One of my favorite meals at the Japanese steakhouse is teriyaki chicken. Since I don’t keep jarred sauces in the house, I often make my own. This quick and easy, restaurant quality Homemade Teriyaki Sauce takes just 5-minutes to prepare and you most likely already have most of those ingredients already in your pantry! Best of all, it’s better than any store bought variety around.
Since discovering just how easy Teriyaki Sauce is to make with these wings, I haven’t gone back to any bottled Teriyaki Sauce since! It’s just that easy — and good! Like I said earlier, it takes only a few simple ingredients and about 5-minutes and you can have this delicious sauce for your next meal. Use it as a marinade for beef, chicken, fish, and seafood, as a glaze for wings, barbecue ribs, Asian salad dressing, or in noodle dishes and stir-fries. This sauce is amazing!
Notes about Homemade Teriyaki Sauce:
- I can’t with a good conscience call this sauce completely MSG-free. Depending on which starting base you use between soy sauce, liquid aminos, or Tamari sauce, you will have varying degrees of naturally occurring MSG in the sauce.
- Liquid aminos are a plant-based sauce that is gluten-free. Tamari sauce is created as a by-product of brewing miso and is also gluten-free. Soy sauce, depending on the brand, is made using wheat and is not gluten-free.
- The sauce can be thickened with either flour or cornstarch. Cornstarch is the gluten-free option. If you prefer flour, you may substitute this. Adding either cornstarch or flour to thicken the sauce will result in a lightened color of the final sauce. Manufacturers add caramel coloring for this reason. If you want a darker sauce, you would have to add a caramel coloring like Gravy Master into the final sauce. Note that Gravy Master may not be gluten-free so please read the product labels.

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
Ingredients
For the Sauce:
- ¼ cup Soy Sauce , Liquid Aminos, or Tamari [See Note 1]
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 large clove garlic , finely minced
- 1-2 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger , ground or ginger paste
To Thicken the Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- ¼ cup cold water
Instructions
- For the sauce, combine the soy sauce, water, brown sugar, honey, garlic, and ginger in a medium saucepan [paid link] and set over medium heat.
- Heat the sauce until it thickens to your desired thickness. If the sauce becomes too thick, add more water to thin it out. If the sauce is too thin, add a little more cornstarch slurry.
Notes
- For gluten free, look for a gluten free soy sauce, tamari, or liquid aminos.
Nutrition
How long does this sauce keep for?
How long do you think it keeps for?
Hi Shawna,
I generally keep it for up to 7 days refrigerated in a mason jar or other air tight container.
I didn’t know teriyaki sauce was that easy to make at home. Pineapple chicken is a favorite.