Sweet and Sour Sauce
This homemade sweet and sour sauce skips the mystery orange packets for real, simple ingredients you can pronounce. It's ready in just 20 minutes with pantry staples you probably already have, no red food coloring required. One taste of that fresh, tangy-sweet balance and you'll wonder why you ever bought the bottled stuff.
Servings 1.5 Cups
Ingredients
- ½ Cup Brown Sugar packed
- 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
- ½ Cup Red Wine Vinegar
- ½ Cup Chicken Broth
- ¼ Cup Green Pepper finely chopped
- 1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Ground Ginger
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, combine the brown sugar and the cornstarch.
- Stir in the rest of the ingredients.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick and bubbly (approximately 10 minutes).
- Serve warm.
Notes
Helpful Tips
- Whisk the cornstarch and sugar together first. Combining them before adding any liquid keeps the cornstarch from clumping once it hits the pan, which is the most common reason homemade sauces turn out lumpy instead of smooth.
- Keep the heat at medium, not high. A sweet and sour sauce recipe with cornstarch thickens through gentle, steady heat. High heat can scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pan before the sauce has a chance to thicken properly.
- Stir constantly once it starts to bubble. This is the stretch where the sauce actually thickens, and it only takes a couple of minutes. Walking away here is the easiest way to end up with a scorched pan.
- Chop the green pepper fine. Small pieces cook down into the sauce instead of staying crunchy, so you get flavor and color without big chunks of raw-tasting pepper.
- Taste before you serve. Vinegar and soy sauce brands vary in strength, so a quick taste at the end lets you adjust with an extra splash of broth, vinegar, or brown sugar to get the balance right for your batch.
- Let it cool before storing. Transferring hot sauce straight to a sealed container can trap steam and water down the texture. A few minutes on the counter first keeps it from getting watery in the fridge.