Best Teriyaki Sauce | Fast Easy Healthy

Teriyaki sauce is quick and easy plus it’s full-tilt boogie on the Taste-o-meter. With only a few ingredients you probably already have sitting on your kitchen shelf, you can make this in minutes.

How to Make Homemade Teriyaki Sauce/Marinade

Try this sauce as a marinade or brushed on grilled or baked meats like chicken, steak bites, salmon, and pork chops. Tossed in with steamed vegetables is great too. Keep scrolling for gluten-free and low sodium options. 👇🏼

With all this flavor, a little goes a long way! Season your meat and vegetables with 1 tablespoon of this sauce per 1 cup or 8-ounce serving.

Ingredients

• 1 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger or fresh ginger
• 4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds or chopped green onions (optional)

Instructions

1. Over medium heat mix together the soy sauce, brown sugar, rice wine vinegar, ground ginger, minced garlic, and sesame oil.
2. In a small bowl, stir the cornstarch into 1/4 cup cold water until it’s thoroughly combined.
3. Whisk the cornstarch slurry into the sauce mixture. Continue to whisk as the sauce comes up to a boil.
4. As soon as the sauce thickens and comes to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer.
5. Sprinkle in the toasted sesame seeds, stir, and remove from heat.

The best way to use this sauce as a marinade is to let it cool then put it in a large zip lock bag. Add your uncooked vegetables or meat to the bag and refrigerate. Marinate vegetables and meat separately. Let the veggies rest in the sauce for no more than 2 hours and the meat can marinate for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 days.

Is teriyaki sauce healthy?

Since a little goes a long way, yes, I’d say 1 tablespoon of this sauce is a healthy portion. If you sat down and ate this whole batch… well, you might want to think twice about that.

Lower-sodium and gluten-free teriyaki sauce

Is teriyaki sauce gluten-free? Who knew soy sauce had gluten in it? Well, it does.

But there are ways to remove the gluten and lower the sodium content without sacrificing the flavor. Hoorah!!!

First of all, Kikkoman gluten-free soy sauce is a good option. You can use that or you can use tamari or liquid aminos as a soy sauce substitute. Tamari is a type of low sodium soy sauce that is not made from wheat. Plus it tastes great!

If you are looking to reduce your sodium intake, liquid aminos are not going to get you there. Their sodium content is pretty close to that of soy sauce.

Kikkoman tamari (242 mg sodium per tablespoon) vs. regular soy sauce (890mg sodium per serving) vs. low sodium soy sauce (533 mg sodium per tablespoon). Is that really low sodium? Hmmm… probably not, but it is LOWER. So depending on your dietary needs, act accordingly.

There is one other option you can do to lower the sodium content even more in teriyaki. When you’re making it, dilute the soy sauce (or tamari) with 50% water. Instead of 1 cup soy sauce, use 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup soy sauce.

And no, I’m not an affiliate for Kikkoman or any other brands. 🥰

How to thicken your sauce

Cornstarch is the thickening agent in this sauce. It’s important to first mix it with cold water and create a slurry before adding it to the hot sauce. Cornstarch thickens as it heats.

Mixing it with cold water first ensures you won’t get any lumps. The sauce won’t thicken unless it comes up to a boil. That activates the thickening properties of the starch.

If your sauce is too thick, stir in a little water until it reaches the consistency you’re looking for.

Variations

These are fun options for teriyaki marinades, basting, baking, or glazing meats and vegetables.

• Hawaiian Teriyaki – Mix the cornstarch with pineapple juice instead of water. Add 1/2 cup crushed pineapple to the sauce.
• Honey Teriyaki – Replace the brown sugar with 1/2 cup honey. Add more honey if you like a super sweet teriyaki.
• Spicy Teriyaki – Stir in 1 tablespoon sriracha sauce after the sauce has thickened. Add more if you like it spicier.