What teriyaki sauce means
Teriyaki sauce is a sweet, savoury Japanese sauce used mainly as a glaze for grilled and pan-fried food. The traditional version is made from just a few ingredients, soy sauce, mirin, a sweet rice wine, sake and sugar, combined in a small pan and simmered until the sugar dissolves and the sauce reduces to a slightly syrupy consistency. It has a balanced flavour, salty and savoury from the soy sauce, sweet from the mirin and sugar, with a rich, glossy appearance. It is used to make teriyaki dishes, where it is brushed onto chicken, fish, beef, pork or tofu during grilling, or poured into the pan towards the end of frying and reduced until it coats the food in a shiny, sticky glaze.
The name teriyaki refers to this shine. Western and bottled versions of teriyaki sauce are often sweeter and thicker, thickened with cornflour, and flavoured with garlic, ginger, honey, sesame oil, rice vinegar or pineapple juice. They are used as dipping sauces, stir-fry sauces, marinades and drizzles for rice bowls, noodles, burgers and salads. Teriyaki sauce is easy to make at home and keeps well in the fridge.
Because it contains sugar, it burns easily, so it is best added near the end of cooking. You will see teriyaki sauce in Japanese recipes and in many supermarket ranges.