Substitutes For Rice Wine

Asked by soupersuzy. Answered on 26th July 2021

Full question

I have been looking for Japanese rice wine substitutes for Nigella's Teriyaki Chicken. Apparently Sherry is good for rice wine and sugar for sweet rice wine. However it seems if I added extra sugar instead of the sweet rice wine combined with the brown sugar already in the recipe it would be too sweet. Any suggestions please would be appreciated.

Chicken Teriyaki

By Nigella

Our answer

Nigella's Chicken Teriyaki (from KITCHEN) is a sweet and salty mixture of soy sauce, sake (rice wine), mirin (sweetened rice wine), ginger and sugar. Rice wine and mirin can now be bought in many major UK supermarkets. If you can't get rice wine then Chinese cooking wine (shaoxing) would be the best alternative (also available in many major UK supermarkets), otherwise a very dry sherry, such as a Fino or Amontillado.

For the mirin we would not suggest using all sugar as this will make the sauce too sweet. Instead, use 4 tablespoons/¼ cup of whatever alcohol you have substituted for the sake and add 1 teaspoon of extra brown sugar.