Spam Teriyaki

Savor the savory-sweet perfection of Spam Teriyaki, a bold fusion of tender meat and tangy glaze!

Twenty Minutes, Because the Spam Is Already Cooked

Spam Teriyaki is diced Spam browned in a pan and then coated in a soy, mirin, sake and brown sugar glaze, served over hot rice. The recipe card below puts it at 5 minutes of prep and 15 minutes of cooking, so 20 minutes in total, and it makes 2 servings from one can.

The reason it is that quick is worth saying out loud, because the rest of the recipe follows from it: Spam comes out of the can fully cooked. Nothing here is being cooked through. The Spam is only being browned, and the sauce is only being reduced. There is no doneness to chase and no resting to do.

The dish itself sits where Hawaii and Japan meet. Spam has been a staple in Hawaii for decades, and teriyaki is the Japanese technique of glazing something in a reduced soy and sweet rice wine sauce until it shines. Put the two together and you get a rice bowl that tastes far more involved than the ingredient list suggests, which is also why the same glazed Spam turns up inside musubi.

What Goes Into the Glaze, and What Each Part Does

The Spam

• 1 can of SPAM, diced: the whole dish. Original and low sodium both work here. The glaze already brings 2 tablespoon of soy sauce to the pan, so if you are watching salt at all, low sodium is the one to reach for and you will not miss anything. The flavoured cans, bacon or jalapeño, fight the sweet soy rather than add to it.
• 1 tablespoon of oil: enough to stop the cubes sticking while they brown. It sits inside step 3 of the card rather than in the ingredient list, so it is easy to miss when you are setting up.

The Teriyaki Glaze

The four liquids and the sugar go in at 2 tablespoon each, which makes this one of the easier sauces to remember and to scale.

• Light soy sauce, 2 tbsp: the salt and the umami, and the colour the glaze ends up.
• Mirin, 2 tbsp: sweet rice wine. It carries a mild sweetness and a little acidity, and it is what gives a teriyaki glaze its shine rather than a flat syrupy look.
• Sake, 2 tbsp: depth and a little savoury lift behind the sugar. Rice vinegar is sometimes offered as a swap here and it is not one: vinegar is sour and sake is not, so it changes what the sauce tastes like rather than standing in for it. It is also worth knowing that mirin contains alcohol too, so leaving the sake out on its own does not make this an alcohol free dish.
• Brown sugar, 2 tbsp: sweetens, and more importantly it is what lets the sauce reduce into something thick and sticky instead of staying watery.
• Garlic, 3 cloves, grated, and ginger, 2 tsp, grated: both go into the cold sauce raw and cook in the pan while it reduces. Grated rather than chopped matters here, because the sauce is only in the pan for a couple of minutes and grated aromatics give up their flavour in that time.

On Top

• Sesame seeds: a nutty crunch against the soft glazed cubes.
• Chives: the fresh, sharp note that keeps a bowl of salty, sweet and starchy from going one dimensional. They are in the recipe card and in the final step, and they are not optional in the way the sesame seeds are.

How to Make Spam Teriyaki, Step by Step

1. For the teriyaki sauce, combine light soy sauce, mirin, sake, brown sugar, garlic and ginger. Set aside.

2. Dice the Spam into bite sized cubes. Set aside.
3. In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Fry the Spam about 2 minutes a side, turning the cubes so the flat faces take colour. Set aside.
4. In the same pan, pour in the teriyaki sauce and cook it until it thickens into a glaze.

5. Add the Spam back in and stir until every cube is coated with the sauce.

6. Serve with hot steamed rice and egg, and garnish with sesame seeds and chives. Enjoy!

Cutting the Spam, and Browning It Without Drying It Out

One thing to sort out before you start. The recipe card says two inch cubes, and a can of Spam is not two inches thick, so that is not a cut you can actually make from it. What the step photos show, and what works, is bite sized cubes of about three quarters of an inch. One can gives you around twenty of them, which is the right number for two bowls.

Two minutes a side over medium heat, turning the cubes so the flat faces meet the pan, gives you colour and a firmer edge. Look at the photos above and you will see what that actually looks like: lightly coloured, not deep fried. That is the honest result of this method, and it is enough, because almost all of the stickiness in the finished bowl comes from the glaze rather than from the frying.

The real risk is the other direction. Spam is already cooked, so time in the pan buys you colour and nothing else, and past a point it dries the cubes out and leaves them rubbery. Brown them, then get them out of the pan.

Getting them out is not just about the Spam. The sauce needs to reduce next, and anything sitting in it while it does will steam and soften. The cubes come back in at the very end, when there is a glaze to coat them rather than a liquid to soak into them.

Getting the Glaze to Coat Instead of Run

The sauce goes into the same pan the Spam just came out of, unwiped. The browned bits stuck to the base lift into it, which is free flavour and the main reason the recipe does not ask you to make the sauce separately in a saucepan.

What you are starting with is about half a cup of liquid carrying 2 tablespoon of sugar, and what you want is a fraction of that. It will bubble right across the surface of the pan, go glossy, and start to move slowly when you tilt the pan. That is the point to stop. Brown sugar and soy both catch quickly once the water has gone, so keep it at medium and do not walk away from it.

