I go through a lot of homemade sauces cooking for my family. I use the easy teriyaki sauce recipe below primarily for marinating chicken.
It is also very useful for making homemade barbecue sauce as well.
Bottled teriyaki sauce from the grocery store has so many additives that it is downright frightening to read the label. The brands at the healthfood store are disappointingly not a whole lot better.
Most healthfood stores carry the San-J brand of teriyaki sauce. Unfortunately, it has nonorganic (translation: GMO) canola oil in it, so this an unacceptable product in my home.
Why Canola Oil in Teriyaki Sauce Makes it Unhealthy
Canola oil is a good source of omega 3 fats and is thought by many in the health community to be a quality oil.
Nearly all restaurants cook with an olive oil/canola oil blend (25/75). Â Even when nonGMO, organic and cold pressed, canola oil should still be avoided.
Canola oil goes rancid very easily requiring manufacturers to deodorize it to hide the off smell. The deodorizing process forms a dangerous form of transfat in the canola oil which is not labeled!
And worse, if it’s not organic canola oil, it is more than likely from genetically modified canola to boot!
For this reason, skip any bottled sauces or dressings that contain this very misunderstood and unhealthy oil!
Teriyaki Sauce Recipe
Once you have abandoned the teriyaki sauces from the store with frightening ingredients and resolve to make your own truly healthy, homemade teriyaki sauce alternative, you will be shocked at how easy and fast it is to whip together.
The homemade teriyaki sauce recipe below recommends optional liquid whey to add additional enzymes and probiotics to the final blend.
By the way, making your own homemade steak sauce is a good idea too for the same reasons outlined above!
Use your DIY teriyaki sauce to make this delicious teriyaki chicken recipe with roasted vegetables.
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
This recipe for teriyaki sauce makes about 1 1/2 cups and can be used for any of your Asian recipes instead of unhealthy bottled versions from the store.
Ingredients
- 1-3 tsp ginger freshly grated, preferably organic
- 3-4 cloves garlic minced, preferably organic
- 2 Tbl toasted sesame oil
- 2 Tbl rice vinegar preferably organic
- 2 Tbl raw honey preferably local
- 1 Tbl liquid whey
- 1 cup soy sauce naturally fermented, unpasteurized
Instructions
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Mince and mash the garlic gloves.
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Mix with the freshly grated ginger and whisk in the remaining ingredients including healthy soy sauce of choice.
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Pour into a one pint glass mason jar.
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Stir in optional liquid whey, affix the lid and leave the teriyaki sauce on the counter overnight before refrigerating.
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Homemade teriyaki sauce will keep for a month or two if liquid whey is added and a couple of weeks if not used.
Recipe Notes
Wheat free soy sauce is fine to substitute for regular soy sauce as desired.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source:Â Nourishing Traditions Cookbook
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/hPpNCJF
Sarah how do you make your chicken teriyaki?
I would like to know also, Sarah, Is the San J Ok? Mine has alcohol in it.
Not canola oil…OOps I forgot the rest of my reply?
I doubt it. I haven’t found an acceptable bottle of teriyaki sauce!!! They are all full of junky additives and cheap oil that I’ve seen.
Coconut Secret makes Coconut Aminos Teriyaki Sauce, available on Amazon. Maybe it wasn’t available when you posted. The ingredients are: organic coconut sap, sea salt, organic ginger, organic onion, organic garlic, organic cayenne pepper. Sounds pretty healthy to me. 🙂
Awesome .. this is definitely new. Haven’t seen this before.
I’ll post the recipe later this week or early next week. I’ve got it half written up.
Thanks. I love the simple recipe too!
Great timing I was thinking the same thing, wondering how hard it would be to make home made teriyaki. Thanks, great recipe.
Sarah, what’s the difference between the tamari sauce you linked to and, for instance, the San-J brand?
http://www.san-j.com/product_info.asp?id=3
I usually buy the latter in bulk through a buying club to save money.
I didn’t know about the deodorizing of the oil so I’m glad to know it. But I was already avoiding canola for another reason. Pretty much all canola grown in the U.S. is already GMO. It’s even growing wild in some places like Oregon so it’s escaped to the wild and it’s only a matter of time before there is no canola that doesn’t have the GMO pollen. Japan doesn’t allow GMO plants to be grown there but they import GMO canola from Canada for processing. They now have GMO canola growing wild in Japan. Heirloom corn growers are facing the same thing in America. They are finding that heirloom corn is turning up with GMO pollen even when grown in remote places. Baker’s Creek heirloom seed tests their seed and they’ve had this warning in their catalog for the corn for at least the last two years. Grow your heirloom corn in a high tunnel green house or something to help protect your seed. Pandora’s box…but I bet you already knew all of this, Sarah. LOL!
I love teriyaki, but have never made it myself…will give this a try.
So making this teriyaki sauce! http://fb.me/y0oR4VxD
Yum…I love teriyaki sauce. This rcipe sounds like a must try!
Wow! Thanks so much, Sarah! I was just thinking last night how I wish I had a better alternative to store-bought Teriyaki.