Look no further for what is consistently ranked the BEST sweet and sour sauce recipe on the web! There are so many ways to enjoy this popular and versatile sauce (see blog post for ideas) and it takes just 5 ingredients and only 5 minutes of prep/cook time. This homemade sweet and sour sauce couldn’t be simpler to make and it tastes so much better than store-bought or takeout!
What is Sweet and Sour Sauce?
Sweet and sour sauce is a popular condiment made, just as its name suggests, by combining sweet and sour flavor components (a sugar and a vinegar) with a thickener to make a sauce that is used for dipping, drizzling, and incorporated into dishes. Chinese food and sweet and sour sauce go hand in hand and for that reason you’ll find it served in every Chinese restaurant and at every takeout. If you’ve never made your own, it’s time to get on board because not only is it incredibly easy, it tastes WAY better than store-bought and what you get at your local takeout. Plus it’s free of preservatives, chemicals and junk ingredients.
How To Use Sweet and Sour Sauce
Sweet and sour sauce features a balanced combination of sweet and tangy flavors, making it a versatile condiment that can be used in various ways to enhance the flavor of your dishes.  Here are a few ways to use it:
- Dipping Sauce: This is the ultimate dipping sauce for things like potstickers, egg rolls, spring rolls, wontons, dumplings, tempura, fish sticks, and chicken nuggets. Pour the sauce into small bowls to serve alongside your favorite foods and snacks.
- Stir-Fry Sauce: Use this as a base for stir-frying vegetables, meat, or tofu. Stir fry your meat/tofu and veggies and then add the sauce towards the end of the cooking process. Toss everything together and serve it over steamed rice or noodles.
- Marinade:Â Add the sauce to the meat or tofu before grilling, let it marinate for at least 30 minutes, then proceed with grilling.
- Glaze: This works great as a glaze for grilled or roasted meats and seafood like chicken, pork, fish and shrimp. Brush the sauce over the meat during the last few minutes of cooking for a tasty, caramelized glaze. This also works great for things like baked chicken drumsticks and wings.
- Salad Dressing: Mix some of this sauce with your salad oil, and add a dash of toasted sesame oil if you like, to make an Asian-inspired salad dressing for your greens.
- Sandwich Spread: Use this as a spread for your sandwiches and wraps for an Asian twist. It goes particular well with chicken, turkey and pork.
- Pizza Sauce: Get creative and drizzle this over your pizza for an Asian twist, for example chicken or ham, pineapple, peppers, and onions.
Sweet and Sour Sauce Ingredients
You need just five ingredients to make the best sweet and sour sauce: pineapple juice, vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce and ketchup. Then to thicken it you’ll need some cornstarch and water.
Do I Have To Use Red Food Coloring?
Not at all! You can make this without food coloring. One of the advantage of making homemade anything is that you don’t have to include the junk ingredients that the store-bought stuff often uses. The red food coloring is purely for aesthetics and tastes exactly the same without it. If you prefer the red color but don’t want to use chemicals in your food there are natural food coloring options and I provide a link to one option in the recipe card below.
Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe
Let’s get started!
Get your ingredients ready to go because making this sauce goes fast. Measure out your pineapple juice, vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce and ketchup. Prepare the cornstarch slurry and set it aside.
Add all of the ingredients except for the cornstarch slurry in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.
Stir in the cornstarch slurry and simmer for another minute until thickened.
You can stop at this point or, if you want, you can add 2-3 drops of food coloring to make your sauce look the way it does at the Chinese takeout. Â Check out this all-natural food coloring.
Let the sauce cool completely. Store it in an airtight jar in the fridge where it will keep for up to 3 weeks.
Enjoy!
