This all-purpose Chinese white sauce is easy to make, store and use in any stir-fry. Keep this white stir-fry sauce in the refrigerator to quickly whip up healthy weekday dinners!
You can use any combination of vegetables and/or protein. With this sauce, you’ll be making dishes just like those you’d normally order from your local Chinese restaurant. The only difference is, you know exactly what went into it!
Chinese white sauce is a light, clear sauce made of stock, garlic, and ginger. It’s thickened with cornstarch and can be used in any stir fry recipe!
Is Chinese White Sauce Healthy?
In general, this is a pretty light sauce. You do need some oil to stir-fry the dish, but if you’d like to use less oil, you can blanch your choice of meat/protein along with the vegetables in water instead of searing it.
Make your own chicken, pork or vegetable stock from scratch and you’ll not only be rewarded with flavor, you can also better control the sodium levels in your dish.
To make a vegan version of the sauce, substitute vegetable stock and vegetarian oyster sauce (made with mushrooms). To make a gluten-free version, replace the oyster sauce with gluten-free oyster sauce.
It’s all a matter of personal taste, but in general, this is a very healthy way to cook your food, and get a great colorful mix of veggies into any dish.
When I worked in Chinese restaurants, separation of duties were very important. One person manned the wok while someone else read the orders, prepped the dishes (veggies and meats) and made sure all the dishes in each order came out all at once, whether it was for a table or takeout.
Believe it or not, once you mastered the technique of wok cooking, manning the wok station was the easiest job. Whether you were cooking with two woks simultaneously or with a single high heat pow wok, all you had to think about was how to cook the dish called out to you.
I would first identify if the dish had a brown or white sauce base. Cooking brown sauce stir-fry dishes were much easier, because the brown stir-fry sauce was always pre-mixed.
White sauce dishes, on the other hand, were always hand-crafted, meaning you had to add all the ingredients separately from your condiment tray and add stock from the stock pot to round out the sauce. Chinese white sauce dishes were not as popular as brown sauce dishes, which is why I assume we didn’t bother pre-mixing the sauce.
That said, if you really enjoy white sauce dishes, pre-making the sauce is 100% worth it. When we posted our brown sauce recipe, many of you requested the white sauce version, which is why we’re bringing this recipe to you now!
Let’s talk about how to make it. From now on, fridge clean-out meals will be a snap!
White Stir-Fry Sauce vs. Brown Sauce
We’ve already posted a recipe for our all-purpose brown stir-fry sauce. What’s the difference between this recipe and that one? When do you use the white vs. the brown?
Basically, Chinese brown sauce dishes have a bold flavor, with the addition of soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Some recipes add a little hoisin sauce and even a pinch of five spice powder for a more distinctive flavor.
This Chinese white sauce is more delicate and subtle in flavor. It is characteristic of Cantonese cuisine, which is lightly seasoned to allow the flavor of the base ingredients to come through.
In our Chinese white sauce, the interplay of garlic, scallions, ginger, white pepper, and a hint of toasted sesame oil complement whatever ingredients you add to your stir fry.
Chinese White Sauce Recipe
FAQ
Is Chinese white sauce healthier than brown sauce?
What is white sauce made of?
What is Chinese sauce made of?
What is the most popular sauce for Chinese food?
What is Chinese white sauce?
Chinese White sauce is a light and clear, yet creamy sauce that is made from a base of stock (typically chicken or vegetable), cornstarch, and oriental flavorings including ginger and garlic. It is commonly consumed with Moo Goo Gai Pan (Chicken and Vegetables) and other stir fry dishes.
What does Chinese white sauce taste like?
It is characteristic of Cantonese cuisine, which is lightly seasoned to allow the flavor of the base ingredients to come through. In our Chinese white sauce, the interplay of garlic, scallions, ginger, white pepper, and a hint of toasted sesame oil complement whatever ingredients you add to your stir fry. Is Chinese White Sauce Healthy?
What is Chinese white stir fry sauce?
Chinese white stir fry sauce is a light and clear sauce made with chicken powder (or chicken stock) and thickened with a starch slurry. It’s incredibly versatile and can be used as is or in any of your favorite stir fries. The taste is absolutely delicious. It’s salty with hints of ginger, garlic, and sesame oil.
Is Chinese white sauce gluten-free?
It depends on what you like. If you use vegetable stock as your base, you can serve Chinese white sauce to vegans. By adding cornflour to make it thicker, your condiment will also be gluten-free. Generally, the recipe is gluten-free if you do not add thickening ingredients.