Teriyaki Barbecue Marinade (Hawaii)

Teriyaki Barbecue Marinade

Makes 3 pints

The tricky part about making teriyaki is that you need to adjust all the ingredient proportions to the brand of soy sauce you re using. So to make it easy for you, we've based this recipe on Kikkoman. It is a good quality soy and the flavor is consistent from bottle to bottle.

Mom has had 30 years to perfect this marinade. She's done a pretty good job!

—Lisa

2 cups soy sauce
4 cups water
1 cup sugar
3-4 cloves garlic
1 knuckle ginger

Combine the soy and water in a shallow pan. Gently stir in the sugar until it is dissolved. Crush the garlic, using the flat blade of a knife. Clean the ginger with a vegetable brush. Crush it as well. Add the ginger and the garlic to the sauce. Don t mince them because that releases too much flavor and they will overpower your sauce. Stir. Add meats or seafood to be marinated right to the pan.

Marinating times vary with the cut of meat and whether it is boneless or not. Skewered meats and fish should marinate for at least an hour, and with other meats marinating overnight is better. If you are parboiling ribs, cool them under cold water before marinating. Drain, salt, and allow to sit for 15 minutes to half an hour Then marinate fully immersed in teriyaki sauce for at least 24 hours. This also applies to large pieces of chicken.

Buy the Book!

Remembering Diamond Head, Remembering Hawai'i
A Cookbook Memoir of Hawai'i and Its Foods
by Shirley Tong Parola and Lisa Parola Gaynier
Diamond Hawaii Press
Published 1999, $19.95/trade paperback
Illustrations by Jill M. Ault
ISBN: 0-9666457-0-7
Recipe reprinted by permission.