Watch How to Make It
For more phenomenal homemade Asian sauces be sure to try our:
- Teriyaki Sauce
- Yum Yum Sauce
- Hoisin Sauce
- Black Bean Sauce
- Eel Sauce
- Plum SauceÂ
- Asian Salad Dressing
- Kecap Manis
- Sweet Chili Sauce
- Ponzu Sauce
- Char Siu Sauce
- Ginger Sauce
BEST Sweet and Sour Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup canned pineapple juice , see note
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- OR brown sugar alternative (for low sugar option)
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar , found in the Asian or general vinegar section of any grocery store, or you can substitute apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari (GF)
- For the Cornstarch Slurry: 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
- Optional: 2-3 drops all-natural red food coloring (the one I've linked to is natural, colored with beets. It's in powdered form, simply stir some in to a couple of teaspoons of water and add it to the sauce)
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients, except for the cornstarch slurry, in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and simmer for another minute until thickened, stirring constantly. If using red food coloring, stir it in.
- Let the sauce cool completely and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator where it will keep for 2-3 weeks.
Notes
Nutrition
Originally published on The Daring Gourmet April 9, 2017
Alison cafe says
Thanks yummy. Can it all b put in the slow cooker.
Cindy Campbell says
Yummy! Thank you!
Cindy Campbell says
Good job girl. I agree with you Kimberly – if they don’t want to get your free recipe they should buy a cookbook! Rest assured that most of us can figure out the “jump to recipe” tab (if we’re in a hurry). Otherwise I enjoy your “blablabla”. :-). Also, this recipe was delicious and very easy to follow! I added 1/2 cup of crushed pineapple for texture too.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Thanks so much, Cindy! :)
Jayshauna says
I put the slurry in before cooking I wasn’t paying attention, is that fine?
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Jayshauna, the only downside is that you may need to add it in again at the end. The slurry is to thicken the sauce and if cornstarch cooks too long it often “un-thickens” so you would need to add it again to thicken the sauce.
bridgette Parker says
Hi can’t wait to try this recipe can you freeze it
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Bridgette, sauces with cornstarch don’t freeze very well because the texture of the cornstarch changes. You can give it a try and worst case you’ll just need to add in more cornstarch to re-thicken it when you reheat it.
Al Ther says
hola, tienes un nuevo seguidor…
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Gracias y bienvenida, Al!
Gabby says
Omg it doesn’t even take long to scroll down to find the recipe lol. I love this one! I’m always coming back to it, it was delicious and I took the best picture of my food with it. Thank you so much for sharing it!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Thanks so much, Gabby! :)
Sarah says
Cant have said it better myself. Cant believe how rude people can be. Going to try this recipe with pork balls. Let u know how I get on.
Conor says
I would really appreciate if you just gave the ingredients at the top. I have no time to read a b***** blurb about sweet and sour sauce…. I just want the recipe!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
In that case, Conor, feel free to PAY for a cookbook rather than enjoy recipes for FREE.
Annette says
I agree with you Conor! Stow all the bah, bah, bah! I want to get to the meat and potatoes (so to speak)! FTR This recipe was absolutely fabulous! Sorry to be rude, but I don’t have the space for another cookbook!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Annette, thank you.
And now let me get this straight: I work full-time as a blogger to provide a free service to my 2.25 million monthly readers and over the last 7 years have developed, tested, photographed and published nearly 1000 recipes complete with background and cultural info as well as helpful cooking tips. You came to my site, accessed, made, and enjoyed my recipe without having had to purchase it, the only effort being the 5 seconds it took you to move your scrolling finger….and then afterwords proceed to tell me to shut up and just give you what you want. There’s a term for that, Annette and Conor. Besides Adolescent it’s called Self-Entitlement. It sounds like you need to make more space on that bookshelf and leave the generosity of free services like this one to the people who don’t use and abuse them.
Melissa Robinson says
Fabulous response! Thank you for your helpful, free recipe suggestion – I’m off to buy ingredients and try it out this week. 😃
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Awesome, Melissa, happy cooking! :)
Mr Bee says
Great Recipe Kimberly, just made it this evening with some stir-fried chicken, green peppers, green onions and carrots, served with steamed rice, the whole family thoroughly enjoyed it, nothing left.
As for the comments above, fantastic response and I for one enjoyed some of the stuff on the way down here to the recipe and comments, I am going to try the plum sauce this week for sure.
