Easy Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

This easy homemade teriyaki sauce recipe takes only 5 minutes to make and has no refined sugar or preservatives! You’ll never buy teriyaki sauce again.

Have you ever made homemade teriyaki sauce? Alex and I hadn’t until recently, and now our worlds are changed. Our homemade teriyaki sauce takes only 5 minutes to make, and is seriously good. It tastes better than store-bought teriyaki sauce, and has none of the added salt, sugar and preservatives. There’s also no refined sugar, instead relying on a natural sugar: in this case maple syrup. We distilled down teriyaki sauce to it’s major components, but the flavor is still so good with only a handful of ingredients. How do we make this magical sauce? Keep reading for our homemade teriyaki sauce recipe.

Where did teriyaki sauce originate?

Teriyaki originates from Japan, but in Japan it actually refers to a method of cooking: by grilling foods in a mix of soy, mirin and sugar. A dish like chicken teriyaki is actually more of an American food than a Japanese one! It is thought that teriyaki sauce comes from Japanese immigrants who settled in Hawaii. They created a marinade using local products like pineapple juice blended with soy sauce. This eventually turned into what we today call teriyaki sauce. So bottom line: teriyaki sauce has Japanese roots, but it’s more of an American creation than authentic Japanese.

How to make homemade teriyaki sauce

Making homemade teriyaki sauce is truly easy: and in this recipe we made it even simpler by distilling it down to its major components. Our recipe uses just soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and maple syrup. Using maple syrup means that it has no refine sugar and is naturally sweet, which is a bonus! The level of soy sauce is also perfect: it’s just salty enough but not too salty.

The mixture is heated and then a slurry of cornstarch is mixed in, which makes it thick and glossy. Our homemade teriyaki sauce can be made in about 5 minutes, which is a complete no brainer. We’re never buying teriyaki sauce again! As noted in the recipe, as it cools the sauce gets very thick. You may find you need to mix in a very small amount of warm water to bring it to a slightly thinner consistency.

How to use homemade teriyaki sauce

There are so many uses for homemade teriyaki sauce! Our favorite way to use it are in our Teriyaki Vegetable Stir Fry and our Grilled Teriyaki Mango Skewers. Or, brush it on the outside of this Teriyaki Veggie Burger (in addition to the teriyaki flavoring inside). You can also use it as a homemade teriyaki marinade for meat: just marinade chicken or beef for about 30 minutes before grilling, or try our Teriyaki Salmon recipe.

Looking for other essential recipes?

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This recipe is…

This easy homemade teriyaki sauce recipe is vegetarian, vegan, gluten free (with tamari), plant based, dairy free, refined sugar free, and naturally sweet.

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