- 2 partsSoy sauce
- 2 partsMirin
- 1 partSake
- 1 partBrown sugar
- 1/2 cup (125ml) soy sauce
- 1/2 cup (125ml) mirin
- 1/4 cup (60ml) sake
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 spring onions, green parts only
- 2 chicken wings or a few pieces of chicken skin, grilled until charred, optional
- Put the soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer.
- Add the spring onion greens and the charred chicken pieces, if using.
- Simmer gently for 15-20 minutes until reduced by about a third and syrupy enough to coat a spoon.
- Strain and cool. It thickens more as it cools.
- Brush onto skewers 2-3 times in the last few minutes of grilling, letting each layer set over the heat.
Tare is the basting sauce at a yakitori bar: soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar, simmered until it's syrupy. Skewers are grilled, dipped or brushed with tare and grilled again a few times, so it builds up into a sticky, caramelised layer. Bars keep their tare going for years, topping it up and adding the drippings from the grill.
It's thicker and less sweet than teriyaki sauce, which usually has ginger and garlic. The home trick is to char a couple of chicken wings or skin pieces under the grill and simmer them in the tare, which gives it that smoky yakitori-bar depth.
Chicken skewers, chicken meatballs, wings, grilled eel or salmon, rice balls and grilled mushrooms.
Brush it on yakitori or tebasaki wings, or spoon it over tsukune don. Read about mirin and sake.
Uses this sauce
Recipes that call for this sauce. Make a batch and cook one of these.
Pairs well with
Dishes this sauce suits. These recipes make their own glaze or dressing, so you can swap this sauce in.