Today’s recipe is Pan Fried Teriyaki Salmon, which features fresh salmon fillets coated in a sweet, sticky, and tangy teriyaki glaze. In addition to being delicious, it’s simple to make and only calls for a few ingredients, so what’s not to love?
Warning: This article contains links to Amazon that may earn Sudachi Recipes a small commission from your qualifying purchases; for more information, please see our disclaimer. [feast_advanced_jump_to]
Teriyaki is a Japanese cooking technique that involves grilling or broiling meat or fish in a sweet marinade.
Although many people mistakenly think that teriyaki is a sauce, it is actually more like the process of making a sweet soy sauce glaze. The words “Teri” () mean shiny or glossy and “yaki” () mean to fry or cook.
You might be surprised to learn that it only takes 4 basic ingredients to make teriyaki glaze.
The majority of Japanese people always keep these four ingredients in their kitchen cabinets, so it’s uncommon to find pre-made teriyaki sauce there. We have everything we need to make it from scratch at home. These four ingredients are essential in Japanese cooking.
If you can’t find mirin, you can add more sugar, but I don’t suggest using anything else in its place.
I strongly advise stocking up on these four ingredients if you plan to cook Japanese food frequently.
I usually let the glaze thicken in the pan, this allows the sugar to melt and caramelize to make a delicious glaze. Authentic teriyaki is typically kept simple with only 4 ingredients.
However, I do coat the salmon with 1 tbsp of potato starch (or cornstarch), which makes the outside slightly crispy and makes it easier for the sauce to adhere.
Be creative with your teriyaki and experiment with adding garlic, ginger, or even chilli pepper for a fragrant or spicy variation.
How to Make Teriyaki Salmon | 5-Minute Recipe | Japanese Home Cooking
Grilled Salmon Teriyaki Recipe đź”—
In Japanese, “teri” means shiny and “yaki” means grilling or broiling. The shine comes from brushing on tare, the classic Japanese sweetened soy sauce, during cooking.Teriyaki is the instant version of tare — which is often boiled and reboiled, fed and improved over time, like a starter for a sourdough bread, though it isn’t fermented. It is salty from soy sauce and sweet from sugar or mirin, with depth from sake (it doesn’t need garlic or ginger or scallions or anything else), and it works as a grilling sauce for just about anything. A final sprinkle of togarashi or chile powder adds heat, and a squeeze of lemon juice brightens with acidity.Although you can simmer the sauce on the stove any time and keep it in the fridge, you can make the following dish even quicker by cooking the sauce in a saucepan right on the grill next to the fish or whatever you’re grilling. (Just make sure your saucepan is heavy-duty enough to handle the heat.) When the sauce sits on the grill, it soaks up some of the smokiness from the salmon and — partnered with broccoli rabe, its leaves charred until crisp — makes for a quick and undeniably satisfying weeknight dinner.
Total: 30min
Ingredients:
- ½ cup sake
- ÂĽ cup soy sauce
- ÂĽ cup mirin (or 2 tablespoons honey mixed with 2 tablespoons water)
- 4 salmon fillets (4 to 6 ounces each)
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 bunch broccoli rabe, trimmed
- Kosher salt
- Shichimi togarashi or other ground red chiles, sesame seeds and lemon wedges, for serving
Instruction:
- Set up a charcoal grill for direct heat over three-quarters of the grill or heat three-quarters of the burners of a gas grill on medium-high. Keep the remaining quarter of the grill unheated. (Alternatively, heat a large skillet or grill pan on a stove-top over medium-high heat.)
- Put the sake, soy sauce and mirin in a heavy-duty, small saucepan. Put the saucepan on the hot part of the grill and bring the mixture to a boil. Wearing an oven mitt, move the saucepan to the part of the grill that will keep the mixture at a steady simmer, either over the unheated part of the grill or between the heated and unheated parts. If working on a stove-top, bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. In either setup, simmer until syrupy, about 10 minutes.
- While the sauce simmers, rub the salmon all over with 1 tablespoon olive oil, sprinkle with salt and place flesh-side down on the hot part of the grill. Toss the broccoli rabe with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, sprinkle with salt and arrange on the hot grill grate in a single layer. Cook everything together, turning the broccoli rabe once, until the salmon releases easily from the grill grate and the broccoli rabe is charred and tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer the broccoli rabe to serving plates and carefully flip the salmon. Brush some teriyaki sauce on the salmon and continue grilling, brushing on more sauce once more, until the fish is almost cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes longer. A thin-bladed knife or metal cake tester should slide through the thickest part of the fish with little resistance.
- Transfer the salmon to the plates with the broccoli rabe. Drizzle the teriyaki sauce all over, sprinkle with togarashi and sesame seeds, and serve with lemon wedges.
FAQ
What is Japanese style teriyaki?
The sauce, known as taré in Japanese, is typically made from soy sauce, sake (or mirin), and sugar, and it is thickened by boiling the ingredients until they become thick and syrupy. Teriyaki is a Japanese cooking method used to cook and glaze proteins with a savory-sweet sauce.
What is salmon teriyaki made of?
In westernized Japanese cooking, the teriyaki sauce is frequently used as a marinade as well as a basting sauce. Teriyaki, (Japanese: “glossy broil”) is a term for foods grilled with a highly flavorful glaze of soy sauce, sake or mirin (sweet wine), garlic, and fresh ginger.