I do love a good teriyaki salmon, so when I found this recipe in Preparing Fish & Wild Game: Exceptional Recipes for the Finest of Wild Game Feasts by Andrew Carre, I wanted to give it a try. This method is for grilling, but you can probably use it to sauté fish if you’re not feeling confident about your fish-grilling skills. And really, as you can see from the photo above, grilling fish isn’t in the same ball park as grilling chicken or other meats less likely to disintegrate on you.

Still, even if it falls apart, or your basting liquid spills on the ground and you can’t use it mid-way through grilling, it’s still a tasty way to eat salmon. The ingredients are much more Americanized, particularly in using port wine rather than rice wine vinegar or even sake. Still, it produces a tender filet rich in umami with a slightly sweet undertone.

I’ve made a few changes from the original recipe to simplify the steps. If you don’t mind using a plastic bag rather than marinating in a dish, I’ve found that it’s a very easy and mess-free way to marinate. You can also recycle some of the marinade as a sauce for vegetable stir fry (as seen in the photo above). If you do this, be sure to let the sauce cook for several minutes to ensure that anything that might have transferred from the raw meat gets cooked thoroughly.

4 8-oz. salmon (or other oily fish) fillets, skin on
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. port wine
1/4 c. water
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. green onions, minced
4-6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. + 1 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
3 tsp. corn starch + 1/4 c. water (for optional stir fry sauce)

Put everything but the salmon in a ziplock bag and shake to combine. Reserve 1/4 cup in a separate container.

Add the salmon fillets and chill 3 hours, ensuring each fillet is submerged.

Spray a grill with cooking spray and prepare for medium direct heat (somewhere between 325-375F).

Remove the salmon from the marinade. Arrange the fillets on the grill and cover, cooking for 5 minutes.

Turn over and grill for another 3-5 minutes, or until fish is firm and opaque and just begins to flake, basting occasionally with the reserved marinade.

If you’re planning to cook a vegetable stir fry to accompany the salmon, you can use the leftover marinade as a sauce. Stir fry the vegetables on high heat starting with the ones that take the longest to cook (like onions, carrots, etc.) and add leafy greens last.

Mix up the corn starch and water, then set aside.

Add some of the marinade to the pan; depending on how much volume you have in the stir fry, you might not need all of it, so it’s good to start small and add more if you think it needs it.

Lastly, add the corn starch slurry and keep stirring, cooking until the sauce thickens. Serve with rice.