If there is one sauce you must know how to make at home, it’s this easy sweet and sour sauce recipe! It’s sweet with a citrusy sour flavor that’s made with easy cheap ingredients.
Serve it over meatballs, with pork chops or drumsticks, or dunk your chicken fingers in it! It’s super easy to make and takes very little time to prepare. This versatile sauce will go with almost anything and can even be used as an appetizer dip.
Sweet and Sour Sauce
This is a favorite in my house because it can be served both hot and cold, as a sauce or as a dip. Meatballs, chicken wings, pork bites, and steak can all be smothered in this amazingly delicious sauce.
Chop up some veggies or bake some fries and this sauce becomes your new favorite dip. Perfect for parties of all ages, this recipe is one you’ll want to remember.
Sweet and sour sauce is versatile in that its sweet and tangy flavors go well with so many different meats and vegetables. It can be served hot or cold!
Recipe Ingredients
- 1 cup pineapple juice - or orange juice
- ½ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup brown sugar - or white sugar or coconut sugar
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch - or use potato starch, tapioca starch, arrowroot, and even flour.
- ¼ c water
How To Make Sweet and Sour Sauce
See the recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Once you have seen just how easy this recipe is to make, you will wonder why you didn’t make it sooner! Follow the steps below or see the full ingredients and instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this blog post.
MIX CORNSTARCH: Add the cornstarch and warm water to a small bowl. Stir together until cornstarch dissolves and there are no clumps.
ADD INGREDIENTS: Add all sauce ingredients including cornstarch liquid to a small pot on the stove and mix together over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.
THICKEN: Heat and stir until the sauce thickens, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and serve.
Recipe Tips
- AVOID CLUMPS – I prefer to mix my cornstarch with warm water in a small bowl first. Keep stirring until all the cornstarch is dissolved and this will avoid clumps of it in the sauce.
- CONSISTENCY – As the cornstarch cooks, it will thicken the sauce. The longer it cooks, the thicker the sauce will be. To loosen the sauce, add a touch of water and stir when heated.
- STORING FROZEN – Use various-sized zip lock baggies depending on serving size. Squeeze the sauce flat within the bag and remove all the air with your fingers before making the final seal. Then place the sauce bag flat in the freezer until frozen. The flatter the sauce inside the zip lock bag, the easier it will be to store and the less time it will take to thaw.
How To Store Leftovers
The best thing about this sauce is that it can be made in advance. It freezes well and thaws quickly so you can serve it at a moment’s notice.
- Refrigerate - Store it in an airtight container with a lid for up to one week. I also like to store my sauces and salad dressings in mason jars.
- To Freeze - You can freeze this sauce for up to 5 months in an airtight bag or container.
- To Reheat - Thaw on the counter or in a hot water bath. Reheat on the stove until it reaches the desired temperature.
What To Serve With
There are so many ways to serve this delicious sauce recipe! Here are a few ideas:
- MEATBALLS – Sweet and sour sauce is soo good with meatballs! I used this sauce in my delicious sweet and sour meatballs. You can also try it with my budget-friendly meatballs.
- CHICKEN – Make sweet and sour chicken bites in a frying pan, drizzle over chicken wings, and brush on to air fryer chicken or baked chicken legs.
- PORK – brush on to pan-fried pork chops or stir fry.
- BEEF – As the sauce on top of classic meatloaf, cook with ground beef and veggies, brush on barbecued steak or steak cooked in the air fryer.
- FISH – Add it to a shrimp and broccoli stir fry, sautee with white fish, brush over baked salmon.
- VEGGIES – Toss with sheet pan veggies or quick stir fry.
- DIPPING SAUCE – Use as a dipping sauce for fries, potato wedges, chicken wings, breadsticks or pizza.
Tools For This Recipe
(Amazon affiliate links) - Check out all of my kitchen essentials here.
- 3.5 Qt Cast Iron Dutch Oven - Same size as the one I used in the pictures. It's perfect for sauce making and one of my favorite pots.
- Spatula – A must-have for baking and cooking any recipe! I use this set of silicone cooking utensils all the time.
- Measuring Spoons – I love these magnetic ones which stay nice and organized together when storing them
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Sweet and Sour Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup pineapple juice - or orange juice
- ½ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup brown sugar - or white sugar or coconut sugar
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
- ¼ c water
Instructions
- Add the cornstarch and warm water to a small bowl. Stir together until cornstarch dissolves and there are no clumps.
- Add all sauce ingredients including cornstarch liquid to a small pot on the stove and mix together over medium high heat, stirring frequently.
- Heat and stir until the sauce thickens, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and serve.
Nutrition Info
The nutritional information provided is an estimate and is per serving.
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