Teriyaki mushrooms is a drop-dead easy recipe that pretty much everyone loves, and it works with a wide variety of mushrooms, from common white button mushrooms to fancy porcini.
You will see teriyaki mushrooms as a Japanese side dish, or served atop simply steamed rice, where the richness of the sauce really shines.
To make this well, please avoid premade teriyaki sauces, or at least those made for the Anglo-American market, because they are often overly sweet and contain thickeners. If you use one of these thick sauces for teriyaki mushrooms, you will end up with a gloppy mess.
Thankfully, making your own teriyaki sauce is super easy. All it is is soy sauce, mirin (a Japanese sweet wine), and sake. The mirin provides all the sweetness you need in this recipe, although you could add a little more sugar if you want to.
And because you boil everything down while cooking the mushrooms, you still get that nice glaze at the end.
The only other ingredient in these teriyaki mushrooms is sesame oil, which I think adds a nice touch.
Basically you slice and clean the mushrooms, dry cook them until they release their water, add sesame oil and sauté, then add the teriyaki sauce and boil it all down until it’s a glaze. Start to finish it takes about 20 minutes — the same time it takes to make your rice.
My teriyaki sauce is from the excellent book Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, by Shizuo Tsuji. Super simple.
I like to use porcini or other boletes, like butter boletes, for teriyaki mushrooms, but anything meaty works well. Some options include:
- Common white buttons or their brown version, the cremini. Any edible agaricus will work, too, like meadow mushrooms
- Chunks of portobello, which are just large cremini
- Blewits are a great option
- Big chanterelles or hedgehog mushrooms
- Porcini in all its forms, from queen boletes to butter boletes, and so on. Leccinum boletes might not be a great choice because they turn very dark when cooked
- Maitake (hen of the woods mushrooms) or chicken of the woods mushrooms
I’ve never tried to make teriyaki mushrooms with morels, but it should work.
Once made, these are good at room temperature, and they will keep a few days in the fridge. I have not tried to freeze them, though.
If you want to go full-on teriyaki fest, I also have recipes for teriyaki meatballs, and teriyaki grilled doves, too. Or, if you want to include this in a nice Japanese meal, serve the teriyaki mushrooms alongside something like Japanese clam soup or salmon miso soup, or with ginger pork.
If you liked this recipe, please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below; I’d love to hear how everything went. If you’re on Instagram, share a picture and tag me at huntgathercook.
Teriyaki Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 1 pound mushrooms, sliced about 1/4 inch thick
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup sake
- 1/2 cup mirin
- 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Heat a sauté pan over high heat, and when it's hot, add the mushrooms. As they sizzle, toss them often. At some point the mushrooms will give up their water. Let this boil furiously until the water has mostly evaporated. Add the sesame oil and toss to combine.
- Let this sear for a minute or two, then add the remaining ingredients, tossing to combine thoroughly. Let this boil down hard, tossing to keep the mushrooms coated, until it's a glaze, about 5 to 10 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Dear Hank,
Love your site, recipes and more importantly the techniques I learn from you that enhance my cooking skills. I must admit that I have taken credit more than once for what I have done and learned from you:)
However, while I love the new technique of starting the mushrooms out “dry” which I will use from now on, the old saying holds true – You can’t win them all!
I followed this recipe exactly and it came out looking perfect. Used all authentic, quality products. But man was it salty! I can’t think of anything I did wrong as this is incredibly simple. What do you think? Is there something you think I might have done? Should something be changed? Low Sodium soy sauce? Less soy sauce? This may be obvious fixes but I know full well you tested and perfected this recipe. So unsure what’s up here. Help!
Amateur Chef:)
I read your comment before cooking and only used 1/3 cup of soy sauce. This turned out perfect for me. I think a simple reduction of the soy sauce will get you where you want to be
Michael: Likely your salt tolerance is lower than mine. It varies person to person. Also, this is normally served on plain rice with no salt in it, so that balances things a bit. But next time try using half the soy sauce, then, if it’s not salty enough, you can add more at the end.
Delicious and easy.
Thank you for this wonderful birthday present posted Sept 29.
Teriyaki mushrooms (and almost everything else I can add teriyaki to) have been my go-to for years however, I have been using a commercially produced marinade (but not the thick sticky kind). I am very keen to try this homemade version of teriyaki on beef, porkchops, chicken, venison and moose. Here in Ontario, Canada I have a few hundred oak logs that I grow shiitake mushrooms on. I prepare them by chunking the mushrooms, sauteing in olive oil and sesame oil, then just as they are finished, giving them a splash of teriyaki for the flavor and a dab of butter to smooth things out, being careful not to overly carmelize the butter or teriyaki.
There are several pounds of shiitake mushrooms on the logs right now that is likely to be the final flush of the season. These will be travelling to moose camp with me next week along with the ingredients to make my own teriyaki.
What do you saute the mushrooms in initially? Butter?
Morrell: Nothing. You are just getting water out of them.
This is a great side dish since a lot of our family is on a strict diet. Can I add sliced potatoes as well?
Beginner: Not sure. You’ll have to tinker with the cooking times.
Is this do-able with dried boletes?
Stella: Maybe: I’ve not yet tried it with rehydrated mushrooms.
Have you ever tried this recipe with puffballs? ( giant puffballs)but not sooo giant
Joy: I have not.
Simple and terrific!
Simply terrific (sorry, couldn’t resist;)
I have made something similar with saffron milk caps/pine mushrooms, soy sauce, a touch of sesame oil, sesame seeds, pine nuts and brandy. Tasted really rich. Next time I may add a tiny touch of honey?
Bev, your pine nut idea is extremely interesting. The sesame seeds are a duh, why not garnish with them. I will definitely give them a whirl when I try this recipe out.
Have no saki. What can I use instead ? A am in the UK.
Denise: You can definitely buy sake in the UK, but maybe a dry white wine will work?
Oh yes, with some Ginger Pork, I can’t wait. Thanks Hank
Hank – Looks like another great recipe.
Will try it this weekend.
Tad
Thanks so much! I used bears tooth mushrooms. So good