Having an arsenal of quick-to-assemble sauces made out of pantry staples can absolutely save you on those nights when you forgot to plan ahead. Simple sauces are the key to transforming refrigerator leftovers or freezer finds into a legit meal. So I’m going to be sharing more sauce recipes on their own to give you the tools to mix and match your way to your own quick weeknight dinners. This Easy Homemade Teriyaki Sauce (or marinade) is probably my most used sauce because it’s so versatile and uses only a few ingredients that I always have on hand.
How to Use Teriyaki Sauce
This Easy Homemade Teriyaki Sauce begins with just four ingredients that form a fast and easy marinade, or they can be thickened up into a shiny glaze or sauce with the addition of a little cornstarch, water, and heat. Here is how it can be used:
As a Marinade: Flavor your chicken, pork chops or tenderloins, tofu cubes, or even fish (it’s great with salmon!). Marinate chicken, pork, or tofu for at least 30 minutes, and marinate fish for only 15 minutes. Then toss your meat, fish, or tofu on to the grill, cook in a skillet, bake, or even transfer everything (meat and marinade) to a slow cooker.
As a Sauce: The thickened sauce can be brushed onto grilled or baked meat, chicken wings, or tofu. Or, use it as a stir fry sauce by pouring the not-thickened sauce directly into your hot stir fry pant. The extreme heat of the pan will instantly simmer and thicken the sauce as it coats your stir fry vegetables or meat. *Do not use used marinade to make the sauce. Instead, make two separate batches to avoid cross contamination.
How Much Sauce Does it Make?
The quantities listed below make about 1/2 cup marinade or 1 cup of thickened sauce. 1/2 cup marinade is about enough for 2 chicken breasts, 4 boneless chicken thighs, one 14oz. block of tofu, or about four pork chops. As a sauce, one cup would be enough for about one four serving portion of stir fry, or to brush onto about four chicken breasts. You can easily scale the recipe below up or down by changing the number in the “servings” box and the rest of the ingredients will adjust automatically.
Recipes that use variations of this sauce and marinade:
- Easy Teriyaki Chicken
- Slow Cooker Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken
- Sticky Ginger Soy Glazed Chicken
- Soy Marinated Tofu Bowls with Spicy Peanut Sauce
- Teriyaki Meatball Bowls
- Teriyaki Salmon with Sriracha Mayo
Easy Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
Servings 1 cup sauce (1/2 cup marinade)Ingredients
To Make the Marinade:
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ($0.24)
- 3 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.12)
- 1 clove garlic, minced ($0.08)
- 1 tsp fresh grated ginger ($0.10)
- 1 Tbsp water
To Make the Sauce Also Add:
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch ($0.03)
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- To make the marinade, stir together the soy sauce, brown sugar, minced garlic, grated ginger, and water. Pour this mixture over your meat, tofu, or fish and marinate for 15-30 minutes, depending on the item.
- To make the sauce, stir together the soy sauce, brown sugar, minced garlic, grated ginger, water, AND add an additional 1/2 cup water and 1 Tbsp cornstarch. (Do not turn used marinade into a sauce. Rather, make separate batches to prevent cross contamination.) Bring this mixture up to a simmer in a small sauce pot over medium heat, while whisking. Once it reaches a simmer, it will thicken into a shiny sauce. Pour or brush the sauce over your cooked meat, vegetables, or tofu.
- To use as a stir fry sauce, stir together all of the ingredients in a bowl. Once your stir fry meat or vegetables are cooked, pour the sauce mixture directly into your hot stir fry pan instead of simmering separately in a sauce pot. The heat from the pan will simmer the sauce on contact and thicken the sauce (make sure the stir fry pan is very hot). Stir to coat your cooked vegetables or meat.
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Notes
Nutrition
How to Make Teriyaki Sauce – Step by Step Photos
It all starts with these four ingredients, which can be kept on hand at all times. I keep my fresh ginger in the freezer (in a quart-sized freezer bag), so I can take it out and grate a little bit as needed at any time. It is much easier to grate when frozen.
