Easy Chinese Sweet and Sour Sauce

A small spoonful of homemade Chinese sweet and sour sauce

4.84 from 55 votes

A quick and easy, homemade Chinese sweet and sour sauce recipe that tastes just like the ones at your Chinese takeout restaurants and is made without pineapple, ketchup, or food coloring.

Prep Time0

Cook Time10

Total Time10

Course: Sauce

Cuisine: Chinese

Servings: cups

Calories: 776kcal

Author: Joyce Lee

Ingredients

½ cup cold water
1 ½ tablespoons corn starch
½ cup white vinegar
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons neutral oil (vegetable, canola, corn, avocado etc)

Optional Ingredients for Extra Flavor

1 clove garlic (peeled and smashed, but kept whole)
¼ teaspoon worcestershire sauce

Instructions

Preparation

In a small bowl, mix the 1½ tablespoons of corn starch with ½ cup of cold water and mix well until it is combined. Then mix in ½ cup of white vinegar, ½ cup of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and mix well.
Make sure not to mix the oil and tomato paste into this.
(Optional) If you are using garlic for flavor, peel it and use the side of a knife to smash it open but keep the clove whole so you can remove it easier at the end.

Making the Sweet and Sour Sauce

Set a small pot over medium-low heat.
Add in 2 tablespoons of oil, garlic clove (optional), and 4 tablespoons of tomato paste, and cook it for approximately 5 minutes until the oil turns to an orange color and the tomato pastes turn a slightly darker red.
Stir the bowl with the rest of the ingredients with a utensil to re-mix the corn starch with the sauce (starch usually settles on the bottom), and pour it into the pot with the tomato paste.
Whisk everything quickly until the sauce turns thick. (approx. 5 minutes.)
**Make sure you keep stirring quickly during this step to prevent clumps in your sauce
If you used a garlic clove, fish it out with a spoon and remove it.
If you like the sauce thinner, add an additional 1-3 tablespoons of water to it.
(Optional) Add ¼ teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce to it if you want some additional flavor
Once it has thickened, pour it out into a bowl and enjoy with some snacks!

Notes

This simple homemade Chinese sweet and sour sauce recipe will be more of a hong kong style sweet and sour sauce with a balance of sweet and tang and it will be less sweet than the American version. If you like it sweeter, reduce the vinegar by 1-2 tablespoons.
Although it is not a traditional ingredient, I will occasionally add ¼ teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce for additional flavor. It's an optional ingredient.
Make sure you don't use any seasoned or cast iron pans for this recipe. The vinegar will strip and remove the seasoning from the pans.
If you want to make it a spicy sweet and sour sauce, try adding some chili flakes, sambal oelek, or sriracha to it.
You can freeze this if you plan to make a bigger batch! Defrost it in the fridge and microwave to re-heat it back up! (Thanks for the tip Carol Farquharson!)

Nutrition