Teriyaki Burgers with Mango Salsa
The weather is perfect for grilling teriyaki burgers. A while back, we were lamenting about how overly sweet and artificial some bottled teriyaki sauces were. So we decided to make a homemade teriyaki sauce and it is amazing! You can use the sauce on rice, chicken and anything you want.
Simple Teriyaki Burgers
With the exception of one that we liked on our teriyaki burgers, most were too sugary and processed tasting. With the grilling season underway, we wanted some teriyaki variety to our bbq menu and it was always a struggle to search for a bottle that didn’t look like a gob of sugary, sticky brown sauce. We needed to think outside the bottle and needed to be quick about it because guests were coming over in a few hours. Mission: think fast and work fresh. How difficult was it to make a homemade, fresh teriyaki glaze for our burgers? Not at all. It was one of the easiest sauce recipes we’ve ever created and can’t believe our bbq’s went without it.
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
We originally shared a version of this teriyaki sauce on our Bountiful Cookbook. We wanted to let everyone see just how simple this homemade sauce can be and you’ll never go back to a bottle again. Homemade teriyaki sauce is customizable to your palate of sweetness, tartness and sticky-ness, or all three. This recipe can be made with or without pineapple. The addition of some extra brown sugar highlights the fruity sweetness of the pineapple and a bit of extra vinegar elevates the teriyaki to extra tang. Glaze it on beef, chicken or vegetable and poking some sticks in the for teriyaki skewers! Choose your strategy, flavor profile and taste. Do what your want because it’s YOUR sauce, your bbq and your celebration of grilling.
Best Mango Salsa Recipe!
To accompany our burgers, we added some fresh and fruity mango salsa, which turned out great! The balance of fruity mango, bright teriyaki and savory burger patties is a great combination. Even the mango salsa is great on its own with a bag of tortilla chips or topped on some fish tacos. There’s so many amazing foods to dive into this Summer, we can’t wait to figure out how to eat all this Summer inspiration before the season ends.
Teriyaki Burgers with Mango Salsa
Ingredients
For the burgers:
- 1 pound (454 g) ground beef
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) fish sauce , optional
- 1 clove garlic , crushed or minced (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) sugar , optional
- fresh cracked black pepper to taste
- 3 hamburger buns
- kosher salt or sea salt, to taste
- lettuce, tomato, pickles and other desired trimmings
For the Teriyaki Sauce:
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) soy sauce
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) sake or water
- 1/4 cup (55 g) brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) rice vinegar (or apple cider)
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) grated fresh ginger , or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
For the Mango Salsa
- 1 large ripe mango , peeled and cut into small dice
- 1 small tomato , small dice
- 1/4 cup (40 g) minced red onion
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) minced jalapeno or serrano chili , or to personal taste
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) finely minced fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) fresh lime juice , or more to taste
- salt , to taste
Instructions
Make the Teriyaki sauce: (can be done ahead of time)
- Combine all the sauce ingredients in a saucepan (soy sauce, sake or water, brown sugar, rice vinegar, corn starch, and ginger). Whisk to completely combine.
- Heat over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 1-2 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
- Sauce should have the thickness to coat a spoon or to your desired thickness. If a thicker sauce is desired, continue to simmer, stirring frequently, until it reaches your desired thickness. Set aside until ready to use. For longer storage, store in the fridge.
Make the Mango Salsa:
- Peel and cut mango into small 1/4″ to 1/2″ pieces. Cut tomato into 1/4″ pieces
- In large bowl, combine all ingredients together (diced mango, tomato, onion, chiles, cilantro, lime juice, salt).
- Mix well. Use immediately or store in fridge for up to 2 days.
Make the burgers:
- Combine the beef with the desired seasonings (for our favorite umami burger patties combine beef with fish sauce, garlic, sugar and black pepper).
- Form the beef into 3 patties. Season to taste with salt and pepper (if not making the umami burger patties, we'll usually at least season generously with salt and pepper).
- Grill the burgers or pan fry them to your preferred doneness.
- Assemble the burgers, spooning the teriyaki sauce over the burger patties and topping with mango salsa.
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
How long to keep the mango salsa?
It’s all fresh chopped fruit and some veggies. So it might last about 5 days in the fridge. Don’t wait too long because the freshness of the salsa goes downhill after about 5 days. And the mango will start to ferment and go sour. So try it eat it asap.