Thank you
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
That sounds fabulous, Mr Bee, and I’m so glad you enjoyed the sauce, thank you! :)
Kristin Elise Ritter says
SNAP! HaHaHa! I personally find the information, pictures and free recipes very useful; and I very much appreciate it! If you are in a hurry, just scroll a bit faster than normal and keep your mouths shut.. Thanks for the FREE recipe!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Thank you, Kristin :)
James says
Not sure I understand the problem from Conor, I’m at the top of the blog and there is a click that says Jump to recipe, if he is in such a hurry that he scrolled past that, then he can keep on scrolling.
Peter Hoffman says
Amazing. Also Epic response Kimberly!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
So glad you enjoyed the sauce, Peter, thank you! :)
John Private says
Excellent retort. Good for you Kimberly. Some people have no respect, or understanding of the time and effort that goes into philanthropy. You do something to help others and get a mouthful of abuse for your trouble. Sign of the times I’m afraid.
Gina J. says
I am making this tomorrow!
And Kimberly: you are my new SHERO for putting the rude people in their place! Your assertive clap back made my day! I took the time to use my scrolling finger and I’m still alive!
Thank you for this free service!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Thank you, Gina! :)
Verena says
First time I’ve ever replied to a recipe site. I, personally, love all the little tidbits of information. I know I can quickly stroll down if I don’t want to read the whole blog. I think Annette and Conor need to check themselves. I’m sorry they were so rude …I want to thank you for the time and energy you put into the recipes and your site !
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Thank you, Verena! :)
Verena Gourley says
Forgot to give stars to recipe. Everyone loved it . Was simple to make too. Thank you again for recipe!
Anonymous says
I agree Verna smh people are so rude and unappreciative. God help them.
Andy says
Annette is not her real name; its a pseudonym, a nom-de-plume. Her real name I suspect is Karen. It must have taken much longer to type the post than it took to scroll to the recipe, you’ve even provided a tab to save people the effort. Give her the moon on a stick and she’d tell you it was smaller than she was expecting.
Elizabeth says
Followed directions to ante. It was perfect
Can this be frozen??
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Elizabeth, thank you! Unfortunately most things with cornstarch do not freeze well.
Anonymous says
Actually, they do. Just whizz with an immersion blender when thawed.
Andy Daviies says
Hi Guys,
How much of the sauce did you use for a meal or did you use all of it?
Thanks
Andy
Rebecca Booth says
Hi Kimberly, thanks for this recipe it is absolutely delicious and tastes so authentic. I am a professional cook and sweet and sour is my husbands favourite dish, I’ve been making it for him for 40 years and he said this is the best I’ve ever made. I have bookmarked this page and will be using the recipe again.
And for those of you who can’t be bothered to scroll through an informative, beautiful and inspiring article, there’s a button at the top that says “jump to recipe”
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Wonderful, Rebecca, I’m so glad you both enjoy it and appreciate the generous compliment, thank you!
Sharon Fitz says
Hi Kimberly, I was wondering, what is the portion size? I’m following WW. Is the 52Kcal 1 TBSP?
Thank you, I look forward to trying this :)
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Sharon, this makes roughly 2 cups of sauce and a serving is 2 tablespoons.
Suzanne Jacobson says
Hi Kim I made the sweet n sour sauces from your recipe. It was awesome. I didn’t have any balsamic vinegar,so I used apple cider vinegar instead. Awesome flavor. Thank you for the recipe. I love trying new recipes. I Love to cook.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
That’s wonderful, Suzanne, I’m so glad you decided to try and that you enjoyed it – thank you!
Ashley Middleton says
I absolutely love this sauce! This is the sauce that I’ve been hunting for! I was craving my favourite chinese sweet n sour and this sauce has made it satisfying!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
I’m so glad, Ashley, thank you!
Nat C says
I was out of pineapple juice but determined to have sweet and sour chicken so I substituted fresh OJ & water to make a cup of juice. I kept everything else the same. It tastes great thanks so much. Can’t wait to try it again with pineapple
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
That was a good substitute, Nat, and I’m glad you enjoyed it, thank you!
Lexie says
This sauce is amazing. My first time making it from scratch and the taste was spot on. I am never using store bought Sweet and Sour sauce again!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Fantastic, Lexie, thanks so much! :)