Teriyaki Sauce ~ Fast and Easy

Teriyaki Sauce that’s fast, easy, only five ingredients and does double duty as a marinade and a glaze. Prepare for awesomeness.

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Teriyaki sauce is a great sauce to have in your arsenal of quick dinner sauces. If you have chicken to cook, you can use it as a marinade and then a glaze after you cook the chicken. In the picture I used this sauce on wafer thin pork chops. If you have already cooked meat or veggies you can go straight to the glaze and sauté it all up for a nearly instant stir-fry.

I’ll admit it; I had to go through this recipe twice because I misplaced it the first time. It’s practically a no-recipe recipe but I wanted to give you a solid starting point that you could adjust from if you felt like it.

Honestly you can make a passable sauce with only soy sauce, brown sugar and water. Adding ginger and garlic makes it a very flavorful sauce for an easy weeknight dinner. Plus whether you have fresh minced garlic in the freezer and refrigerated minced ginger OR dried garlic and dried ginger, it works! After I had the husband do some tasting he actually decided that he like the sauce with dried garlic and ginger better. It does have a stronger flavor while the fresh ginger and garlic makes the sauce taste a little, well, fresher. Either way with a well stocked pantry, you will always have the ingredients on hand to whip it up in no time.

If you want to get really jiggy with it (yes, I’m that old) you can add some mirin for a hit of acidity and/or a squirt of sriracha for kick.

In honor of Nick’s 7^th birthday party this weekend, preparing dinner with this sauce, while appearing to take much ‘kung fu’*, will actually be effortless. PREPARE FOR AWESOMENESS

* Literally the first interpretation of kung fu’ would be “achievement of man”, while the second is often described as “work and time/effort”. Have a glass of wine, you kung fu dinner master you!

For more recipes with five ingredients or less, check out more 5 Ingredient or Less Recipes like  Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon .

Teriyaki Sauce ~ Fast and Easy

Chef Shelley

Makes about 1 cup enough for about a pound of chicken breasts/chops/steaks or kabobs/stir-fry. If you like your stir-fry very saucy, double the recipe. Pineapple and red bell pepper are tasty complements to any dish with teriyaki sauce.

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Prep Time 2 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 minute min

Total Time 3 minutes mins

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh minced or dried, granulated garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh minced or dried, ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in;
• 1 tablespoons water

Instructions

 

• For marinade: combine first five ingredients in a glass two cup measuring cup or microwaveable bowl. Stir well and let sit until sugar is mostly dissolved.
• Put 1/2 of sauce in a ziplock bag with whatever you are marinating.
• If using boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pork chops or steaks, or large slices of tofu you can marinate up to an hour. If you're using bite size pieces for stir-fry or kabobs, don't marinate longer than about 30 minutes or it will get too salty.
• Discard marinade.
• Add cornstarch to remaining half of sauce and microwave for one minute until sauce has boiled and thickened to a glaze.
• Brush on cooked protein, or toss with cooked stir-fry.