Teriyaki sauce is a special sauce that originated in Japan. The most common use of this sweetly salty sauce is to make a popular chicken dish, called teriyaki chicken.
The chicken is marinated using teriyaki sauce after which it is either broiled or grilled using coals. Teriyaki sauce is also used as a glaze, marinade, and cooking sauce for poultry, fish, and vegetables.
When you have a batch of it on hand, your dinners will never be lacking in flavor.
What is Teriyaki Sauce Made Of?
Many people confuse teriyaki, soy, and hoisin sauce. While teriyaki uses soy sauce as a base ingredient, it has other things added to it as well. Soya sauce is extremely salty and is used as a salt substitute, while teriyaki has a sweeter, less salty flavor.
The usual ingredients for a teriyaki sauce are soya sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and garlic.
Hoisin sauce is made with soy, chilies, sugar, vinegar, and garlic and is quite thick.
Why is My Teriyaki Sauce Too Salty?
The main reason for your teriyaki sauce being too salty is that you have added too much soya sauce. In the future, try adding less or switching to a low-sodium soya sauce.
Another reason for your sauce being too salty may be that you added salt! This is completely unnecessary as soya sauce provides enough salt.
Making Teriyaki Sauce:
While the ingredients of a teriyaki sauce may slightly differ according to taste and region, it is, however, usually made using four key ingredients.
These are soy sauce, sugar, ginger, and sake/mirin. Some recipes add apple juice for sweetness, onions, hoisin sauce, garlic, or rice wine vinegar.
How To Make Teriyaki Sauce Less Salty
Once you’ve added the soya it is a little difficult to undo it. However, you can try diluting the sauce with some apple juice then thickening it with a teaspoon or so of cornflour and water slurry.
This will not give you an authentic teriyaki but it will still taste good and you’ll have saved your sauce!
Alternatively, make another batch exactly the same but omit the soy sauce. Mix the two batches together, thereby halving your salt content.
Make Our Sauce
Our homemade teriyaki sauce has the perfect balance of salt and sweetness. It’s not a traditional recipe but it is certainly delicious. To use it as a marinade, simply leave out the cornstarch and allow it to cool before using.
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup low-sodium soya sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (sweeter than normal vinegar)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 heaped tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 garlic clove, crushed or finely grated
- 1 ½ teaspoons fresh ginger root, finely grated
Instructions:
- Put all the ingredients into a small saucepan.
- Whisk everything together over a medium flame until it has thickened.
- Simmer for a minute or two.
- Remove from the heat and serve over cooked chicken or your choice of dish.
- Keeps for two weeks in the fridge.