Easy Chinese Sweet and Sour Sauce
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 minutes mins
Cook Time10 minutes mins
0 minutes mins
Total Time10 minutes mins
Course: Sauce
Cuisine: Chinese
Servings: 2 cups
Calories: 776kcal
Optional Ingredients for Extra Flavor
- 1 clove garlic (peeled and smashed, but kept whole)
- ¼ teaspoon worcestershire sauce
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!
- 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!)
Calories: 776kcal | Carbohydrates: 125g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 29g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 20g | Sodium: 1669mg | Potassium: 779mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 108g | Vitamin A: 976IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 51mg | Iron: 3mg