Ever wonder how hard teriyaki glaze is to make? There may be a thing or two to get the hang of to make sure it doesn’t get too thick or too thin. You’ll also want to know the trick to ensuring the thickener mixes in smoothly rather than forming clumps that are hard to break up. (Hint: A standard mixing spoon just won’t cut it.)
When you try this teriyaki glaze and marinade recipe, you’ll never want to go back to buying it by the bottle. It really is that good, and you’ll likely spend more time grilling with it than actually making it.
Table of Contents
Why This Recipe for Teriyaki Glaze and Marinade?
I’ll be honest, I whipped this one together from about four other teriyaki glaze recipes when I ran out of the teriyaki sauce I had and didn’t have time to go to the store for more. Just DoorDash it? I could have, but I didn’t want to bother when I already had the ingredients I needed in my pantry. Besides, I could make this faster than the Dasher would have gotten here! (Sorry if you drive for DoorDash, but I really do prefer that you drive safely.)
The fun part is that I can customize it to my liking. Maybe tweak the amounts of some ingredients like soy sauce, garlic, or brown sugar, or use whatever thickener I have on hand. (I’ll get into substitutes in a bit, but it can help that I also do a lot of gluten-free baking if I run out of cornstarch!)
Equipment for Teriyaki Glaze
Let’s start by making sure we have all our equipment. I’ll sometimes have to dig for something if I haven’t used it for a while anyway, and I prefer not to do that when I’m in the middle of making something.
- Medium-sized saucepan
- Mixing spoon
- Whisk
- Small Mixing Bowl
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring cups
- Garlic press
- Airtight container for storing teriyaki glaze (I’m a big fan of mason jars for storing sauces)
Ingredients for Teriyaki Glaze
Making sure we have all the ingredients is next! If you need to pick up a few things, soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine are usually found in the Asian aisle of the grocery store. Be sure to print or pin the recipe card below for easy reference while shopping for them.
- Soy sauce
- Brown sugar
- Garlic
- Honey
- Sesame Oil
- Rice Wine
- Water
- Cornstarch
About These Ingredients for Teriyaki Glaze
Curious about any of these ingredients? Combining them creates the mix of sweet, savory, and salty flavors that teriyaki sauce is known for. Each of them brings something unique to this recipe, so let’s dive into it.
Soy Sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
Soy sauce provides the salty flavor, along with mild sweet and fermented flavor notes. Because it’s a more complex flavor and doesn’t add as much sodium, I like to use it instead of just straight salt. The amount of sodium can be reduced even further by picking up a bottle of low-sodium soy sauce.
Brown Sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
Genuine brown sugar is a blend of granulated sugar and molasses. It adds some of the sweetness and a distinct, mild molasses flavor to this teriyaki sauce.
Fresh Garlic
2 teaspoons fresh garlic, minced
Raw garlic has a pungent, spicy flavor that mellows when cooked, so it’ll blend perfectly with the flavors in this glaze. It’ll also nicely complement the savory flavors of the recipes that you’ll likely use the teriyaki glaze and marinade for.
Honey
1 tablespoon honey
The cool part about honey is that its fructose content is a little sweeter than granulated sugar, so you can use less honey than you would sugar to get the same sweetness. I like to look for “raw and unfiltered” honey for the best results. (This honey can have a small amount of pollen or honeycomb suspended in it. This is normal, and a sign that the honey is genuine.)
Measuring honey with a measuring spoon is tricky, though!
I get that! It really is a sticky mess, isn’t it? In this video, The Honey Company shows us a quick hack for measuring honey without making a mess.
Sesame Oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Sesame oil has a rich, nutty flavor and adds healthy fats to the glaze. The trick is not to add too much, so we don’t overwhelm the flavor or end up with big, oily globs floating on top of the glaze. (If the oil separates, whisking it back in can help.)
The thing to remember about sesame oil is that its smoke point is about mid-range for oils – about 410 degrees Fahrenheit (210 degrees Celsius). That makes it better suited for medium- to high-heat cooking than oils with a lower smoke point, such as extra-virgin olive oil. However, it’s not as suitable for some cooking applications, such as deep-frying, as oils like peanut oil that have a high smoke point. No need to worry, though – if you’re just grilling up some chicken teriyaki, you should be fine!
Rice Wine
3 tablespoons rice wine
Rice wine adds a mild acidic flavor that balances the other flavors in the teriyaki glaze. It is a little sweeter than other cooking wines, such as red or white wine vinegar.
…But I don’t want alcohol in my food!
I get that. Cooking wines confused me for a long time, too! While it is normal for cooking wines like rice wine to contain some alcohol, most of it evaporates as the sauce simmers. In the video below, Fine Wine Facts covers what happens to the alcohol content when you cook with food.
Water
1/4 cup water
Water is the main liquid you’ll need for teriyaki glaze and marinade, and the amount can be adjusted to suit how thick you like your sauce. It also gives us an important component of the cornstarch slurry we’ll make for this glaze.
Cornstarch
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Cornstarch serves as our thickener for this sauce. As you’d guess, it’s made by extracting the starch from corn. However, it has a neutral, bland flavor that won’t affect this sauce’s taste at all.
Printable Teriyaki Glaze and Marinade Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
- 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
- 2 tsp. Garlic minced
- 1 Tbsp. Honey
- 1 tsp. Sesame Oil
- 3 Tbsp. Rice Wine
- 1/4 cup Water
- 1 Tbsp. Cornstarch
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients except water and constarch in a medium sauce pan over medium heat.
- In a small bowl, combine the water and cornstarch and stir until completely smooth and no lumps remain. Add to the saucepan with the other ingredients.
