Why you’ll love this stir fry sauce:
This sauce is a great all-purpose stir-fry sauce to complement your weeknight stir-fry dinner. Why you’ll love this stir-fry sauce:
- As you grate those aromatic ginger and garlic, you’ll understand how much flavor goes into this sauce.
- Rice vinegar brightens the flavors, brown sugar balances the saltiness and toasted sesame seed oil makes it simply irresistible!!!
- It has a wonderful well-rounded flavor, perfect for any meat and vegetable combination.
No more store-bought stir fry sauce ever again! Because homemade Chinese stir fry sauce is so much better, yet it’s easy to prepare!
Key Ingredients Notes:
This easy stir fry sauce recipe calls for simple ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.
Let’s talk about the details of what you can substitute and what you absolutely have to have:
- Soy sauce – Use regular Japanese soy sauce, like Kikkoman. It’s the foundation of stir-fry sauce.
- Brown sugar – Sugar is important in this stir fry sauce as it offsets the saltiness of soy sauce. In a pinch, substitute white sugar.
- Rice vinegar – A little bit of acid brightens the flavors, so it’s important to add vinegar. Rice vinegar is milder vinegar, and if you don’t have it, substitute apple cider vinegar.
- Garlic – A must have ingredient for amazing stir fry sauce. Fresh garlic is good, but garlic paste works fine too.
- Ginger – Fresh ginger, or ginger paste is essential in this sauce. Without its complex and aromatic flavors, this sauce is just not the same.
- Sesame oil – While you can omit this aromatic oil, you’ll definitely miss out on the light nuttiness of this oil.
- Cornstarch – It thickens the sauce as it cooks, so it’s important component to the sauce.
How to make stir fry sauce recipe:
It’s ridiculously quick and easy to make this stir-fry sauce!!!! Less than ten minutes, and you’ll be done!
- Step 1. Prepare all the ingredients.
- Step 2. Then place everything in a large jar and shake well!
Tips for Asian Stir Fry Sauce
A Microplane zester makes grating ginger and garlic so much easier!!
FAQs:
This recipe makes enough sauce for stir-frying about 4 cups of any combination of vegetables and/or seafood, chicken or beef.
Feel free to double up the recipe, if you want to freeze it in batches.
If you prefer a thicker stir fry sauce, feel free to add in more cornstarch. Add a teaspoon of cornstarch to a tablespoon water mixture until you reach your desired consistency. TIP: Don’t add the additional cornstarch too quickly as it takes 3-5 minutes once heated for the cornstarch to do its magic and to reach its consistency.
Storing Tip:
How long can you store stir fry sauce?
The stir fry sauce is done in 10 minutes. But if time is not on your side, then you can meal prep it over the weekend.
Store homemade stir fry sauce in an airtight container the fridge for no longer than 2 weeks.
When ready to use, shake well. You’ll notice white sediment on the bottom, it’s totally normal! It’s just cornstarch.
Can I freeze stir fry sauce?
Yes, definitely. This sauce can be prepared and then placed in a freezer-friendly container with a tight-fitting lid, or a freezer bag. Store the sauce for no longer than 3 months.
When you’re ready to use it, thaw it and then add it to your stir fry. So easy!
Ways to use this sauce
Now that you have mastered this sauce go and pair it with my Chinese Chicken Stir Fry that has added tips on cooking your vegetables and some nice protein options. It also makes a perfect easy Beef & Broccoli Stir Fry!
Easy All-Purpose Stir Fry Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 garlic cloves grated
- 2- inch ginger grated
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- ½ cup of water
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- In 12oz mason jar, combined all the ingredients. Cover and shake well until well combined.
Video
Nutrition
* Disclaimer: All nutrition information are estimates only. Read full nutrition disclosure.
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Reader's Reviews
Dale says
How much do you add to each stir fry
Shinee says
Hi, Dale! Thanks for your question. This recipe makes enough sauce for about 4 cups of vegetables and protein.
Boc choy says
Excellent! Love the tip on freezing the ginger making it so easy to grateful.
Boc Choy says
Edit– grate not grateful– app auto corrected my post:)
Shinee says
So glad you found this tip useful. Thanks for your feedback!!
Tom says
Made this last night, compliments from everyone. Simple and quick, perfect!
Shinee says
Yay, so happy you tried my recipe and that everything loved it! Thanks for your feedback, Tom!
Mona W says
This is a great, all-purpose recipe. I tripled this sauce, to have extra in my fridge or/and to freeze. I did cut back 1/3 on the brown sugar because we don’t like things real sweet,…..so 4 Tablespoons to triple. It was perfect for us, and so very easy.
I too always have frozen ginger in the freezer. I just grated a big pile and didn’t measure for this recipe. Might add a bit of crushed red pepper in the future.
Thank you Shinee-D! Our pork tenderloin-lots-of-veggies stir fry was excellent!
I marinated the pork but just guessed at the amount of sauce to add to the pork marinade and the veggies. The dish was perfectly salted. My husband inhaled it and every bite was consumed.
Shinee says
Mona, thank you so much for your sharing your feedback! So happy you loved the recipe.
Terri Hutchinson says
This sauce seemed to over whelm the broccoli, beef, mushroom stir fry. Not bad, just not yummy.
Shinee says
Thanks for sharing your feedback, Terri.
Amadito Gerolaga says
can we use it in any kind of stir fry ?
Shinee says
Yes, absolutely!!
Barbra says
Very nice stir fry sauce, made it to complement my vegetable white rice dinner, good flavor. (6/22/2022)
Shinee says
So happy you tried and loved it, Barbra!!
Rita says
Hello,
Thank you for this amazing recipe. I was wondering how to make the sauce a bit more spicier? please let me know. Thank you.
Shinee says
Hi, Rita. Glad you like the sauce. To make this sauce spicy, I’d simply add your favorite spicy sauce, like Sriracha.
Mary Michael says
None of the sauce recipes I find on line have the taste of the sauces used on he East Coast.I was told the sauces in PA and DE are Cantonese. Any ideas would be most welcomed I am especially fond of things like pork lo mien.. Thank you.
Shinee says
Hi, Mary. Thanks for reaching out. I’m not Chinese, so I can’t give a proper advice on this. But here’re two of my favorite Chinese recipe blogs that might be a better help: The Woks of Life and Omnivore’s Cookbook. They’re both a fantastic resource of Chinese cuisine.