Buri teriyaki is yellowtail (buri, Seriola quinqueradiata) glazed with teriyaki sauce — soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar, reduced in the pan to a glossy lacquer. The fish, often lightly dusted with flour, is pan-fried or grilled until cooked, then the sauce is added and spooned over and reduced until it clings as a shining glaze, or brushed on in layers when grilled. It is a winter classic, made when buri is at its fattiest, the rich fat of the fish balancing the sweet-savory glaze. Served with rice and a simple vegetable, it is a standard of the home dinner table.
Teriyaki is a soy-and-mirin glazing technique long established in Japanese cooking and commonly associated with the Edo era (1603–1868), though no firm date or single inventor is recorded. The name is descriptive: teri means gloss or luster, yaki means grilled — 'grilled with a shine.' In its authentic Japanese form teriyaki is classically applied to oily fish such as yellowtail and salmon as an in-pan or grilled glaze, not the bottled marinade familiar abroad: the thicker, sweeter bottled sauce and the chicken-teriyaki of Hawaii and Seattle are a later overseas development, with the Hawaiian version adding pineapple and brown sugar and the first standalone teriyaki shop opening in Seattle in 1976.
The surface is dark, glossy, and faintly sticky with the reduced glaze, sweet and salty and deeply savory at once; the flesh beneath is hot, rich, and flaking, the fat of winter buri melting against the sweetness. A good glaze coats and shines without scorching to bitterness; reduced too far it turns dull and burnt, while a thin underreduced sauce slides off and leaves the fish bland. The richness of the fish wants the sweet-salty lacquer, and steamed rice to carry it.
The shine that gives teriyaki its name comes chiefly from sugar, above all the sugars in mirin: as the sauce reduces in the pan the water evaporates and the dissolved sugars concentrate into a syrup that thickens and coats the fish in a glossy film, the technique Japanese cooks call teri o dasu, 'to bring out the shine.' Mirin is made from glutinous rice fermented with koji, whose enzymes break the rice starch down into glucose and other sugars, so it contributes both that sheen and a rounded sweetness; reduction concentrates these sugars and so thickens the sauce. Caramelization of the sugars and the Maillard reaction between soy's amino acids and reducing sugars supply the dark color and roasted depth rather than the gloss itself. Buri is an oily fish, fattiest in winter, and the rendered richness of the fat is what the sweet-salty-umami glaze is built to balance.
Variations
Salmon teriyaki (sake no teriyaki) is the most common sibling, made with the identical sauce. Buri itself is a shusse-uo, a fish that is renamed as it grows — in Kanto wakashi, inada, warasa, then buri; in Kansai tsubasu, hamachi, mejiro, then buri — and hamachi, the younger or farmed yellowtail, is cooked teriyaki in the same way. Because its name 'advances' with growth, buri is an auspicious fish, eaten at the New Year as the toshitori-zakana of western Japan (where eastern Japan eats salmon). Winter buri is most prized as kan-buri, and Himi on Toyama Bay is famous for its branded Himi kan-buri. Note that buri-daikon, yellowtail simmered with daikon in a soy broth, is a different winter dish — a nimono, not a teriyaki glaze.
On the Palate
Where Buri Teriyaki sits in the Japanese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 2
How it's made
8 steps · 20 min active + 5 min waiting
- 12 min
Mix the teriyaki sauce: combine soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar in a small bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves.
- 25 min
Pat the buri fillets dry, salt them lightly, and let them sit a few minutes, then wipe off any moisture.
- 31 min
Dust the fillets lightly with flour and brush off the excess so only a thin film remains.
- 47 min
Heat a little oil in a pan and fry the buri over medium heat until golden, turning once, until nearly cooked through.
- 51 min
Wipe excess oil from the pan, pour in the sauce, and let it bubble around the fish.
- 63 min
Spoon the sauce over the fish repeatedly as it reduces, until it thickens to a glossy glaze that coats the fillets.
Watch outSpoon the sauce over the fish repeatedly as it reduces, until it thickens to a glossy glaze that coats the fillets — that shine (teri) is the whole point, so don't let it dry to a crust.
- 71 min
Lift the fish onto plates and pour the remaining glaze over the top.
- 81 min
Serve hot with steamed rice and a simple vegetable, finishing with sansho or shredded ginger if liked.
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