Air Fryer Teriyaki Salmon Bowl
Air Fryer Teriyaki Salmon Bowl
Cubes of salmon marinated in a soy, mirin and honey teriyaki sauce, air-fried until the edges catch and the glaze turns sticky, then piled over rice with edamame and vegetables. It’s a bowl built for a weeknight: fifteen minutes of hands-on work, most of it waiting on the marinade, and about eight minutes in the basket.
Teriyaki is Japanese in origin — teri means shine, yaki means grilled — and the classic version is nothing more than soy sauce, mirin and sake reduced together with a little sugar until it glazes whatever it touches. This bowl is a Western home-kitchen adaptation of that idea: mirin stays, but sake is usually left out, and honey or brown sugar stands in for some of the sugar. Fresh ginger, garlic and a little rice vinegar round it out. Air-frying the salmon and building the whole thing into a rice bowl is a modern convenience format, not a traditional Japanese way of eating it — but the glaze itself follows the real ratio closely enough to earn the name.
Cutting the salmon into cubes rather than cooking it as a fillet does two things: it cooks faster and more evenly in the air fryer, and it gives you more glazed surface per bite. The sauce is made once and split in two — half for marinating, half held back clean and thickened with a little cornstarch to brush on partway through cooking and drizzle at the end. Keeping the two separate matters: raw fish sits in the marinade half, so it never touches what ends up on the finished dish.
Rice, steamed edamame and a mix of vegetables — broccoli, shredded carrot, cucumber, avocado, whatever’s on hand — round the bowl out into a full meal. It keeps well for a few days too: store the rice, salmon and vegetables separately and add the fresh garnishes only when you’re ready to eat.
Ingredients
Serves 4
The salmon
- 600 g skinless salmon fillet, cut into 2.5 cm cubes
The teriyaki sauce
- 80 ml low-sodium soy sauce (or tamari)
- 3 tbsp mirin
- 2 tbsp honey (or light brown sugar)
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp cold water
The bowl (per bowl, adjust to taste)
- 150 g cooked white or brown rice
- 50 g shelled edamame, steamed
- 100 g mixed vegetables (steamed broccoli, shredded carrot, cucumber ribbons, sliced avocado)
- sesame seeds, toasted, to garnish
- green onion, thinly sliced, to garnish
Directions
The teriyaki sauce
Whisk the soy sauce, mirin, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, garlic and ginger together in a bowl until the honey dissolves. Split the mixture roughly in half. Set one half aside, untouched by raw fish — this is what will finish the dish. Toss the salmon cubes in the other half, cover, and let them marinate in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes; a few hours is fine too if you want to get ahead.
While the salmon marinates, bring the reserved half of the sauce to a simmer in a small saucepan. Stir the cornstarch and cold water together into a smooth slurry, add it to the pan, and cook for about a minute, stirring, until the sauce turns glossy and coats the back of a spoon. Take it off the heat.
The salmon
Preheat the air fryer to 400°F (204°C). Lift the salmon out of the marinade, let the excess drip off, and arrange the cubes in a single layer in the basket, leaving space between the pieces — crowd them and they’ll steam instead of catching color. Work in batches if your basket is small.
Air fry for 6 to 8 minutes, flipping the cubes and brushing them with a little of the thickened glaze at the halfway point. Start checking around the 6-minute mark: the salmon is done tender at 125–130°F (52–54°C) and still good at up to 145°F (63°C) if you prefer it well done. Cubes this size overcook fast, so it’s worth pulling them a little early rather than late.
To serve
Divide the rice among four bowls. Top each with edamame, the mixed vegetables and the glazed salmon. Spoon the rest of the reserved glaze over the top and finish with sesame seeds and sliced green onion.
Notes
No mirin on hand? Use an extra tablespoon of honey plus a tablespoon of water, or a splash of dry sherry, in its place.
No air fryer? Broil the salmon cubes for 6 to 8 minutes, or pan-sear them for about 90 seconds a side and glaze directly in the pan.
For meal prep, keep the rice, salmon and vegetables in separate airtight containers for up to 3 days. Reheat the salmon in the air fryer at 350°F (175°C) for 2 to 3 minutes, then add the fresh vegetables and garnish just before eating.
600 g of salmon works out to a generous 150 g per bowl. For lighter portions, cut back to about 450 g total.
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