Teriyaki Sauce | Learn how to make it + 2 recipes to accompany it

Teriyaki sauce has been adding flavor to food for generations since it was invented. However, over time it began to be used in new dishes, although it has not lost its essence, it has changed over time and become even more flavorful.

So, to learn more about teriyaki sauce, continue reading until the end of this article!

What is Teriyaki Sauce?

Firstly, understanding what teriyaki sauce is can be a great starting point, after all, knowing the history of things gives you the power to change them in your favor, whether by understanding the objective of the recipe or by knowing how to enjoy it in other ways.

This type of sauce originally comes from the East. The word itself comes from the Japanese, where Teri, means “to polish” and Yaki, in turn, means “to grill”. Therefore, the combination of the prefix and suffix generates the word Teriyaki, something like “shiny grilled food”.

This is because this sweet sauce is used as a complement to meats (in general, all types of meat, beef, chicken, pork and even fish) leaving them, in addition to being tasty, with a shiny appearance, as its name freely translates.

However, when it comes to flavor, you may find some differences depending on where your source of information is. This happens, in this case, because the basic teriyaki sauce recipe involves several additions (never subtractions) of ingredients.

If you're curious, the main ingredients in the original recipe were: mirin (a type of special sake for food), sugar and soy sauce – the famous shoyu.

How to make your teriyaki sauce

Now that you know a little more about what teriyaki sauce is – including the original recipe – you might be wondering how to make your own sauce. The answer is below.

In addition to a small saucepan, the ingredients you will need for this special sauce are:

• ¼ cup soy sauce (shoyu) – 2 parts
• ¼ cup mirin – 2 parts
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar – 1 part
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon fresh garlic (peeled and chopped into small pieces)
• 1 tablespoon sake – optional
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice – optional 

This recipe makes a thinner, runnier sauce. If you want it to be thicker, you can add cornstarch or potato starch, which will give your sauce more consistency. 

The preparation, too, is a smooth journey:

• First, chop the garlic as indicated in the ingredients;
• Then, mix the ingredients in the pan over low heat and mix until the sugar dissolves completely;
• Then, cook until it thickens enough to cover a whole spoon – if you want to thicken the recipe, this is when you add the ingredients already mentioned;
• Finally, now that it's ready, use it on meat that has been pre-grilled (heat the sauce with the meat) or use the teriyaki sauce to marinate the meat.

After following these super simple steps, in about 45 minutes (or even less), you will have your delicious sweet sauce ready to use as a complement to your dish. 

However, do you know which recipes to use with it as a side dish?

Recipes to accompany

If you’re wondering what to use your teriyaki sauce for, here are two interesting – and different – ways to use it. However, it’s important to remember that this sauce is ideal for use with meat.

• Meat in teriyaki sauce
• Chicken salad with teriyaki sauce

Therefore, these four dish options for your sauce to serve as an accompaniment will be made up of different types of meat.

Meat in teriyaki sauce

A classic use of teriyaki sauce is in meat dishes with teriyaki sauce. They are usually accompanied by a portion of rice and salad or vegetables. However, in this case, only the vegetables and meat will be listed.

The ingredients of this dish are:

•  220 grams of beef steak
• 1 green pepper
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 pinch of ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
• 1 pinch of black sesame seeds

The preparation method is very simple:

Start by cutting the steak into pieces and sauté in a frying pan with a little oil. Season with salt and black pepper and stir occasionally to brown on all sides. Remove to a plate and set aside.

However, pay attention to the preparation time of the meat to avoid it becoming dry or even hard when it is ready to be eaten.

Next, prepare the vegetables well: remove the seeds from the pepper and cut it into stick shapes, cut the onion into slices or half moons, peel the carrots and cut them into stick shapes, as well as the peppers.

Now, sauté the vegetables for about 1 to 2 minutes in the same pan where you sautéed the meat, or until they start to brown. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Finally, add the steak to the pan and mix with the vegetables. Add the teriyaki sauce and mix everything again. Let it cook for another 5 minutes or until the vegetables are soft but still slightly raw.

Chicken salad with teriyaki sauce

This is a dish with a more refreshing idea, ideal for a hot day when you still want to eat some chicken with your salad.

The ingredients for the salad are:

• 4 skinless chicken breasts
• Iceberg lettuce and cherry tomatoes
• ¼ head of hair cut into thin slices
• 2 sliced avocados
• 5 pineapple slices with juice – for the salad dressing and to season the chicken
• Coriander

The ingredients for the sauce:

• ¼ cup cider vinegar
• ½ cup olive oil
• Pineapple juice (previously reserved)
• ½ of the teriyaki sauce

And that's it. With these ingredients and following this preparation method, your chicken salad with teriyaki sauce will be ready!

So, start by mixing the chicken with ½ cup of teriyaki sauce and half of the pineapple juice in a plastic bag. Remove the air from the bag, seal it, and let the tenderloins marinate and absorb the sauce for 15 minutes.

Then, in a bowl, mix all the sauce ingredients until you get a uniform texture. Remove the chicken tenderloins from the plastic bag and grill for about 5 minutes on each side.

Now grill the pineapple for about 2 minutes on each side. Then, in a large bowl, arrange the iceberg lettuce on the bottom, along with the chicken, cherry tomatoes, onion, avocado slices, grilled pineapple slices and coriander.

Finally, season everything with the sauce you prepared earlier and that's it. Your dish is finished!

Conclusion

In short, teriyaki sauce is not only a tasty side dish, it is also always paired with delicious dishes. Therefore, the result of this combination is always a surefire flavor success.
However, to discover more delicious recipes like the one from Lizard in Madeira Sauce, continue exploring more recipes, here, at Manual da Cozinha.