Name: Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: ½ cup lower sodium soy sauce; ¾ cup water (- or you can substitute part with orange juice); 2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar; 1 Tablespoon hoisin sauce; ¼ cup brown sugar; 2 cloves garlic (- minced); 1 Tablespoon fresh ginger (- minced); 2 Tablespoons cornstarch; 2 Tablespoons cold water

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share a commission.

Jump to Recipe

This Homemade Teriyaki Sauce is sweet and sticky, with a salty umami flavor. Teriyaki goes great with chicken, pork, fish, and even Brussels sprouts. Make up a batch and keep it in handy in the refrigerator for all the things!

Making your own homemade sauces is a commitment, but worth it. Try my Pizza Sauce from Scratch, some delicious Homemade Barbecue Sauce, and the best Homemade Enchilada Sauce!

Closeup on a drizzling spoonful of teriyaki.

What is Teriyaki Sauce?

While Teriyaki Sauce is traditionally a Japanese cooking method, it’s a sweet and salty sauce here in the United States. This sauce is often used as a marinade, glaze, or dipping sauce in modern cooking. The sugar content in teriyaki makes it more susceptible to burning, so keep this in consideration when using it in high-heat cooking.

While you can easily buy teriyaki sauce, making it yourself allows you to know exactly what ingredients you are consuming. It can be made in just 15 minutes!

Ways to use Teriyaki Sauce

For marinading a variety of proteins – like chicken, pork, and fish.
Add it to the end of cooking any of these proteins as well, especially when cooking at a high heat.
Slather it on roasted veggies after baking. See the Teriyaki Brussels Sprouts pictured below!

Ingredients Used

Most of these ingredients are pantry staples, so it’s easy to make this sauce on a whim!

Soy Sauce – I prefer to use a lower-sodium soy sauce.
Water – Use either a filtered water or tap water.
Vinegar – Rice wine vinegar adds some acidity to this sauce.
Hoisin Sauce – Helps develop a umami flavor, with hints of both sweet and salty.
Brown Sugar – The sugar is needed to balance the acidity and helps to thicken the sauce.
Garlic & Ginger – Use fresh garlic and ginger for maximum flavor.
Cornstarch Mixture – Combine a couple tablespoons of cornstarch and water, stir, and then add to the mixture as it cooks. This will help to thicken the sauce.

How to make Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

Step 1
Measure out ingredients. Combine soy sauce, water, rice wine vinegar, hoisin sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and ginger in a small sauce pan.

A glass bowl of the teriyaki ingredients plus a bowl of cornstarch.

Step 2
Cook. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Step 3
Add cornstarch mixture. Combine cold water and cornstarch in a separate bowl. Mix well. Add to the pan and cook until the sauce thickens slightly.

Step 4
Cool. Remove from heat, and pour into a jar. Cool.

Step 5
Store. Store sauce in a jar in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

A jar of homemade teriyaki sauce, with a spoonful on top.

Reasons to make your own sauce

It’s fresh. Ditch that bottled sauce that’s been sitting in your refrigerator forever (have you checked the expiration date lately?) and make your own FRESH sauce!
You can make a small batch. This recipe makes about a cup or just slightly more. So you’ll definitely waste less when you practice making only what you need.
The taste is amazing. This sauce is a little bit sweet, salty, spicy, and full of umami flavor. The perfect addition to SO many things.

Take a look (below!) at what teriyaki sauce does to simple roasted veggies. We LOVE these Teriyaki Brussels Sprouts! Stay tuned for many more teriyaki recipes coming to the blog soon!

Closeup of the roasted Brussels sprouts with a spoon.

Kitchen Tools Used: (affiliate links)

xoxo ~Sue