I eat a fair bit of Chinese food at restaurants. Asian foods are one of the places you can generally count on being able to get enough vegetables in your meal, so Chinese is my go-to cuisine when I really want veggies. In recent years, though, I’ve been noticing just how salty is always is, and it seems there’s more and more meat in dishes and fewer veggies. Sometimes I’ll just get a pile of vegetables and steal a few chunks of meat from my husband’s plate, but that meat is certainly factory-farmed and the veggies shipped in from who knows where and I always leave with lots of containers of leftovers…so it’s not an ethicurean dream food.
But what’s a girl to do? There’s just nothing like that delicately-scented white sauce, or the rich brown garlic sauce, or the spicy orange glaze. How the heck does one replicate that at home? Might as well just go out.
Actually, it turns out it’s pretty easy to make all of these sauces at home. You can adjust the salt to your taste, use meat and veggies that suit you, and keep the leftovers in a reusable container! The only tricky bit (until you’ve done it a few times) is working with cornstarch.
See below the cut for recipes and techniques for Basic Chinese White Sauce, Basic Chinese Brown Sauce, and Spicy Orange Glaze.
These are not haute recipes. They are almost certainly not authentically Chinese. But they do replicate fairly well those sauces we’ve come to like at American Chinese restaurants.
Basic Directions:
The technique is the same for all three sauces:
1) Cook any meat first. Remove it from the pan.
2) Stir-fry your veggies.
3) Mix up all the sauce ingredients in a measuring cup.
4) Add a few pieces of hot veggies to the measuring cup to pre-heat the cornstarch.
5) Dump all the sauce into the pan with the veggies (and add the meat back, if using) and bring to a boil.
6) Simmer for a minute or two until the sauce is clear and thickened.
Basic Chinese White Sauce
In a measuring cup, combine:
- 2 Tbl. soy sauce, shoyu, or Bragg’s
- 3/4 c. water
- 1 Tbl. grated ginger
- 1/2 tsp. chopped garlic (1 small clove)
- 1 Tbl. cornstarch
Follow the basic directions above.
Basic Chinese Brown Sauce
In a measuring cup, combine:
- 2 Tbl. soy sauce, shoyu, or Bragg’s
- 3/4 c. water
- 0.5 – 1 Tbl. grated ginger
- 1 tsp. chopped garlic (1 clove)
- 1 Tbl. cornstarch
- 1 Tbl. molasses
Follow the basic directions above.
Spicy Orange Glaze
In a measuring cup, combine:
- 2 Tbl. soy sauce, shoyu, or Bragg’s
- 1/3 c. water
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 1-2 tsp. chopped garlic (1-2 cloves)
- 1 Tbl. cornstarch
- 1 Tbl. orange juice concentrate
- 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (more to taste)
Follow the basic directions above. This sauce should be much thicker than the others; it’s great on chicken and tofu.
See also my Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe.
TeacherPatti said,
January 29, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Oooh, I am going to try the spicy orange glaze recipe. One chain restaurant that I do like is Panda Express (I think it’s called?) that’s in the EMU student center. Whenever I take a night class there, I eat the orange chicken. Thanks, Emily!
farm mom said,
February 1, 2008 at 8:47 am
I so agree. We eat lots of veggie stir fries because it’s a great way to get your veggies. I find that I can get my son and husband to eat them more readily too.
Ed Whibley said,
March 5, 2008 at 5:51 pm
We’re trying the brown sauce tonight!
thedadreport.com » The Holy Grail: Chinese Brown Sauce at home said,
March 5, 2008 at 8:39 pm
[...] We’ve been fooling around with recipes to try to get that authentic Chinese food-at-home for years. We’ve gotten sort of close. I am happy to report that our quest has come to and end thanks to fellow blogger Emily at Eat Close To Home. Emily has 3 basic sauce recipes, Brown Sauce, White Sauce and Spicy Orange Sauce. [...]