Then the Spam goes back in and gets stirred through until every cube is coated. The glaze keeps thickening as it comes off the heat, so if it looks right in the pan it will be slightly tighter in the bowl. A can of Spam and this much sauce is a coating, not a pool: there should be very little left in the pan once the cubes are turned through it, and the rice underneath should not end up swimming.

What to Serve It With, and How It Keeps

Hot steamed rice is the default and it is the right one. Jasmine or sushi rice are ideal, since their soft, slightly sticky grains hold the glaze instead of letting it slide to the bottom of the bowl. Brown rice works if that is what you keep in the house, it just holds less of the sauce.

Egg belongs in this bowl. The recipe card says fried eggs; the bowl in the photos on this page is soft scrambled egg, folded in next to the Spam with a dusting of chilli flakes over it. Either is right. What the egg is doing is putting something soft and mild against all that salt and sugar, and a runny yolk and loose scrambled curds both do that job.

A green vegetable earns its place for the same reason. Broccoli, asparagus or spinach, cooked plainly, give the bowl somewhere to go between bites of glazed Spam.

If this is the kind of dinner you want more of, the soy, mirin and sake base here is the same one behind gyudon, where it is simmered with thinly sliced beef and onion over rice in about the same twenty minutes. Beef pepper rice is the faster one again at fifteen minutes, and it is built on the same soy, mirin and sake with butter and corn added.

Leftovers keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat them in a skillet over low heat, which brings the glaze back without softening the cubes. A microwave will heat it through perfectly well, it just leaves everything a bit limp.

Musubi, Pineapple and Other Ways to Use the Glaze

Spam musubi. The portable version, and the one most people meet first. Teriyaki glazed Spam goes on top of a block of pressed sushi rice and the whole thing is wrapped in nori. For musubi you want slices cut the width of the can rather than cubes, so they sit flat on the rice, which is the one place where the shape of the cut actually changes.

Pineapple. Chunks of pineapple added to the pan with the Spam lean the dish further towards Hawaii. The acidity cuts the salt, which is a genuinely useful thing in a bowl this rich, and the sugar in the fruit caramelises alongside the glaze.

Stir fry. Bell peppers, onions or snap peas turned through the glaze with the Spam stretch one can across more plates and add crunch. Cook the vegetables first and set them aside with the Spam, or they will release water into the sauce while it is trying to reduce.

A different protein, same glaze. The sauce here is not specific to Spam. Soy glazed chicken uses the identical 2 tablespoon each of soy, mirin and sake with garlic and ginger, on chicken thigh instead. For something further from teriyaki but in the same sticky, salty, over rice family, sticky pork belly bites take pork belly to a glaze built on gochujang and honey.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Low-Sodium Spam?

Yes, low-sodium Spam works perfectly for this recipe! Since teriyaki sauce already contains salty ingredients like soy sauce, using low-sodium Spam can help balance the flavors, preventing the dish from becoming too salty. You’ll still get that savory Spam flavor, but with a little less saltiness.

How Do I Make Teriyaki Sauce from Scratch?

Making teriyaki sauce from scratch is easy and quick! All you need are a few basic ingredients like soy sauce, mirin, sake and brown sugar, with grated garlic and ginger in this version. Stir them together cold, then reduce the mixture in the pan until it thickens into a glaze. In this recipe that happens in the same pan the Spam was browned in, which is why there is no separate saucepan step.

What’s the Best Way to Reheat SPAM Teriyaki?

The best way to reheat Spam Teriyaki without softening it is a skillet over low heat. Avoid the microwave, which leaves the cubes limp. If you’re in a hurry, a quick flash in the oven also works well. Either method will help keep the texture of the glazed Spam and keep the dish flavorful.

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Spam Teriyaki

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Savor the savory-sweet perfection of Spam Teriyaki, a bold fusion of tender meat and tangy glaze!

• Author: Genio Ng
• Prep Time: 5
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 20 minutes
• Yield: 2 servings 1x
• Category: Spam
• Method: Easy
• Cuisine: Asian

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

•  1 can of SPAM, diced

Teriyaki sauce

• 2 tbsp of light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp of mirin
• 2 tbsp of sake
• 2 tbsp of brown sugar
• 3 cloves of garlic, grated
• 2 tsp of ginger, grated

To garnish:

• Sesame seeds
• Chives

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Instructions

1. For the teriyaki sauce, combine light soy sauce, mirin, sake, brown sugar, garlic and ginger. Set aside
2. Then, dice the spam into 2 inch cubes. Set aside.
3. In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Fry the spam each side for 2 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside.
4. In the same pan, pour the teriyaki sauce and cook the sauce until it thickens or becomes a thick glaze.
5. Add back the spam and stir until everything is coated with the sauce.
6. Serve with hot steamed rice, fried eggs and garnish with sesame seeds and chives. Enjoy!

Genio Ng

Hi there, I'm Genio. I really appreciate you taking your time and visiting me here. As an international student from Indonesia coming to Sydney right after Covid lockdown - it was challenging for me to make friends and find myself in a new city. I've never cooked before but I found my passion in food content creation and testing Asian inspired recipes - I learnt that cooking can be incredibly easy, cheap and fun so I'm super happy to be able to share this with you! Please come by my socials and say Hi - always keen to make new friends! Genio

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