# Good stir-fry sauce recipe? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 12, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stir-fry-sauce-recipe/524710 "2010-01-12T20:48:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stir-fry-sauce-recipe/524710/1 "2010-01-12T20:48:06Z")
Anyone have a recipe for a basic “brown” sauce like we find on Chinese food so often? It seems like it’s some combination of soy, ginger, garlic, sugar, etc… presumably thickened with cornstarch. I want to stir fry more and I hate using the gloopy stuff they sell in bottles at the grocery store. I think a nice basic sauce would go well on either beef or chicken, with assorted whats-in-the-fridge veggies, adding chilies as desired. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stir-fry-sauce-recipe/524710/2 "2010-01-12T20:56:50Z")
[Here’s a recipe with brown sauce](http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/75928-pictorial-stir-fried-snowpeas-with-oyster-sauce/), taken from [this thread](http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/75962-chinese-food-pictorials/). Looks yummy. I haven’t personally tried these recipes (yet) but the eGullet folks seem to think they’re wonderful, and eGulleters tend to have pretty good taste. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stir-fry-sauce-recipe/524710/3 "2010-01-13T02:07:59Z")
Thanks - doing some more googling around it sounds like most of them use oyster sauce. Which is something I’ve never tried before (well, I guess I’ve _had_ it, at restaurants). Some have beef broth, some have chicken - I guess that’d be a matter of taste and choice by whichever meat I’m cooking. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stir-fry-sauce-recipe/524710/4 "2010-01-13T02:13:04Z")
soy sauce. vinegar. sugar. siracha/chili paste. that’s ALL you need. the ratios are to taste, but i like to use equal soy/vinegar ~ 1/4 cup of each. 1-2 tablespoons of sugar. couple squirts of the siracha to kick it up a notch… and that’s as basic and delicious a terriyaki sauce as you could hope for. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stir-fry-sauce-recipe/524710/5 "2010-01-13T02:26:47Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > soy sauce. vinegar. sugar. siracha/chili paste. that’s ALL you need. the ratios are to taste, but i like to use equal soy/vinegar ~ 1/4 cup of each. 1-2 tablespoons of sugar. couple squirts of the siracha to kick it up a notch… and that’s as basic and delicious a terriyaki sauce as you could hope for. Terriyaki isn’t basic stir-fry though, it’s high on sugar. ---
**Author:** ![Foldup\_Rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df788c/32.png) [@Foldup\_Rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foldup_Rabbit)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stir-fry-sauce-recipe/524710/6 "2010-01-13T03:09:36Z")
The usual Chinese food restaurant flavour I encounter around here in stir fry is definitely based on oyster sauce. Which doesn’t taste like oysters. Start there, I’d say. I usually just make my stir fries with oyster sauce and a bit of ginger.