Teriyaki Salmon

Although there are many “Teriyaki Salmon” recipes available on the Internet, I noticed most of the recipes are quite different from how the Japanese make it at home.  Here are the main differences.
No Teriyaki Sauce Bottle
In Japan, we do not have bottled “teriyaki sauce” like the ones you can find in grocery stores here in the U.S.  We always make teriyaki sauce for each recipe at home, and every family makes it slightly differently based on their preference and ingredients that they are using.  See more about authentic teriyaki sauce in next section.
No Need To Marinate
One of the important essences in Japanese cuisine is to bring out the original flavor of the ingredients through cooking. We don’t want to overwhelm the main ingredient(s) with spices and seasonings (except for some dishes, of course). For this recipe, we use sliced salmon fillet and it is very delicate. Therefore, we don’t want to marinate the salmon with teriyaki sauce before cooking.
No Oven Cooking
I believe there are three reasons why we don’t use the oven for cooking teriyaki salmon.

1. It’s not common to use an oven for Japanese cooking, especially when it comes to traditional recipes.
2. Older Japanese kitchen doesn’t have an oven, but most of the newly built homes come with an oven in the kitchen as many homemakers bake bread and baked goods at home in past 10-15 years.
3. In Japan most salmon is cut thinly diagonally, therefore cooking time is fast and we don’t need to put it in the oven to cook for a long time.

No Thick Cut of Salmon
In Japan, salmon fillet is sliced differently than in the US. Japanese fillets are cut diagonally and sliced thinner (about ½ to ¾ inch thickness) compared to American or western cut. If you buy salmon as a whole fish, you can fillet it the Japanese way.  It will cook faster and also absorb flavors quickly.