Angela said,
June 25, 2008 at 9:41 am
Thank you for stopping by my blog and commenting! My husband isn’t a fan of Asian food (cry) but I will try one of these sauces on him soon. Thank you for sharing! I look forward to poking around your blog soon…but right now I have to get back to my Thomas the Train game!
Chinese take out 'clear sauce' - Discuss Cooking Community said,
July 23, 2008 at 11:13 pm
[...] here is a link with some basic clear and white sauces, brown, and even spicy orange sauce on it: Just One Thing: Basic Chinese Sauce Recipes « Eat Close To Home __________________ Buddy "It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside of [...]
Mickapoo said,
August 6, 2008 at 8:53 am
You mentioned working with corn starch being tricky… that’s always been the case for me. How do you keep the corn starch from clumping together?
Emily said,
August 6, 2008 at 9:02 am
Mickapoo – The trick is to mix the cornstarch into cool water, then heat it up a little bit by adding a couple pieces of hot food from your stir fry, and once it’s lukewarm, then dump it into the pan to bring it to a boil and finish cooking it. Try following the directions above – it’s a pretty streamlined process that works well for me. – Emily
Angela | the painted house said,
November 7, 2008 at 8:33 am
I made the brown sauce this week–yum! It is so easy, what’s not to love? Thank you!
Kris said,
January 10, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I was so happy to find this. I’m trying to eat healthy and just bought a two tiered steamer so I’m steaming veggies and meat/fish and was looking for different sauces I could add to this. Can’t wait to try them all.
kathiresan.j said,
March 18, 2009 at 3:38 am
i am kathir i working in a bangalore.i need some chinese recipies.
Noah said,
April 8, 2009 at 12:38 am
Thanks so much for figuring these out. I’ve also always thought that the sauces at Chinese restaurants were something I could only find eating out… now I can’t wait to try your version!
spatra said,
April 29, 2009 at 3:27 am
Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good.
Taliaville said,
June 20, 2009 at 9:43 pm
I cant wait to try this recipe! It looks so amazing and simple to make!
Julia Crain said,
June 26, 2009 at 4:08 pm
would you happen to know the recipe to the topping they put on the mussels at the chinese buffet.
i am going crazy looking for it.
thank you so much
Emily said,
June 27, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Sorry, Julia…I’m not even sure I’ve had mussels before. Good luck with the search!
Jeremy said,
July 5, 2009 at 11:35 am
Any idea about the recipe for lemon sauce. It is that clear yellow sauce with the same consistency as sweet and sour. Can’t seem to find a good one anywhere.
Will be trying the brown sauce soon. Had tried one before that called for oyster sauce, by wife wasn’t too big on that.
Emily said,
July 6, 2009 at 9:54 am
I’d try a cup of chicken or veggie broth, a big squeeze of lemon, a tablespoon of cornstarch, and salt and ginger to taste.
Alisa said,
September 7, 2009 at 11:10 am
Here’s my favorite recipe for Lemon Sauce:
1C water
1/3C sugar
2T lemon juice
2T water mixed with 1T cornstarch
few drops yellow food coloring, if desired
Combine water and sugar in medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add lemon juice and cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil. Stir frequently and cook until sauce is of desired consistency. Taste and add sugar or lemon juice if needed. Add food coloring, if using.
Cathy said,
July 20, 2009 at 3:27 pm
This sounds really simple and, with the exception of the fresh ginger, all the ingredients are staples in the kitchen. Thanks for posting!
Chinese sauce : my food (mis) adventures said,
August 10, 2009 at 4:56 am
[...] *recipe from here [...]
batthw said,
October 4, 2009 at 6:45 pm
finally!! found a brown sauce for chinese food. chinese food is all about the SAUCE. THANKS.
julie said,
October 10, 2009 at 5:25 pm
THANK YOU! I am going to try the brown sauce tonight. Can’t wait.