- Continue cooking and stirring until the mixture thickens. If it becomes too thick, you can add a splash of water until it reaches your desired consistency,
Nutrition
Method for Making Teriyaki Glaze and Marinade
Let’s jump right into making this glaze so you can get right back to cooking your favorite dishes. It should only take about ten minutes now that we have everything.
Step One: Mix First Six Ingredients
Mix soy sauce, brown sugar, minced garlic, honey, sesame oil, and rice wine in a medium saucepan. Turn the burner on to medium heat so it can start heating up.
Step Two: Make Cornstarch Slurry
In a small bowl, whisk together water and cornstarch until smooth, with no lumps remaining. Then add to the saucepan and combine with the other ingredients.
Step Three: Heat Sauce to Thicken
Continue heating, stirring occasionally, until it thickens. If it becomes too thick, you can add a splash of water until it reaches the consistency you prefer. It should be thick enough to start sticking to the mixing spoon, like in the image below.
Step Four: Remove From Heat and Use or Store
When the sauce is thick enough, add it to your favorite grilled or broiled recipes. Alternatively, allow the glaze to cool, then transfer it to a mason jar for storage in the refrigerator.
It can be refrigerated for up to two weeks. I would not recommend freezing it, as the ingredients can start to separate as it thaws.
Ways to Use Teriyaki Glaze and Marinade
- This makes a great marinade for all kinds of meat: chicken, salmon, shrimp, and pork. In fact, if you want to use this as a marinade, you can omit the step with cornstarch. Just add the other ingredients to your saucepan until heated through and slightly thickened. Then combine with your meat and marinate overnight.
- We love to use this glaze to brush on food before grilling! It gives your food a caramelized finish that is out of this world! We often grill burgers and brush this on the outside for the last few minutes.
- This also pairs well with pineapple! If you’ve never grilled pineapple, you need to stop what you’re doing and go try it now! It is so amazing, especially with this sweet-and-savory glaze.
- You can also make shish kebabs to combine the pineapple, shrimp, onions, and other veggies, and brush the whole thing with the teriyaki glaze.
- This glaze is also good as a dipping sauce served alongside your cooked meat. You saw how thick it was! Put a little bowl out and dip your cooked chicken or cooked pork in it. Amazing!
Substitutions for Teriyaki Glaze and Marinade
If you don’t have any soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce could work in a pinch. Alternatively, you could cobble together a pretty good alternative with sugar, water, vinegar, and salt. Just follow the instructions in the video below.
Potato starch is the easiest to replace cornstarch with at a 1:1 ratio. Most “starches” like arrowroot starch and tapioca would work. (When using tapioca, you’ll likely find the form you want labeled as “tapioca starch” or “tapioca flour.” The tapioca pearls are mostly used for tapioca pudding.)
Xanthan gum is another common thickener for sauces, but I never like to use more than a teaspoon of it in a sauce because it is notorious for absorbing water. (Makes it useful for gluten-free baking where you need something to replace the gluten; with sauces, you have to watch it and be ready to add more water or dial back the xanthan gum.)
The same goes for other strong sauce thickeners like konjac powder. As a typical thing with xanthan gum and common 1:1 replacements for xanthan gum, a good general rule of thumb is to aim for about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon because they are strong stuff!
Sesame oil and rice wine are key to the teriyaki sauce’s signature flavor, so they’re hard to replace. Other cooking wines, like red wine vinegar or white wine vinegar, have different flavors that might be distinct from rice wine in this recipe. Oils with a smoke point similar to sesame oil, such as canola oil, are often better suited for other purposes, like frying or baking.
Want to spice it up? Add 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes right before you pull it from the heat!
FAQ for This Teriyaki Glaze and Marinade Recipe
While I think this is easy to make, we do get questions sometimes! I did my best to answer the most commonly asked ones here. If you think of one I haven’t asked yet, feel free to ask in our comments section.
Can I make this a little thicker or thinner?
It’s actually easy to adjust the thickness of this teriyaki glaze and marinade. To thin it out, gradually add water, a teaspoon at a time, until it is your desired thinness. The sauce will also be thinner if you reduce the amount of cornstarch or skip the cornstarch altogether. (Thin sauce may work a little better for a marinade.)
To thicken it, whisk a little more cornstarch into a bit of cold water and add it to the sauce. Simmering it a little longer can also help thicken it. (Thick sauce works better as a glaze.)
How easy is it to use as a sauce after I’ve used it for marinade?
Personally, if I plan to use it as both a sauce and a marinade, I prefer to transfer some to the mason jar before using the rest as a marinade. This helps prevent contamination that could make the marinade unsafe. If you want to use this as a sauce after marinating something, be sure to boil it first to kill any germs.
Can I make this teriyaki glaze gluten-free?
To make gluten-free teriyaki glaze, replace regular soy sauce with gluten-free tamari or certified gluten-free soy sauce. Always check the labels on any bottled ingredients to make sure they are gluten-free.
Why is it important to use a whisk to make the cornstarch slurry?
The whisk’s design helps create a smooth, lump-free texture that won’t prevent the cornstarch from thickening the teriyaki glaze.
Recipes That Might Go Well With Teriyaki Sauce
…And of course, we have recipe ideas to try! This glaze goes well on many chicken, beef, pork, and seafood recipes.
- Applebee’s Wonton Taco Recipe
- Chinese Tofu Salad
- Homemade Cheesecake Factory Miso Salmon
- Salt And Pepper Chicken
- Ramen Noodle Cabbage Salad
This homemade teriyaki sauce is versatile and can be used on chicken, beef, pork, or seafood. This homemade sauce is easy to make and can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. So next time you are looking for a tasty and easy-to-make sauce, give teriyaki glaze sauce and marinade a try!
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