Don’t buy sweet and sour sauce in the jar, make your own! This Chinese red dipping sauce is great for wonton strips and egg rolls.
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Don’t you hate it when you take out Chinese food, and they don’t give you enough sweet and sour sauce? Well, now you can make your own and you will never have to run out.
This sweet and sour sauce is easy to make. And just think you can make up a large batch of wontons and have plenty of sauce to dip your wontons in.
Sweet and Sour Sauce Ingredients
Here’s a list of what you need to make this sauce:
- White Vinegar
- Water
- Sugar
- MSG
- Tabasco Sauce
- Cornstarch
- Worcestershire Sauce
- White Pepper
- Ketchup
Love Chinese food? Try these recipes:
- Chinese Spare Ribs
- Chinese Buffet Seafood Bake Delight Crab Casserole
- Chinese Imperial Palace Chinese Hot Mustard
- Chinese Buffet Style Donuts
For more great Chinese restaurant recipes check out The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook by Gloria Bley Miller.
Chinese Imperial Palace Sweet and Sour Sauce
You can make classic Chinese red sweet and sour sauce for chicken, pork, shrimp, and dipping wontons.
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Servings: 10
Calories: 59kcal
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup white vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon MSG
- 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- dash of white pepper
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan add white vinegar, water, sugar, salt, MSG, and Tabasco. Cook over medium heat until heated through.
- Mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water, and add the mixture to the saucepan while stirring constantly.
- Add Worcestershire sauce and a dash of white pepper. Stir to combine.
- Cook until it is bubbly and thick.
- Remove sauce from the stove and add 2 tablespoons of ketchup.
Recipe Tips for the Cook
This will stay good in the refrigerator for about a week.
Nutrition
Calories: 59kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 0g | Fat: 0g | Saturated Fat: 0g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 92mg | Potassium: 9mg | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 15IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg
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Tanisha
Always thought the jarred stuff in the store tasted bad. This was easy to make and good!
Karen H
A FANTASTIC recipe!
Thanks so much.
Margo Haynes
Thank you so very much for this recipe! Delicious!
craig
outstanding…just made it exacly to your recipe and WOW..
Benjamin Ku
For the record, the red color absolutely comes from red food coloring. I was raised in a Chinese restaurant. But the other ingredients are close.
hillary
I made this sauce with just the sugar, water, corn starch and ketchup. I did add an extra tablespoon of corn starch and some grenadine for color and flavor. And it turned out amazing!
paintinc56
Tastes like $hit.
Janey
What purpose does the msg offer? what happens if you leave it out?
stephaniemanley
It is a flavor enhancer that you can buy. Some people are allergic to it, you may want to leave it out.
Mr. Po
How it is become red in color? Many Thanks.
Dan Coyle
Many recipes say they use a little red food coloring
stephaniemanley
Well ketchup gets its coloring from tomatoes which some think is preferable to red dye.
Monkeyb00y
Actually it’s the ketchup. The last instruction is to remove from the heat & add 2 tbsp ketchup. I added more but it did turn a nice red color. Perfect 🙂
Sharon Kay Mikesell
My recipe calls for maraschino cherry juice…ABSOLUTELY NO ketchup!! Just store the jarred cherries in the fridge. Or I suppose you can cut them in half & use whatever amount in any entree of your choosing! Sounds pretty good in sweet & sour chicken. At any rate…the color of gorgeous jeweled red is the outcome, it as well as the taste of this sauce REALLY pop! I believe many accomplished/beginning chinese chefs cringe upon hearing about the addition of ketchup!!! Save the ketchup for your fries. Hope this helps…
stephaniemanley
Great suggestion on the cherry liquid. There is a restaurant near me that makes a sauce using the juice from the cherries, I think they call it cherry chicken or something, its delicious.
Rich G
Is the reference to the Imperial Palace (General Tso’s Chicken) the same as the one in Las Vegas?
No, it isn’t that one, and I have even stayed there before too! I was referring to a restaurant in the Houston area that had closed several years ago. ~Stephanie