Sauces & Condiments Japanese

Kabayaki Kabuki Sauce

Soy sauce, mirin, hoisin, honey, garlic, white pepper and cayenne simmer briefly into a sweet Japanese-inspired glaze.

Kabayaki Kabuki Sauce

What It Is

Soy sauce, mirin, hoisin, honey, garlic, white pepper and cayenne simmer briefly into a sweet Japanese-inspired glaze.

Origin

Kabayaki is a Japanese preparation traditionally associated with glazed grilled eel. This sauce borrows the sweet soy-glaze idea and adds its own hoisin-and-cayenne detour.

Fun Fact

Reducing a glaze concentrates both sugar and salt. Taste before reducing it into a black hole of sodium and regret.

Prep
5 min
Cook
8 min
Total
13 min
Servings
10 tbsps
(assuming no one present is secretly a moose)
Difficulty
easy
Dairy-Free Nut-Free
Diet
Vegetarian, Dairy-Free, Nut-Free, Low-Carb
Away Mission
10 min walk
(roughly one away mission's worth of running from something that wants you dead)
#japanese #kabayaki-kabuki-sauce #sauce #spoon-and-scribble

Ingredients

  • ½ cup light soy sauce
  • ½ tbsp hoisin sauce
  • ½ cup mirin
  • ¼ cup warm honey
  • ¼ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp white pepper
  • ½ tsp cayenne

Steps

  1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.
  2. Simmer over low heat for several minutes, stirring often.
  3. Remove from heat and cool before using as a glaze or dipping sauce.

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Notes

Brush this on during the last few minutes of grilling or broiling, not earlier — the sugar content means it burns fast over direct heat.

Nutrition Facts
Per 2 tbsp
Calories 45
Burning this off: one Tragically Hip song, played loud, on a treadmill.
% Daily Value*
Fat 0.0 g 0%
Saturated + Trans 0 g 0%
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 660 mg 29%
Carbohydrate 9.0 g
Fibre 0.0 g 0%
Sugars 8.0 g 8%
Protein 1.0 g
Potassium 60 mg 1%
Calcium 5 mg 0%
Iron 0.4 mg 2%
*5% or less is a little, 15% or more is a lot. Sodium levels calculated in a country with universal healthcare — and it's free, so don't worry about it too much.
A genuinely respectable nutrition profile. No red flags here — go ahead and feel a little smug about it.

Substitutions

Regular soy sauce works whether or not it's labelled light. Brown sugar can replace warm honey at a slightly reduced amount since it's more concentrated. Regular hoisin works fine here, this isn't a recipe demanding a specific brand.

Storage

Store in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, thanks to the soy and mirin base doing a lot of natural preservation work.

Freezing

Freezing is usually unnecessary for a small batch of sauce. If you do freeze it, use small portions and expect creamy or emulsified sauces to need a good whisk after thawing.