Teriyaki Salmon - With a Quick Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

Teriyaki sauce is so easy to make homemade, you won't believe how wonderfully this simple, restaurant quality teriyaki salmon turns out.

There's a push-pull tension between those condiments that call out to be DIYed and those that it's easier and potentially better to buy at the store. I used to draw the line at teriyaki sauce, an Asian condiment that's easy to find with a hechsher, because I thought it, or its components, would be tricky to make or track down. I was mistaken, and I have duly seen the light with this quick, easy, and unfailingly delicious homade teriyaki sauce, a perfect match for salmon fillets.

I got this recipe from my favorite Japanese cookbook, Let's Cook Japanese Food! by Amy Kaneko, who learned how to cook from her Japanese mother-in-law. Obviously, we're all about the granny kitchen wisdom around here, so this was a natural sell for me, and everything I've cooked from the book has turned out amazing. My version adds, optionally, scallions, which aren't necessary but a nice addition.

Ingredients

To make the teriyaki sauce you will need:

• Soy sauce
• Sake - it's not hard to find one that is kosher
• Mirin - I buy Eden brand, which is OK parve
• Granulated sugar (i.e. regular, white sugar)

Yep, that's it. You just whisk them all together and pour over your salmon. The teriyaki sauce gets used as a marinade, and then it's cooked along with the fish to make a sticky sauce for serving.

In terms of the fish, you can use up to four salmon fillets with this amount of teriyaki sauce, or fewer.

Cooking teriyaki salmon

To make teriyaki salmon, you first cook the fish without the sauce. Remove it from the marinade (tongs or a turner work here) and place it skin-side down onto the hot, oiled pan. At this point you can also put in the thick parts of the scallions.

When the fish is visibly beginning to cook through, turn it over: you should have a nice, crispy skin. Cook for a few more minutes on the second side, until the fish is light pink all the way through.

Pour in the rest of the marinade and cook down till it's thickened and beginning to get syrupy. That's it, serve right away.

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Teriyaki Salmon (parve)

This simple, homemade teriyaki sauce turns out restaurant-quality teriyaki salmon. Adapted from Let's Cook Japanese Food!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Japanese

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Chill time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2-4 salmon fillets - skin-on
• 1 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil
• 3-4 scallions - coarsely chopped, optional

Teriyaki sauce:

• ½ cup soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp mirin
• 1 ½ tsp sake
• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar

Instructions

• Whisk together the soy sauce, mirin, sake, and granulated sugar.
• Place the fish skin up in a dish and pour the sauce over. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or more.
• Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. When hot, use tongs to transfer the fish to the hot skillet, skin side down, reserving the marinade. Add the white and thicker parts of the scallion, if using, reserving the tender greens. Cook the fish for 3-4 minutes on the first side, until the pink lightens on the bottom half of the fish. Carefully turn the fish and cook for another 3-4 minutes on the second side, or until cooked through.
• Pour the reserved marinade into the skillet and cook until reduced and beginning to become syrupy. Stir in the tender greens of the scallions, if using.