If you love teriyaki sauce, then this sweet and sticky Asian-inspired glaze is a combination of sweet honey, savory soy sauce, and fragrant ginger and garlicky flavors that go well with so many different types of dishes.
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What is a soy glaze?
In general, soy glaze is a sweet sticky sauce that has a base of soy sauce and honey. It’s a reduction, so the water is reduced, leaving you with a thick and potent, tasty glaze.
Reading: how to make sticky soy sauce
This simple sauce is so easy and can be made in under 10 minutes. It’s the perfect combination of sweet and salty really levels up any plain protein or vegetable, which makes it so versatile as a kitchen condiment.
I’ve eaten soy-glazed fried chicken and salmon teriyaki in many different restaurants and it never occurred to me until recently to make this Asian glaze at home. This recipe is a very quick Asian sauce that I can keep in my fridge to add to so many different dishes whenever I need an easy dinner.
Ingredients in this Asian soy glaze
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Soy sauce is a common ingredient in many Asian cuisines and it’s been used in Asia for over 2,500 years. Soy sauce gives this glaze a salty and savory flavor, but you need other ingredients to sweeten and thicken the sauce like honey and dark brown sugar.
You also need these sweeteners to help thicken soy sauce into a syrupy texture. If you don’t have soy sauce, you can also try using tamari.
Other ingredients I like to add to amp up the flavor are garlic (duh), ginger, sesame oil, and apple cider vinegar. All these flavors combined help give the sauce a more complex flavor instead of just being super sweet and super salty.
How to make soy glaze
To make this glaze, all you need is a saucepan and a stove. What to remember about this soy glaze is that it’s a reduction; This means that you want to cook down the ingredients until you reduce the original amount of liquid by half the amount.
For this recipe, I stop cooking at about 8 minutes even if the sauce seems a little thinner than I would like. It’s important to remember that glazes and reductions always thicken more after they rest on the counter to cool. After resting for about 5 minutes, it turns into a thick, sweet, and tangy sauce.
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If you continue to cook down the soy glaze until it becomes super thick, you will end up with a super salty or sickly sweet sauce that will harden too much after it cools down. If this happens to you, you can always add a little water to thin out the sauce.
Ways to use this soy glaze
Now that you’ve made your glaze, what do you put it on? Well, anything to your heart’s desire really. I like this best on salmon, baked chicken drums, or even Korean fried chicken. MMM. You can also add this on top of ultra-crispy fried tofu for a vegetarian option.
Soy glaze substitutes
If you choose a recipe that calls for soy glaze, I would definitely recommend making it at home because it’s such a simple and easy recipe. However, if you don’t have time you can also purchase premade bottles like Kikkoman’s Sweet Soy Glaze online.
Serving and storage
I like to brush this onto my proteins in the oven during the last 5 minutes of baking, but you can also use it as a topping sauce for serving too. You can also cook this with Spam musubi for a special teriyaki sauce.
This stores well in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4-5 days. It may harden slightly in the fridge like thick honey, but you can also microwave it for 20 seconds to soften it before using it the next time.
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