7 Great Ways to Thicken Teriyaki Sauce

If you have some tasty teriyaki sauce that you purchased or created at yourself and want to use in a dish, it is critical that it has the proper viscosity.

If you have a marinade that is too watery, it will not sufficiently cover the veggies or meat that you want to use it on, and you will lose out on experiencing the full taste of the teriyaki sauce.

Fortunately, there are several quick and easy techniques to thicken your teriyaki sauce so you can get a more liberal application on your dish. Examine the procedures below, then try the homemade teriyaki sauce recipe at the conclusion of the article.

How to Thickening Teriyaki Sauce

When it comes to thickening a teriyaki glaze, there are several techniques to select from. You may use these ways to thicken other sauces as well, so don’t restrict yourself to only the teriyaki marinade.

Some of these solutions take just one item, and one does not even require an ingredient other than your teriyaki sauce, so there is something for everyone in terms of how much food you have on hand. One thickening technique is also given, which is great for vegans reading this essay.

1 – Oil or Butter

You may easily thicken your teriyaki marinade and other sauces by adding cold butter, vegetable or other kinds of oil, or any other sort of fat. If you don’t have any cornstarch or flour on hand, this is a fantastic substitute.

Heat your teriyaki sauce and gradually add your desired kind of fat, always swirling the mixture. Start with a little amount and notice how thick it develops before adding more to the sauce.

You may continue to add fat until your sauce achieves the appropriate thickness. Remove the teriyaki glaze from the heat and use as desired.

2 – Cornstarch Slurry

Cornstarch slurry is a common way for thickening glazes. Cornstarch is well-known for giving sauces body, so it makes sense to add it to thicken your teriyaki marinade.

Simply put equal parts cornstarch and water in a dish and gradually add it to your teriyaki sauce while it is cooking in a pot over medium heat.

Continue to whisk the mixture into the glaze until it has thickened to the desired consistency. Once the sauce has been removed from the heat, you may pour or brush it over your dish.

3 – Flour Slurry

The flour slurry works in the same manner as the cornstarch slurry, except instead of cornstarch, you use flour. As previously said, you must blend equal parts flour and water in a bowl before gently adding it to your teriyaki marinade as it cooks over medium heat on the stovetop.

Remove from the fire after it has reached the desired thickness and serve with meats, vegetables, noodles, or rice.

4 – Beurre Manié

This approach allows you to prepare a thickening agent ahead of time, which you can then freeze and utilize later if desired. It’s called beurre mani, and all you need is softened butter and flour to create it.

It employs the same proportions of both materials as the previous procedures. Allow the butter you want to use to soften on your counter before combining it with an equal quantity of flour in a bowl.

Once the ingredients have been well combined, knead the dough into tiny balls or cubes approximately the size of a marble.

To use, add one to your boiling teriyaki sauce and stir it in with a whisk. Once you’ve added as many pieces of beurre mani as you like, bring the marinade to a boil.

Cook the sauce for another minute. After you remove the marinade from the heat, pour it over your dish and save the leftover beurre mani in a sealed jar in the freezer for future use as a thickening agent.

5 – Roux

This technique, like the beurre mani approach mentioned above, employs both butter and flour to make a thickening agent. recipe does, however, vary in that recipe uses melted butter rather than room temperature butter.

Remember that you may make your roux using oil instead of butter.

To begin, melt a tablespoon of butter (or oil) in a pot over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add a spoonful of flour, and if using oil, heat it up with the flour from the beginning.

While the pan is heating, whisk together the butter and flour. Remove from the heat after it has achieved the consistency of a paste.

Make careful to add your roux only after your teriyaki sauce is warm or cooled down, never when it is hot.

6 – Nut Paste

A paste prepared from almonds is an excellent choice for vegans looking to thicken their teriyaki sauce. Almonds and cashews are the finest to use.

Simply place some nuts in a food processor and mix until they create a paste-like consistency. If you don’t have a food processor, you can make a paste out of the nuts with a fork and some muscular strength; it just takes a little more work and time.

While the sauce is still warm on the burner, add the paste and whisk until the two components are mixed. If your teriyaki glaze isn’t as thick as you’d want it to be after the first round of paste, mash up some more nuts.

