maple teriyaki marinade

Jump To Recipe April 26, 2016 // 26 Comments »

Making homemade teriyaki marinade is so simple and so delicious especially when it has maple syrup in it! You’ll never have to buy bottled again. Bonus: this recipe is made with wheat-free tamari so it is gluten-free.

How I Created This Teriyaki Marinade

Teriyaki marinade will never get old. We just love it! I love the sweetness and saltiness and the garlic and ginger. All of the simple ingredients play off each other so well. Today, I used maple syrup instead of another sweetener. Maple goes really well with the ginger and soy and adds a woodsy caramel flavor to the healthy teriyaki marinade.

It is really easy to make. The hardest part (if you can even call it hard) is grating the ginger. Let’s chat about that for one sec. You all have a microplane grater right? I have been extolling the virtues of this simple kitchen tool since 2010. If you don’t have one, I highly recommend getting one. I use mine every single day. I am not exaggerating. I use it for citrus zest, garlic, Parmesan and ginger. And more! It is a simple way to add flavor to a recipe without extra calories.

I love using it for ginger because it makes such a fine result. It is wet and paste like, as opposed to hand minced ginger, which is drier and fluffy by comparison. Grated ginger melts into the recipe and creates an overall ginger flavor without a stark contrasting ginger pop. Minced has bigger pops of flavor that are more distinct. Both have their merits, depending on the recipe.

But here’s a tip. Don’t assume that 2 tablespoons of grated ginger is the same as 2 tablespoons of minced ginger. For this recipe, I used a piece of ginger that was about three inches long! If I were to mince that same piece of ginger root, I’d have way more than a two tablespoons because it is fluffier. Does that make sense?

So anyway, ginger, check! So good.

Then we have the maple. If you have my cookbook, which hopefully you have that too *wink*, then you know about pairing the flavor of maple with other ingredients. As I said in the book, maple pairs well with the flavor of soy sauce and tamari. So it seemed like a logical substitute for other sweeteners in this marinade. Sure enough, the maple really makes the whole teriyaki marinade more rich and caramely than brown sugar would. Plus, it is lower glycemic than brown sugar and it has trace micronutrients and minerals.

I used reduced sodium tamari instead of traditional soy sauce. So it is lower in sodium and gluten-free.Yay! Don’t get me wrong, I love salt, but usually teriyaki is too salty even for me.

How to Use This Teriyaki Marinade

This teriyaki marinade recipe makes two cups of marinade, which is enough for three pounds of chicken or meat. You’ll want to use 2/3 cup marinade per pound of meat. If you’re using chicken or pork with this healthy teriyaki marinade, let the meat marinate for a good 4 to 12 hours before cooking it. This will give the meat time to soak up all that delicious teriyaki flavor, and it’ll tenderize slightly as well. However, if you’re using this marinade with seafood, it only needs to marinate for 30 to 45 minutes.

This maple teriyaki marinade keeps in the fridge for days, but you can also freeze what you don’t use right away. If you freeze this marinade, I recommend freezing it in an ice cube tray or small containers instead of freezing it all in one large container. This will make it easier to thaw out the exact amount of marinade you need (I don’t recommend re-freezing this marinade once you’ve thawed it out).

Questions:

Do you mince or grate your ginger?

What do you use your microplane for?

Do you find bottled teriyaki marinades too salty?

More Marinade Recipes You’ll Love:

Isabel’s Island Chicken Marinade

Garlic Herb Chicken Marinade

Lemon Garlic Chicken Marinade

My Favorite Garlic Marinade

Yogurt Curry Chicken Marinade

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