To make the marinade, simply stir together 1/4 cup soy sauce, 3 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp water, 1 clove of garlic (minced), and about 1 tsp grated ginger. That’s it. That only takes about 5 minutes.
This mixture is very concentrated in flavor, so it will flavor whatever you soak in it deeply. Meat or tofu can marinate for about 30 minutes, fish for 15 minutes. Then just cook your meat, seafood, or tofu using your favorite method.
To make a teriyaki SAUCE, prepare the marinade as described above but also add an additional 1/2 cup water and 1 Tbsp cornstarch. The cornstarch will make it look kind of milky, like in the photo above…
Add the mixture to a saucepot and bring to a simmer over medium heat, while stirring. Once it simmers, it will go from milky to clear and watery to thick. Your sauce is now ready to pour over your cooked meat, vegetables, or tofu. OR, if you want to use it as a stir fry sauce, you can just pour the un-thickened sauce directly into your hot stir fry pan and it will simmer and thicken on contact.
If you would like to both marinate meat and have a teriyaki sauce to add after cooking, it is best to make two batches (one to use as a marinade and one for the sauce) rather than turning the used marinade into the sauce. Reusing the marinade can cause cross contamination issues if it is not boiled long or hard enough, so it’s best to just keep the two separate.
Love an easy last minute sauce. Since it was last minute, I didn’t have fresh ginger so I just used jar. It was great, no complaints. I used it to toss some ground turkey and stir fry veggies in, served with wontons.
I make a similar teriyaki marinade for chicken, but I add some Asian toasted sesame seed oil, some crushed red pepper, not to make it hot, just enough for flavor and just a touch of spiciness on the back of the palate, I also add just a touch of acid from 1/2 a medium lemon. This is great on chicken drumsticks(skin on) and thighs cooked on the grill as the brown sugar will caramelize, they are best cooked on high so they will develop little hints of char on the edges. I marinate for 12 hrs or a bit more
Thanks for sharing this! Was easy to put together and tasted great. Just what I was looking for. I used for sauce with diced chicken and veggies to serve over rice. Instead of soy I use coconut aminos, instead of cornstarch I use arrowroot, and I keep a years worth of ginger in my freezer for quick grating for recipes such as this one. Whole family enjoyed.
Yummy
Loved this. Great on salmon.
This is hands down THE best teriyaki sauce recipe!! Thank you for sharing!!
I make double batches of this and freeze in 1/4 cup portions. When a recipe calls for hoisin or oyster sauce, I use this instead. It’s more interesting and, if you sub in liquid aminos for the soy sauce, it’s much less salty. Thank you for the recipe, BudgetBytes!
I made the sauce version. It was really really good.
This was a huge hit – used the marinade, then made a batch of the sauce and split that between brushing on meat while it grilled, and drizzling on the finished meat.
We used it for pork tenderloin kebabs that we charcoal grilled with red onions and peaches.
Thank you very much . Your recipe is really simple and easy to make.
Please share the simple vegetable
Sauce or mix vegetable with chicken or beef simple way.
Thank you again for your Delicious recipe.
Easy and yummy. Made no changes to the recipe. I made tuna steaks and a veggie stir fry. Didn’t have time to marinate the tuna, but with this sauce, it didn’t matter.
I already had veggies in the pan when I realized I needed a sauce for dinner. This was so quick to throw together. I forget the ginger altogether and it was still delicious.
I never recommend a recipe unless I use it over and over again – this is one of those. I use this marinade for beef, chicken, pork, salmon, both as a marinade and a sauce. Over time I’ve cut back the brown sugar to 2 tbsps, but other than that, I change nothing. It’s best when I mince fresh garlic and ginger, but it accommodates powdered subs just fine when I’m in a hurry. You could throw a lot of extra ingredients into a teriyaki sauce, but this simple sauce is really all you need – it contains the essentials and that’s perfect all on its own.
I highly recommend this recipe.
how long can you store this for ont he shelves?
This will need to be refrigerated. I only recommend about 5 days in the refrigerator, although your milage may vary.
Delicious and easy to make! I did the marinade with chicken and added sesame seeds. I love how it’s full of flavour
This has become a go to recipe, my picky kids love it! Thank you for a great recipe!