.
How to Make Teriyaki Sauce
This teriyaki sauce is super easy to make. Here’s how:
To begin, whisk together the soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, rice wine vinegar, minced ginger, sesame oil, garlic, and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring it just to a simmer and immediately reduce the heat to low. Allow mixture to simmer for 3-4 minutes, stirring often.
- Looking for just a marinade? Stop here.
As your sauce simmers, prepare the corn starch slurry. Whisk together 3 tablespoons of cornstarch with four tablespoons of cold water in a small bowl.
Slowly the cornstarch slurry to the teriyaki sauce mixture, whisking continuously until the sauce starts to thicken. Once thickened, immediately remove from heat and garnish with 1-2 teaspoons sesame seeds, if desired.
How to Use It
This homemade teriyaki sauce is a versatile and delicious Japanese sauce that can be used in countless ways to add sweet and savory flavor to all your favorite dishes. In general, you’ll find (and can make) two types of teriyaki sauce:
- Thinner teriyaki sauce: This thinner version is light and pourable, similar in consistency to soy sauce. Traditional Japanese teriyaki sauce is thin, made with with soy sauce, sake, mirin, sugar, and simmered without cornstarch. It’s most commonly used as a marinade, basting sauce, or drizzled over rice, fish, and veggies for flavor without heaviness.
- Thicker teriyaki sauce: This thicker Western-style sauce is glossy, syrupy, and thickened with a cornstarch slurry OR reduced longer over heat. Often includes garlic or ginger for flavor and may be used as a glaze, finishing sauce, or dipping sauce.
Which one should you use? If you want an authentic, lighter flavor, opt for a thinner teriyaki sauce. If you want a sticky, glossy coating that clings to your food, thick teriyaki sauce is the way to go.
Marinade: To use this recipe as a marinade, prepare as instructed but stop before adding the cornstarch. Without the added cornstarch, your sauce will be less thick and glossy but just as flavorful. Use it to marinate baked chicken breasts or baked chicken thighs, pork chops, and yummy baked salmon! Simply place your favorite protein in a large ziplock bag, pour over the sauce, and allow it to marinate for at least 30 minutes before cooking.
Glaze: Teriyaki sauce is absolute magic as a glaze for grilled and roasted meats and veggies. Brush it onto grilled veggie skewers, chicken yakitori, or shrimp for delicious caramelized edges.
Dipping Sauce: This makes a great dipping sauce for egg rolls, spring rolls, gyoza (Japanese potstickers), fried tempura, or even sushi.
Stir-Fries: Use it as the base for all kinds of stir fries! It’s great with this easy chicken stir fry or cabbage stir fry. You can even add it to your favorite noodle stir fries like chow mein or yaki udon.
Storage Tips
- Refrigerator: Store cooled sauce in an airtight jar or container for up to 2 weeks.
- Freezer: Freeze in small, airtight containers or ice cube trays for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using.
- Reheating: Warm gently in a saucepan over low heat, adding a splash of water if it’s too thick.
More Sauce Recipes
If you make this homemade teriyaki sauce recipe, I’d love to hear how it turned out in the comment section below! Your review will help other readers in the community. And if you’re hungry for more delicious food inspiration and exclusive content, join my free newsletter here.
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon honey, or more brown sugar
- 3 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger, or ½ tsp ground ginger, optional
- 4 cloves garlic, minced, or ½ tsp ground ginger, optional
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil, optional
- ¾ cup water
- 3 tablespoon cornstarch, mixed with 4 tbsp cold water
- sesame seeds, to garnish, optional
Instructions
- Combine the base ingredients. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, rice wine vinegar, grated ginger, minced garlic, sesame oil, and water until combined. Place over medium heat and bring just to a gentle simmer.
- Simmer briefly. Reduce the heat to low and let the sauce simmer for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar and blend flavors.
- Thicken the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and cold water until the mixture is smooth. Slowly pour the slurry into the saucepan, whisking constantly, until the sauce thickens to your desired consistency (about 1-2 minutes).
- Finish and store. Remove from heat. If desired, stir in 1-2 teaspoons sesame seeds for added flavor and texture. Use immediately or let the sauce cool to room temperature, then transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
- For a perfectly smooth and glossy sauce, substitute ground garlic and ginger for fresh.
- Gluten-free: Replace regular soy sauce with an equal amount of coconut aminos or liquid aminos or use a gluten-free soy sauce such as this San-J Tamari Gluten-Free Soy Sauce.
- If you prefer not to thicken your sauce, simply omit the cornstarch.
- Keep leftover teriyaki sauce stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I can’t eat garlic so I left it out and upped the ginger. Its perfect! TY!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Upping the ginger is such a great swap when leaving out the garlic – thanks for sharing your tip!
I keep seeing teriyaki recipes and photos with little seeds in them, but not in the recipes. Are those sesame seeds and how much would I add for your recipe above? Do you roast them? Thank you!
Please see the end step #4:
”
Remove from heat and garnish with 1-2 teaspoons sesame seeds, if desired.
”
They don’t need to be roasted, but you can if you want that roasted flavor 🙂
Super yummy! Loved it 🙂
Thanks for the super yummy feedback and rating, Samantha 😀
This was first time on your site. We thought recipe was 1 and a quarter cup of everything in recipe had problems with making it.kepted reading and saw where it was broken out with other amounts. So what was it suppose to be?
Please see the recipe card at the bottom of the post for full ingredients and instructions. 🙂
Ingredients amounts are as follows:
1¼ cups soy sauce
½ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
2 tablespoon sesame oil
4 cloves garlic – minced
½ cup water
3 tablespoon cornstarch – mixed with 4 tbsp cold water
Whoa. I followed this recipe to the T and it was incredibly salty. Not sure if I did anything wrong since I followed it exactly and read the notes.
It was probably the type of soy sauce you used that provided that salty taste. I recommend reduced-sodium soy sauce in the post if you don’t like salty foods 🙂