Stir Fry Sauce
Updated Mar 05, 2025
This is the only Stir Fry Sauce recipe you will ever need! Making your own stir fry sauce at home is so easy and tastes just as good as your favorite takeout.
Stir Fry Sauce
The key to the best ever stir fry is in the sauce recipe. I have tried endless store bought sauces, and none of them ever tasted good enough to get that takeout taste that I was craving.
“Made this, served it over rice. My sister is still bragging to anyone who will listen, about the stir fry her sister made. our friend said it was the most flavorful stir fry she ever tasted. Thanks for the recipe.” -Rose
Why we love this stir fry sauce
- Only three ingredients: this recipe comes together in no time!
- Highly Concentrated: a little bit of this sauce goes a long way.
- Pairs well with any kind of stir fry: Stir fry veggies, ramen noodles, chicken, tofu, pork, you name it. This sauce pairs beautifully with any kind of stir fry recipe.
How to make stir fry sauce
- Add the corn starch, sesame oil, and soy sauce to a mason jar.
- Close the lid, and shake it all up until it is combined.
- Add the stir fry sauce to your stir fry to taste in the last 5 minutes of cook time.
This sauce does not mess around. It is bold, so flavorful, and a little bit goes a long way. If you make the whole batch, it will be enough to flavor 6-8 generous servings of food.
What is stir fry sauce used for?
You can use stir fry sauce for just about anything, but commonly used best vegetables for stir fry include
- Mushrooms
- Carrots
- Sugar snap peas
- Broccoli
- White or yellow onion
- Bell peppers, any color
- Green onion
- Water chestnuts
- Baby corn
What should I put in stir fry?
- Vegetables: our go to vegetables include onion, garlic, ginger, brococli, mushrooms and bell pepper
- Protein: beef, chicken, tofu, chickpeas, tempeh
- Noodles or rice: white rice, brown rice, ramen noodles, brown rice noodles, pad thai noodles
Joy’s Tips
- Make the sauce first: Prepping this ahead makes it easier to add as you need it when making your stir fry. You can either cook your ingredients in this sauce, or add it at the end of cook time.
- Add a little bit at a time: If you are unsure of how much sauce to use, I recommend cooking your ingredients first in sesame oil, then adding this sauce to taste in the last 3-5 minutes of cook time to taste.
What can I add to stir fry for flavor?
I have one recommendation, and that is to always use this together with fresh garlic and fresh ginger. Do not skip this step.
These are not a part of the sauce, but they are part of the full recipe that you will make. I have found this to be the best way to bring out all of those flavors and I highly recommend doing this.
If you skip this step and tell me that the recipe is bland, it is because you did not add the garlic and ginger!
Corn starch
Corn starch acts as an easy thickener in this stir fry sauce recipe. It is is a great way to thicken sauces when you want a quick recipe.
There is no need to cook out a raw flour flavor like you would when cooking with a roux.
Most sauce recipes use a corn starch slurry to thicken them. Instead of that, we are simply mixing it with the other ingredients and once well shaken it will thicken the same way.
“OMG Joy! I have been searching for the true stir fry sauce” for everything “ and this is it! Made shrimp broccoli and mushroom stir fry tonight and and I’m still licking up the sauce from the pan!”
“This recipe seemed to be too easy, but it works better than more complicated recipes. This will be my go to.“
Stir Fry Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce or tamari
- 1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, and cornstarch to a mason jar. Screw on the lid and shake it all up to combine.
- Be sure to use this stir fry sauce with fresh minced garlic and fresh minced ginger in your stir fry (cooked with your vegetables/protein), as stated in the post. This is what will give it the "wow" factor.
- Once your stir fry is mostly cooked, add the stir fry sauce and heat for an additional 3 – 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens and coats the stir fry ingredients. This is important, as the corn starch needs a few minutes to thicken up.
- READ THIS RECIPE NOTE – this is intended to cover around 8 servings of stir fry, served over UNSALTED rice or noodles. Otherwise it will be too salty. It is a highly concentrated sauce. A little goes a long way! If you are making a small stir fry, start by adding a few tablespoons of sauce at a time until you reach your desired taste.
This sauce was soooooo freaking good and I loved how easy it was!!
Yay! So glad you loved the recipe!
This recipe is lifesaver! Regarding the use of flour instead of cornstarch, I mixed a tablespoon of flour in about 1 tablespoon of water prior to adding the soy sauce and sesame oil and it seemed to thicken reasonably well. I also added a few squirts of honey and it was delicious!
So glad you made it work for you, thanks for the update about the flour!
Can I use olive oil instead of sesame oil ?
No, the flavor of the sesame oil is important to the stir fry sauce taste 🙂
I’m making this for company tonight with “Polish” sausages. I hope that’s a good flavour combo – also various fresh veggies and jasmine rice. I do hope it’s good. I’ve not made it before.
Ohhh yummy. Had veg stir fry – no sauce. Found this recipe & happened to have all the ingredients. Just eyeballed amounts – toasted sesame oil, fresh ginger & garlic added to sauce before cooking . Made in mins while veg cooking & ohhh yummy. Thank you so much
I put in a splash of sweet soy sauce , after the measure . was yummy> I added the Garlic and the Ginger to the sauce mix and it worked out ok. Was at high heat when it hit the pan 😉
This is essentially what I do anyway, but I add these ingredients individually to the existing sesame oil in the stir-fry when the veggies are done. Mixing in the side seems like a better plan!
It seemed very salty to my husband & I. And we like salt but it was too strong. It may be the brand I used; next time I’ll half the soy sauce and substitute broth for the ither half. Or use low sodium soy. I taught myself to stir-fry watching a chef at a lunch buffet create options as people ordered their ingredients. It took mere minutes with so many variations. Who wouldn’t want to do this for dinner on a weeknight?
Would arrowroot powder or potato starch work instead of cornstarch? I’m corn free.
You could definitely use arrowroot powder! Just look up conversion charts from cornstarch, but I would think it would be a pretty close ratio.
I made this with about 1/2 the sesame oil because it’s so strong. Also instead of corn starch I used a tsp of this Mandarin Ginger dry rub. It was fantastic! Thank you!
Do I add the ginger and garlic in the mason jar or do I
fry it beforehand?
You cook it with your other stir fry ingredients!