Japanese Teriyaki-Style Glazed Salmon
Our popular teriyaki salmon recipe is one of our reader favorites. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Easy Teriyaki Salmon Recipe
You should come see our kitchen. Actually, maybe you shouldn’t because we’d probably kidnap you to hover over the sink and wash a ton of dishes. As of the last two months we’ve been working on client shoots and recipe testing for personal projects that all involve enough food to feed a football team. Almost everyday we’ve sent out emergency messages to brothers, friends and dojo folks to come eat. Our messages are often blunt, like , ” Don’t eat lunch or dinner anywhere today. You gotta come here eat all this food, NOW, while it’s still hot and take home any leftovers to friends. Aren’t you hungry? You are hungry, right?”
Watch our video making the Teriyaki Salmon:
With so much recipe developing and testing going on, it’s nice to cook and eat something that wasn’t on the shot list. So many times when we are cooking for a shoot we just don’t feel like eating it. Even though the dishes are delicious and of rock star quality, were fun to make, others swoon over them, and at any other time we wouldn’t hesitate in diving in. We’ve heard of that happening often, where at the end of a long shift at the restaurant, cooks will head out to fast food, sushi or anywhere to eat other than their own restaurant.
Rather than heading out, we satisfied our craving for something glazed with salmon from some left over ingredients. Teriyaki salmon seemed like the perfect meal because we were hankering for something healthy, something with fish, with lots of flavor and something green. Teriyaki salmon really was the answer to satisfy all our cravings. This salmon glazed with a delicious Japanese style marinade really hit the spot. And it was so simple to make.
The tender flakes of the teriyaki salmon, delicately glazed with this Japanese inspired glaze, all on top of a bed of shredded cabbage was the perfect fuel to our long days of cooking and shooting. It was low carb, satisfying and truly one of the best teriyaki salmon dinners we’ve ever had.
Best of all, yes, it is healthy and it feels so great to feast off some fish rather than that platter of chocolate fudge that’s staring back at us from the corner of the kitchen. Dessert?
-diane & todd
More healthy recipes to enjoy:
Healthy Foil Pack Garlic Salmon Recipe
This recipe post was originally published in 2013 and re-published in 2019 with updated video. Enjoy!
Teriyaki-style Pan Seared Salmon
Ingredients
- four 6 ounce (four 170 g) Salmon fillets
- Sea Salt or Kosher Salt
- fresh cracked Black Pepper
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Grape Seed Oil (or other neutral, high flashpoint oil), less needed if using non-stick or ceramic pan
glaze ingredients
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) Sake
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) Soy Sauce
- 1/4 cup (55 g) Brown Sugar
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) Rice Vinegar
- 1/2 Tablespoon (7.5 ml) fresh grated Ginger
Instructions
- Combine glaze ingredients in a bowl and stir until brown sugar is completely dissolved.
- Rinse and pat dry salmon fillets. Place salmon fillets in glaze and marinate for a 3-5 minutes, and then flip over and marinate for 3-5 more minutes. Remove salmon from glaze and season with salt and pepper (remember glaze will have a bit of saltiness from soy sauce as well).
- Place glaze in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over high heat. Vigorously simmer for 5 minutes or until glaze has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Set aside.
- Heat oil in a large saute-pan over high heat. Sear salmon in hot pan, turning once, until browned and cooked through to your desired amount, about and average of 3 minutes each side for medium done.
- Plate salmon and brush or pour glaze over salmon.
This is the best teriyaki salmon recipe I’ve ever had. I’ll definitely be coming back to this recipe to get my teriyaki salmon fix.
Looks Yummylicious!! I do not have Sake (nor ever drunk it before).. Can I use OJ instead?
Hi Alyce,
We’ve never tried it with OJ. A common substitute will be white vermouth. It you need a non alcoholic substitute, apple juice or white grape juice would probably be the next best. Hope that helps!
We loved the glaze, we will definitely make it again. I’m not sure if the bottle of sake will still be good. I read it only lasts a few day or so. Any suggestions? Could I make a big batch of the glaze and freeze it ?