If you create the paste using a fork rather of a food processor, make sure you mash up enough before you start heating your sauce so you don’t have to turn off the heat to produce extra paste. Using a food processor will just take a few seconds, thus this is not a problem in this scenario.

Naturally, this thick nut paste will provide body to your marinade. Additionally, it may offer an unusual nutty taste to your teriyaki sauce that you may fall in love with.

7 – Reduce the Sauce

Evaporating some of the water from your teriyaki sauce is one method for thickening it.

In other words, part of the moisture may be removed by boiling. This is known as reduction, and it might take anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes to complete.

Teriyaki sauce, in particular, should be reduced on the stovetop over low heat. This prevents the glaze from scorching and sticking to the pan, and it gives you greater control over how thick the marinade gets.

If you mistakenly reduce the sauce for too long and it gets too thickened, you may thin it down with a little water.

However, if it is not getting as thick as you would want after a lengthy period of cooking, you may need to use one of the ways described above to add more body to the teriyaki sauce.

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce Recipe

With only a few items, you can quickly and easily prepare your own teriyaki marinade. This manner, you may make it as thick as you want to start.

The following items are required for this recipe:

• 1 cup water + cup cold water
• cup soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic
• 5 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 or 2 tablespoons honey
• teaspoon ground ginger

Making your own teriyaki glaze is a breeze.

To begin, take a skillet and cook it over medium heat with the cup of water, honey, soy sauce, ground ginger, brown sugar, and garlic. Combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl.

While this is cooking, combine the cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water in a dish. Whisk the two ingredients together until the cornstarch is completely dissolved.

Add the cornstarch mixture to the ingredients that are simmering on the stovetop, and continue to whisk the sauce while it is heating.

Once your homemade teriyaki marinade has attained the desired consistency, take it from the fire and use it to flavor anything. Take a look at some fantastic ways to utilize your marinade below for some inspiration.

Best Ways to Use Teriyaki Sauce

Here are some of the greatest dishes to pair with teriyaki sauce. It will not only improve them, but it will also provide moisture to the meals.

Roasted Chicken Breast

Chicken is adaptable, and so is teriyaki sauce, so these two cuisines complement each other well.

You may marinate your chicken breast in a delectable teriyaki sauce overnight before baking it at a lower temperature for a longer period of time, or you can cook it in your slow cooker for many hours.

This will allow the glaze to penetrate deeper into the chicken, filling your dish with delicious flavor.

Angel Hair Pasta

If you choose teriyaki chicken or other meats with your sauce, serve them with angel hair spaghetti or other kinds of noodles that are also glazed with teriyaki sauce.

Baked Salmon

Teriyaki marinade complements salmon and other fish dishes well. It adds a punch that you didn’t even know it needed.

Fried Rice

Fried rice is naturally rather dry, so adding some teriyaki sauce to the mix may significantly moisten it. It also enhances the taste of both fried and white rice.

Steamed Vegetables

What better method to improve the flavor of your veggies than to marinate them in teriyaki sauce?

This is also a good choice for sautéed veggies like onions. Pour the teriyaki sauce over them while they cook on the heat.

Stir Fry

Adding teriyaki sauce to stir fry is one technique to make it even more tasty. People often use soy sauce, but teriyaki adds other tastes as well, making stir fries even more delicious.

Grilled Beef Steak

Some people do not believe in adding sauces on their steaks, however teriyaki may make meat more delicious and juicy. It also works great on beef strips used in Asian recipes with noodles.

Sushi

Given the presence of soy sauce, which is often used on fish, it stands to reason that a teriyaki glaze would complement sushi. Pour some teriyaki sauce on your next sushi roll.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, teriyaki sauce may be used in a variety of cuisines. It goes especially well with dishes influenced by those found in East Asia.

It enriches usually bland meals like rice and noodles, and it blends nicely with the tastes of different meats and vegetables, making it an incredibly adaptable marinade.

Many people love this sauce for good reason: it’s wonderfully tasty and simple to prepare at home with just a few ingredients, most of which are probably already in your cupboard.

The fact that this glaze may be easily transformed into a thicker marinade is perhaps its finest attribute. And this is just one technique to tailor any teriyaki sauce to your preferences.