What does teriyaki mean?
Teri means gloss, yaki means pan-fried or grilled. In Japan, teriyaki describes a cooking method: you pan-fry or grill fish or meat and coat it at the end with reduced sauce. In Japanese this dish is called sake no teriyaki. Japanese cooks often use yellowtail (buri) for teriyaki, but salmon is the easier choice elsewhere. Its fatty skin turns crisp in the pan and takes the glaze well.
Making teriyaki sauce yourself
The basic Japanese rule is 1 : 1 : 1 of soy sauce, mirin and sake, plus sugar to taste. The recipe card adds garlic and ginger. Store-bought teriyaki sauce often contains starch and flavorings and tastes sweeter. To keep a supply, cook a larger batch following the recipe for teriyaki sauce and store it in the fridge. Mirin gives the glaze its shine. The article Mirin explains how to buy it and what to use instead.
Teriyaki salmon in the pan
The pan gives you the crispiest skin. Pat the fillets dry and put them skin side down into the hot oil. Press them flat with a spatula for the first 30 seconds so the skin does not curl. After 3 to 4 minutes it releases from the bottom of the pan on its own.
After flipping, blot the rendered fat with paper towels. The sauce beads up in the fat and does not stick to the fish. Then pour in the sauce, turn the salmon in it and spoon it over the fillets several times, until it bubbles and thickens on the spoon. A nonstick pan is more forgiving, while a cast-iron pan browns more.
Teriyaki salmon from the oven
In the oven you cook four fillets at once without spattering fat. Preheat the oven to 200 °C (400 °F) on the conventional setting (top and bottom heat) and put the fillets skin side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Reduce the sauce as on the card and brush half of it on the salmon. After 8 minutes, brush the rest over the top. A fillet 3 cm thick needs 12 to 15 minutes in total. For a dark glaze, switch on the broiler for the last 2 minutes.
In the oven the skin stays soft. If you like it crisp, sear the fillets for 2 minutes on the skin side first and then slide them into the oven. With a thermometer, aim for 50 °C at the center for juicy, slightly translucent salmon. If the sauce is too thin for you, stir 1 tsp cornstarch into 1 tbsp water and bring the sauce to a boil with it.
Common mistakes
- Sauce too early: Sugar and mirin burn over high heat before the fish is done. Add the sauce only after flipping.
- Wet fish: Damp fillets stick to the pan, and the skin tears when you flip them.
- Overcooked: If white protein seeps out of the sides, the salmon is dry. Take it off the heat while the center is still slightly translucent.
What goes with it
Classically, you eat teriyaki salmon with rice and miso soup. For a vegetable, spinach with sesame dressing works well, as in goma-ae. The next day, flake cold leftovers over a poke bowl. The same glaze works on chicken thighs, and the recipe is under teriyaki chicken. A spicier version with gochujang is the Korean salmon with soy glaze.
