Regular readers will know I LOVE teriyaki sauce. I thought it was time to share my homemade teriyaki sauce recipe, and introduce you to one of my favorite recipes for using it: Stir-Fry Teriyaki Shrimp.
The Quickest Ever Stir Fry!
All stir fries are quick and easy, but this one takes the cake! With teriyaki sauce ready to go, stir fry teriyaki shrimp is on the table in literally under 5 minutes. Hard to credit, right? But it’s true! That’s just one of the many reasons why I like to keep teriyaki sauce on hand, and a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer. If I want a yummy, quick, protein-packed dinner, there’s nothing to beat this one.
Seafood at Your Fingertips
I love fresh seafood, but it has to be really fresh to be great, and you’ve got to admit, it can sometimes be hard to find the best quality. That’s where frozen seafood comes in really handy. Some seafood freezes better than others, but in my opinion, raw shrimp freeze best of all. Plus they’re usually frozen ready-peeled, which makes them super-easy to use without the need for any more work. The convenience of frozen shrimp is pretty well unbeatable. They’re my secret weapon for a quick and easy dinner on a busy weeknight!
Where Does Teriyaki Come From?
Teriyaki originated in Japan several hundred years ago. The name “teriyaki” actually refers to the glaze that a rich sauce leaves behind on a grilled or broiled piece of fish or meat. But the flavors that come from these sauces are so fantastic that we now use teriyaki sauce for multiple things — including stir fry dishes, like this stir fry teriyaki shrimp. In the USA, teriyaki has come to mean any dish using a teriyaki sauce, regardless of its cooking method.
I always used to buy teriyaki sauce ready-made, and for some reason, I thought it must be complicated to make. I guess I assumed anything that tastes so good must be hard! But it’s really simple to make your own and it doesn’t even take very long. Best of all, when you make homemade teriyaki sauce, you can control the flavors and adjust them to your personal taste. I like mine with lots of ginger!
Instructions
The single most time-consuming thing about making teriyaki sauce is mincing the onion, garlic, and ginger. You want to have very small pieces, but not for them to turn to mush. That’s why I wouldn’t recommend using a food processor to chop the vegetables — it’s just too easy to over-process and end up with a paste. You can mince the vegetables with a good chef’s knife, but my favorite tool for this job is a mezzaluna. This is a type of curved blade with a handle on each end. It takes all the effort out of the job, while still feeling refreshingly hands-on!
Once your vegetables are minced, you just need to be careful not to burn the sauce. Don’t let the onions or garlic brown, because that may turn your sauce bitter. Add the liquids as soon as the minced vegetables start to soften.
And once your sauce is ready to go, the recipe is almost fail-safe. The one further thing to warn you about is not to overcook the shrimp. The short cooking time is not just to speed things up for convenience — shrimp is better when cooked for less time. Increasing the cook time doesn’t benefit shrimp at all, and will lead to an unpleasant wooly texture.
Ingredients Notes and Substitutions
You can always substitute the homemade teriyaki sauce with a store bought sauce. This makes a quick and easy recipe even quicker and easier! I always used to use store bought sauce, until I learned how easy it is to make your own, and the quality is generally high.
But I thoroughly recommend giving it a go to make your own teriyaki sauce, and encourage you to experiment with the flavors. As I said above, I like it with a lot of ginger, so if you prefer it less spicy, decrease the amount of ginger. Some people like to use pineapple juice or orange juice for some fruity sweetness. But the base of all teriyaki sauces is essentially a sweetened soy sauce. Get playful with it!
You can also substitute the frozen shrimp for fresh shrimp, if you’re lucky enough to find good quality. Just make sure that they’re peeled and deveined before cooking.
Storage Notes
The teriyaki sauce will keep in the fridge for at least a week.
Shrimp spoils quickly, so this dish is best eaten hot. You can refrigerate the cooked teriyaki shrimp overnight and eat it cold the next day, but I do not recommend keeping leftovers any longer than that.
Shrimps are versatile little things, but they can lose their texture easily. Freezing is not recommended, as the shrimp texture becomes soft. Although if you made the recipe with fresh shrimp, it will probably be okay to freeze leftovers.
And More…
I always make twice as much teriyaki sauce as I need, because it is such a versatile and useful ingredient to have in the fridge. You can use it on pretty much any other fish, shellfish or meat — even on tofu for the vegetarians — it goes well with almost anything!
Rice is the classic side dish for stir fry teriyaki sauce, but I’ve also enjoyed it with steamed vegetables on the side. Or you can add fresh green vegetables like broccoli, asparagus, or green beans to stir fry in the wok, before adding the shrimp and the sauce.
Looking for more teriyaki recipes?
Try another one of my favorite teriyaki sauce recipes.
Baked Teriyaki Salmon
Teriyaki Chicken Pineapple Bowls
Chicken Teriyaki Stir Fry
Teriyaki Chicken with Soba Noodles
Conclusion
Now you’ve got the lowdown on Stir-Fry Teriyaki Shrimp, what’s stopping you from giving it a go? With delicious flavor and unsurpassed speed and convenience, it’s a winner for a busy weeknight dinner. Get stuck in, and let me know if you can beat my record of 4:30 minutes from start to finish!
Stir-Fry Teriyaki Shrimp
Ingredients
For the Teriyaki Sauce
- ½ red onion
- 2 oz fresh ginger
- 5 cloves fresh garlic
- 1 tsp neutral-flavored oil
- ½ cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp black rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp mirin or rice wine
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 ½ tbsp honey
- ¼ cup water
For the Stir-Fry Teriyaki Shrimp
- 1 tsp neutral-flavored oil
- 12 oz frozen raw peeled shrimp, defrosted (or fresh raw shrimp, if you prefer)
- ½ cup of teriyaki sauce
- 1 scallion finely sliced
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- Steamed rice to serve
Instructions
For the Teriyaki Sauce
- Peel and roughly chop the onion, ginger, and garlic. Mince them together very finely, with a mezzaluna if you have one.
- Warm the oil in a small pan over medium heat, and add the minced vegetables. Fry for about 3-4 minutes, until softened, but don’t let them brown.
- Add all the other sauce ingredients to the pan, stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until slightly reduced and thickened.
- Optional: blend, if you want an ultra smooth version. I don’t normally bother.
- Leave the sauce to cool, then store in the fridge until ready to cook. This recipe makes about 1 cup of sauce.
For the Stir-Fry Teriyaki Shrimp
- When ready to make the stir-fry teriyaki shrimp, heat the oil in a wok over high heat. Add the shrimp and stir fry rapidly, turning once, for just 1 minute each side.
- Add the teriyaki sauce, and keep cooking just until you see it is hot — no more than a minute or so.
- Sprinkle over the scallions and sesame seeds, and serve hot, with steamed rice on the side.
No Comments