Recipe: Seattle-Style Teriyaki Sauce
Please note: There are three recipes for making Seattle-style chicken teriyaki—this recipe is for making the sauce specifically. For instructions walking you through grilling the chicken, see here. For a guide on making a teriyaki shop side salad (and its iconic sweet mayo dressing), see here.
Every recipe I publish here is personally tested, tasted, and approved.
What I love about this recipe:
The sauce uses simple ingredients but packs huge flavor.
The sauce lasts forever in the fridge, making future meals easier.
Applying the sauce in layers towards the end of grilling lets you build up flavor without burning it.
Yield: About 2 ½ cups of sauce
Active Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: About 1 hour
Note: You can add other ingredients to the initial simmering phase if you want to flavor your teriyaki sauce. Try it with ½ cup of pineapple juice, or a teaspoon of sesame oil, or a couple tablespoons of chili garlic paste, for instance. You can also add other aromatics like scallions, onions, or mushroom trimmings.
Ingredients
For the teriyaki sauce:
1 cup (240 ml) sake
1 cup (240 ml) mirin
1 cup (240 ml) soy sauce
1/2 cup (100 g) packed brown sugar (white sugar also works)
2 whole garlic cloves
1 (2-inch) piece fresh ginger, sliced
1 small chunk carrot
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water
Method
Combine the sake, mirin, soy sauce, brown sugar, whole garlic cloves, sliced ginger, carrot, minced garlic, minced ginger, and rice vinegar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Simmer until the aromatics have infused the sauce and it has reduced to around 2 ½ cups, about 45 minutes. Remove and discard the ginger slices and whole garlic cloves.
Whisk the cornstarch with the cold water until smooth, then stir it into the simmering sauce. Cook until the sauce is glossy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Allow sauce to cool to room temperature then transfer to a sealed container. You can store it in the fridge for at least several months (I’ve kept teriyaki sauce for over a year with no sign of deterioration).
If using this sauce to make Seattle-style chicken teriyaki, head to this recipe for further details.
Comments (16)
What kind of sake do you use?
Anyone have a recommendation on a sake or style of sake to use for this? I never know what kind of sake to use when a recipe calls for sake. A western recipe would never just say "1/2 cup of wine" at the very least it would say "dry white wine".
I usually use gekkeikan junmai because its easy to find for me and cheap, from my understanding generally any cheap junmai sake works well when recipes call for sake.
wish patreon had a pdf printer friendly version of the recipe
Didn't have quite enough mirin, so went with 1/2 cup mirin, 1/2 cup honey, and ooh yeah baby...
Hey Melissa
You mention in the video that you can add kombu for some extra depth. How exactly would you incorporate it? From what I understand you don't really want to cook the kombu too aggressively, so would you just soak it mirin, soy, and sake overnight then proceed with the recipe or cook everything, remove from heat then soak? I ask because it seems it wouldn't incorporate as well after the sauce has been thickened.
I would take it off heat, add the Kombu to steep for 10 mins, strain and then proceed with the thickening
Great recipe, but the yield is way too large for home cooking. It would be really helpful if there was a smaller batch version.
Put it in a jar and put the jar in the fridge. It'll keep for many months. You can use it on all sorts of things besides chicken fish, beef, asparagus....
Chandler, I usually buy the Kikkoman Aji Mirin off of Amazon.
I couldn't grill tonight, so I did a bit on the stove top and then did a few flips under the broiler in my toaster oven. Still turned out amazing. Great flavor with not that much effort. This will definitely enter my regular rotation.
I went to buy Mirin but am having some trouble finding it in my area. I went to look online and see there are a few different categories of mirin and now I am feeling lost. Is there any particular one I should be looking for or would any type suffice?
You want to try and find one where the first ingredient listed is mirin and not high fructose corn syrup. I looked in my local grocery stores and only found ones that are mostly HFCS.
Do you discard the carrot chunk with the ginger slices and whole garlic cloves?
I’m assuming he forgot to address the carrot. I would definitely remove it.