Storing homemade teriyaki sauce for teriyaki burgers
If you have leftovers, then store the sauce in an airtight jar or container in the fridge. It should keep well in the fridge for about 2-3 weeks. After that, dispose of it. Use it on other grilled meats, vegetables and fried rice. If you’re making salmon, it’s perfect for salmon teriyaki.
More Easy Teriyaki Recipes:
- Teriyaki chicken wings
- Brussels sprouts with teriyaki glaze
- Japanese salmon with teriyaki glaze
- Easy mango salsa recipe
- Umami fish sauce turkey rosemary burgers
- This recipe was originally published in 2010 and re-published in 2024 with new photos, video, and recipe updates.
I’m used to pineapple on our teriyaki burgers but the mango salsa really was such a game changer. Thanks for the recipe. This will be how I’ll be making our teriyaki burgers from now on.
I am absolutely in love with the pineapple teriyaki sauce and mango salsa! It really made the burger perfect especially for this Labor Day weekend.
The best burger I have ever had – my family loves the sauce. Can’t believe how easy it was to make.
OH MY! that looks extremely tasty! Might have to get some coal and kick a BBQ off in my garden.
that sounds like an awesome idea!
Just finished making this recipe, the sauce came out wonderful. 🙂
I dont eat beef but I will put sauce in my crock w/chicken breast 🙂
Hi, I love the sound of using pineapples for Teriyaki sauce – it sounds delish. Can I bottle these lovely sauce and how long will they keep?
Thanks,
Cap. Bluebear
Nice post! Beautiful pictures. I thought some might appreciate a suggestion for quickly marinating chicken with teriyaki sauce. Actually, infusing chicken with same. Marinating suggests soaking for a time period, waiting for flavors to be absorbed by the meat. Googling for “pressure infusion marination” will turn up some interesting articles. On good video is found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMQRSJUFuwM. Infusion happens in seconds, whereas marination can take hours (or even days).
Happy infusing.
Mr. Fizz
Just made the teriyaki sauce to put on locally-raised grilled pork chops. OMG. Delicious! Not to mention the fact that my kitchen smells like heaven. This will be a staple in my kitchen from now on. Thanks!
Carolyn from http://www.cowlickcottagefarm.com
I know the idea is freshness, and I love it! For a bust mom, do you think I could make a double batch and freeze half of this?
Kristy-
Ya know~we aren’t sure! We’ve never tried freezing the teriyaki sauce. After thinking over of how the sauce may act after thawing out we can’t fully determine if its texture will break down in thawing out or not. It doesn’t seem like it will but sometimes you never know for sure until you try it out. Maybe try a regular batch, freeze some, and if it works next time do the double.
It does last fairly well, even in the fridge, so don’t worry about using all it up immediately. If we remember, on the next batch we’ll try freezing some and comment on the results, or if anyone has tried and knows how well the sauce freezes, please share the knowledge. Thanks!
Making your own teriyaki sauce just highlights how awful most of the bottled sauces are. I often wonder whether that’s the way sauces are made for the American marketplace, or whether bottled teriyaki is the same semi-solid sugar water everywhere.
While it may always be a good time to eat a burger, I’m going to step your sauce recipe up a notch. First I’m going to use a nice roll, crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. Next, I’m going to use plenty of your sauce. Last but not least, I’m going to use a burger-sized Rib Eye steak, about 1″ thick and cooked to medium rare instead of a burger!!! Thanks for the recipe, and the memories and smiles to come!!
PBSwime- were drooling over your comment!
No matter how cloyingly sweet the artificial teriyaki sauce may be, I kinda liked McDonald’s samurai burger back then. Not sure whether this was available in the other countries, but here in Malaysia, they were such hits! Combining their signature grilled beef patties with teriyaki sauce, the ensemble was heavenly ….
I never thought people could and would make their own teriyaki sauce! On my to do list!
Jessica- funny how we overlook things like this. After making the sauce fresh, it’s hard to go back to the store bought bottle!
FINALLY a teriyaki recipe that I can make! with no strange unfindable ingredients! making this for sure! Thank you guys for the great recipe … the pictures are extremely tasty!
emily s- the recipe is easy to make and it’s so good!
I was planning on turkey burgers for Memorial Day, your teriyaki sauce sounds like the perfect addition. Can’t wait to read your mango salsa, that was also in my burger plan.
Love your blog and Happy Memorial weekend!