Wok Sauces & Marinades

A stir-fry sauce does the job the pan does not have time for. Here you will find over 140 sauces, marinades and pastes for stir-frying, grilling and stewing, from Chinese Lee Kum Kee and Japanese Kikkoman to Thai Pantai and Korean Beksul.

Chinese stir-fry sauces

Lee Kum Kee is the backbone: black bean with garlic, char siu for grilled pork, black pepper, satay, Peking duck and hoisin sauce in both ordinary and gluten-free versions. Koon Chun make a heavier, darker hoisin that many prefer with duck pancakes. The small 50 to 80 gram sachets are made for a single pan and leave little waste. The full breadth is under Asian sauces.

Japanese sauces

Kikkoman teriyaki comes with toasted sesame and with fried garlic, as well as the original. Takao have tonkatsu and yakisoba sauce in gluten-free versions, Ebara a thicker teriyaki for grilling, and Honteri is mirin without alcohol that gives the same gloss and sweetness. See also Japanese items.

Korean marinades

Beksul sell bulgogi marinade in five-hundred-gram bottles for both beef and pork, ready balanced with soy, pear and sesame. The meat needs at least half an hour, ideally overnight. Lobo have a hot Korean stir-fry mix in a sachet, and Samyang's Buldak carbonara sauce is used as often on noodles as in a stir-fry.

Thai sauces and pastes

Pantai covers pad thai, suki, chicken rice and black pepper in large bottles at a good price per litre. Mae Ploy have a thicker pad thai sauce with more tamarind. Lobo make pastes and powder mixes, among them holy basil and satay, which are the quickest route to a Thai dish on a weekday. See also Thailand and fish sauce and oyster sauce.

How to use them

Stir-frying needs high heat and a little sauce at a time. Fry the protein first, take it out, fry the vegetables, and put everything back in the pan before the sauce goes in at the end. If the sauce goes in too early, it boils instead of caramelising. Marinades with sugar or honey catch quickly on the grill, so put them on towards the end of the cooking time.

Questions and answers

What is the difference between a stir-fry sauce and a marinade?
The stir-fry sauce is added in the pan and thickens around the food. The marinade soaks into the meat before cooking. Many of the bottles here work for both, and it usually says so on the label.

Which sauces are gluten-free?
Lee Kum Kee have a gluten-free hoisin, and Takao make both tonkatsu and yakisoba without gluten. Most of the others contain wheat through the soy sauce, so read the ingredient list on the item.

How much sauce do I need for four portions?
Reckon on two to three tablespoons per portion in a stir-fry. A 300 to 400 gram bottle is enough for five or six dinners.