Hi Lisa,
We haven’t tried freezing the glaze yet, but we have kept a larger batch in a mason jar it in the fridge for about a month and it was still quite delicious. In regard to the sake, several sake companies I’ve talked to when I used to manage a restaurant had said that sake it usually fine after opened for about a month unless is it an unpasteurized sake (nama sake). For normal sakes, there might be a slight deterioration noticeable to a very delicate palate when drank after the bottle has been open for a bit, but for cooking you wouldn’t ever notice. Hope that helps. Glad you loved the glaze.
I just tried! So so so delicious!!! Will definitely try this for many many times… Thx for sharing such a great recipe!
Thank you for this recipe! I needed a change from the usual pan fry! It was fast, easy, and delicious! I’ll definitely be making this one again. I think I didn’t reduce the glaze enough, but will be sure to do that next time. Perfect on white rice! Thanks, again.
YUM!! This recipe was fantastic. It’s the best salmon I’ve ever eaten. I’ve never pan seared salmon before, but given the below-zero temps I was too wimpy to grill. It was so easy. I did not have fresh ginger so substituted 1 tsp of ground ginger. Not sure that was enough, but was afraid too much ground ginger would ruin it. Anyway, I’ll make this again soon. Thank you!
Yummy! Salmon is one of my favourite dishes to cook. Will definitely try this recipe out next week!
– Sharon (theworldwider.net)
Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe! I have actually tried it out twice, taste and everything else was just perfect. However, there was one thing I couldn’t get and that is getting the glaze to be really thick like in your picture. Even after cooling down, the glaze didnt get a tad thicker. Did you add cornstarch in the glaze?
No, we just cooked it down a bit. Our cooktop does have some heat to it, so it might cook down quicker than others. To thicken, just simmer it down until it reaches your preferred consistency. So glad you loved the flavors.
About the Salad under the Salmon, how to prepare it?
Like mentioned in the headnote, you can make it however you like. See the conversation in the comments with Maggie to read some suggestions.
This recipe was delicious! Thank you for sharing a simple and satisfying one. I didn’t have sake so I substituted mirin for it and it tasted great. I will add though that I mistakenly had the frying pan on high heat instead of medium, burning the skin since the marinade had sugar in it. Just a note! It’s been awhile since I’ve cooked fish and a sweet marinade. Look forward to making this again soon 🙂
I’ve never pan-seared Salmon (have always felt more comfortable broiling it), do you remove the skin on the bottom? Also, if I’m trying to make it slightly healthier, what would reducing the amount of brown sugar do to the glazing process? Would you poo-poo switching to Low-Sodium Soy Sauce? Trying this tomorrow night and am really looking forward to it!
We’ve done it with the skin on and without and both ways work well (we cook ours on a well seasoned cast iron and don’t have any problems w sticking – individual pans may vary ;). ) Reducing the brown sugar should be fine and use which ever soy sauce you like. Some change for diet, others because they prefer the flavor. Doesn’t matter, make it your own. Hope you love it.
And do you prep the shredded cabbage in any way?
You can if you like. If you want to add a dressing, you can use the glaze, or maybe a touch of sesame oil, soy sauce and a little sugar. However you’d like to eat it alongside the salmon.
This looks absolutely delicious! I just ate dinner but already I’m suddenly hungry and craving this! Definitely going to try this soon – and I love the photography!
I am making this sauce yet AGAIN- it is so flavorful and perfect for salmon or rice bowls with chicken. The hubby has requested it over and over!
This was a great recipe! The only thing I didn’t have on hand was the sake but it still came out just fine!
This sounds like such an easy weeknight meal! Definitely something I could get on board with on a day like today =)
Is there a substitute for Sake?
The best substitute would probably be dry vermouth. After that maybe a dry white wine. Any sub is going to change the flavor, but these are most likely the closest options.
Thanks. It was delicious. And I’ll get Sake for the next time to compare.