An easy homemade teriyaki sauce recipe made from pantry staples. This sauce is bold and thick and is great as a marinade or as a sauce served with your favorite meats or vegetables.
In the mood for teriyaki? Make up a batch of this sauce and then use it to make Teriyaki Chicken Pizza or Bacon Wrapped Teriyaki Chicken Skewers!
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce Recipe
There are lots of things I used to never considered making before, turning instead to the conveniently bottled versions. Salad dressings, mayonnaise, etc. Some of them I still buy bottled – mayonnaise – and some I make from scratch at home – salad dressings. One of these condiments that I love to make from scratch is homemade Teriyaki sauce. It is so super easy and good, it made me wonder why I ever bought the store bought kind!
This homemade teriyaki sauce recipe only takes minutes to make, and tastes a lot better than the jarred sauce. This sauce is great just served as a sauce alongside your favorite meats as well as a marinade. I love that it is so versatile!
Ingredients
- Brown Sugar: I use light brown sugar. You could also up the amount of honey, but I think they both bring in different flavors, so I like to use both.
- Soy Sauce: I always use low sodium soy sauce. You could also use tamari.
- Honey: If you like the sauce sweeter, use 2 tablespoons, otherwise just use one.
- Garlic: I always have fresh garlic on hand, so I like to use fresh. You could sub in garlic powder. If you do, you’ll need about 1/4 teaspoon.
- Ginger: I don’t always have fresh ginger on hand, so that is why I use ground ginger. Feel free to use fresh if you do have it, though. You’ll need 1-2 tablespoons of fresh ginger if you do sub.
- Cornstarch: This is what will thicken up your sauce. The sauce will get decently thick, so if you prefer a thinner sauce, feel free to cut this amount in half.
How to Make Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
It really doesn’t get much easier than this recipe!
1: Start by combining all of your ingredients except the cornstarch and 1/4 cup of water. Whisk to combine, and set over medium heat.
2: In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and the 1/4 cup water.
3: Pour the cornstarch mixture into the saucepan.
4: Cook, whisking, until the sauce thickens.
How to Use This Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
This homemade teriyaki sauce makes a thicker sauce that the bottled sauce, so it would be good served on top of something, but I have also used it as a marinade. If you don’t want it thick as a marinade you can skip adding the cornstarch and extra water.
Here are some of my favorite ways to use this sauce:
- As sauce with grilled chicken
- Add it to chicken pieces and broccoli and serve over rice
- As a glaze for salmon
- Mixed into noodles
- In any stir fry
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce Video
If you want to watch how this teriyaki sauce is made, watch the video above.
Storage
I usually make this teriyaki sauce when I need it, but it’s also great to just have on hand for an easy dinner.
I store it in a mason jar in the refrigerator. I will usually try to go through it in a week or less, but really, it should be good for 2-3 weeks if stored properly.
I have not tried to freeze this, although I’m assuming it would freeze well.
More Asian Inspired Recipes
Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Mongolian Beef
General Tso Chicken
Orange Chicken
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Kung Pao Chicken
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Homemade Teriyaki Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (8 oz) water
- 5 tablespoons (67 g) packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (2 oz) low sodium soy sauce
- 1-2 tablespoons honey
- 1 large clove garlic ,minced
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 cup (2 oz) cold water
Instructions
- Combine the 1 cup water, brown sugar, soy sauce, honey, garlic, and ginger in a medium saucepan and set over medium heat.
- In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch with the 1/4 cup water and whisk until dissolved. Add the cornstarch mixture to the saucepan.
- Heat the sauce until it thickens to your desired thickness. If the sauce becomes too thick, add more water to thin it out.
Hadley says
This is a great foundation for a pinapple teriakyi sauce. Just like Deborah stated, if you don’t want it as sweet, just reduce the honey and/or brown sugar. I added a few dashes of sesame oil and some seseame seeds. Because I wanted to make a pinapple version, I used 1/2 cup water with 3/4 cup pinapple juice. I took one pinapple ring and diced it up, and stirred it into the sauce, after all ingredients were in. I followed all the directions on how to cook it everything. I like her suggesstions on how you can just thin out the sauce, if it’s too thick. You can also use this on top of salmon. Thanks so much!
Gregg says
How much does it make sounds delicious
Deborah says
Hi Gregg – it makes about 1 1/2 cups of sauce.
GM says
What is the shelf life of this?
Deborah says
It can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks.
Herry says
This has become a favorite for our family.
Jeanette says
This recipe was the best I ever tasted . Better than most teriyaki fast food places .
Lee says
Way too sweet as written for me, but excellent if you want a super sweet like west coast bbq style teriyaki sauce. Probably take it back a tablespoon ish of the brown sugar to adjust to my tastes!
Romy Humphries says
I used low sodium coconut aminos instead of soy sauce. turned out great!
Deborah says
I’m so glad you loved it!
LLAMA Llama says
Overall found it to be wayyy too sweet.
Deborah says
I’m sorry it wasn’t for you – hopefully you can find a recipe that works for you.
Deborah Spears says
mmmmm!
we made this sauce for a shrimp and veggie stir fry with ramen style noodles. Delicious.
MelB says
Basic, easy and good. exactly what I was looking for. On the comments of others, I added the suger in a little at a time and found we used 4T brown sugar and 1 T honey for our families taste. The best thing about this is it can be used as is, or added to, taken away from, etc. We added a little Sriracha, sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds on steak kabobs. excellent!
Patti says
This is my favourite go to for anything saucy. Chicken, turkey meatballs and pork. Making it right now for teriyaki chicken pizza. It’s the best sauce. So quick and so easy.
Brian P. Reidy says
Jaimie H says
Had to give this 5 stars it’s very simple and tastes really great. I do use dried ginger instead of ground ginger…works just fine.
Greencol says
This is great recipe!!! I made pork tenderloin in slow cooker- the pork tenderloins s already marinated with Teriyaki inside the package but it look so plain and less flavor so I found this recipe and tried it then add to pork tenderloin. WOW! My family kept eating it and said the sauce s so good, they lick off the sauce from plate! Thumbs up!
Isabella Ames says
I recently tried out one of your recipes and it was a hit with my family! Your recipe Teriyaki Sauce is a wonderful recipe.
Jenn Marie says
You know what is helpful for a recipe? Measurements.
Deborah says
Hi Jenn Marie – if you go down to the bottom of the post there is a recipe card with all of the ingredients and measurements and full instructions. There is a Jump to Recipe button at the top of the post if you want to get straight there.
Ty says
Reading is hard. Complaining seems to be easy.
Vicki says
What recipe are you looking at. All the ones I’m looking at have measurements.