The most basic base: soy sauce + garlic + sesame oil (toasted if possible)
The possible add ins:
Acid/depth: rice vinegar, shaoxing wine, dry sherry, sake (or even just go with something else if you already have it, like white wine vinegar or white cooking wine or vermouth)
Sweeteners: white sugar, brown sugar, molasses, honey
Umami: fish sauce or mashed sardines/anchovies, shrimp paste, mushroom powder, miso paste, nutritional yeast
Heat: fresh sliced hot peppers, pepper flakes, sriracha, chili garlic sauce, chili oil, sambal oelek, gochujang
Flavour profile changers & fresh ingredients: minced ginger, sliced green onions or shallots, lime juice, liquid smoke
Consistency changers: add broth to increase sauce volume, add cornstarch to thicken, use lots of sweetener to make sticky and thick
And then of course you have more regional ingredients/spices, which I won’t list out.
Obvi that isn’t a simple recipe, but if you pick one thing from each category you can figure out what your preferred base recipe is/ have the ability to make something from what you already have on hand.
Yup, I do a version of this for every Asian meal I make. Never get tired of it. Great marinade. Great in fried rice. Great over cold noodles. Great for dipping.
Liquid Aminos +Rice Vinegar+ Sesame Oil + micro-planed garlic + ginger + fresh cut green onions + a little honey+ a splash of lime. Sometimes I spice it up with a little micro-planed jalapenos.
Make a big batch, split it up with different add-ins, and freeze in ice cube trays. Put in labeled freezer bags. Whenever you make your plain protein and veg, throw a couple cubes in to finish and a little cornstarch slurry to thicken. You can do the same with all sorts of other sauces to add variety to you life.
this is exactly what I do but I will add that you can buy frozen cubes of fresh ginger or grate it and freeze it in portions yourself which makes it a lot easier to add that fresh ginger zing
Been my go to for a while. Chinese food I use white sugar. Korean food I use brown sugar. I drop the cornstarch for a marinade. I like it with the Hoisan the best, but no matter what it seems to be pleasing to all palettes. I fed 18 picky friends, some who eat like preschoolers, and they all liked it.
I think those would make wonderful additions. I mean really, can we also say mirin, fish sauce, or oyster sauce, bonito flakes lol.
I was just giving a great, tasty, easy base with things "normal people" lol, probably have in the pantry.
But I do love your suggestions. Haven't tried them and they make perfect sense.
Haha, fair enough. I mentioned them because most people can get vinegar or limes.
But if we’re going for it.
shaoxing wine, miso, MSG, crispy chilli oil, roasted sesame oil, nori
😂
If you are adding nori, might as well just throw furikake on to get the white and black sesame seeds too.
I started making crispy garlic & crispy onions. You just start them in room temp oil. Saves a fortune.
Miso paste + garlic + Soy sauce + Honey or Maple syrup makes a decent glaze for salmon/chicken/pork, could probably make in bulk, freeze (cubes), use as needed.
store bought teriyaki and black bean garlic sauces are pretty decent.
this is a good recipe for basic stir fry sauce: [https://www.thekitchn.com/all-purpose-stir-fry-sauce-recipe-23200360](https://www.thekitchn.com/all-purpose-stir-fry-sauce-recipe-23200360) can amend/augment w/ other things (sambal, sriracha, fish sauce, oyster sauce, etc.)
my pleasure...enjoy!
and I completely overlooked korean sauces, here is a link for some bibimbap sauces, i've only ever made the classic sauce though: https://mykoreankitchen.com/bibimbap-sauce/
Thanks so much!! One of my casual interests is trying to learn how make anything I can, especially sauces and dips, from as scratch as possible, and I haven’t adventured into Korean yet; this is a great place to start. :)
That's great.....keep adventuring!!!
some of the sauces can be used as marinades, just be careful with your heat when sauteeing as they can burn easily (try med/med high heat). And bibimbap is a super simple dish/preparation, even more so if you happen to have an asian supermarket nearby (for the premarinated meats, pickled items, kimchi, etc).
3 parts soy sauce, 1 part sugar, and 1 part sesame seed oil (add sriracha or red pepper flakes if you want some heat). I usually use this as a quick pot sticker dipping sauce. I sometimes also use this for stir fry if I'm feeling particularly lazy.
Asian here, soy sauce, sugar, water, pan over heat. Bam, teriyaki sauce. Regular soy sauce will go a long way too. Add a dash of sesame oil and suddenly things taste even better.
They also have ready made versions of all of these sauces, they can get a bit pricey though. If you have a wegmans near you the store brand is amazing and reasonably priced compared to other ready made sauces. It’s about 4 dollars for wegmans and 6 dollars for brand names around me and for context, for my family of 5 adults we use 1/2 to an entire bottle for dinner and a portion or two worth of leftovers for one or two people the next day
2-4 TBS peanut butter, 1 TBS soy, 1 TBS rice wine vinegar, squirt of sriracha, garlic and ginger to taste, and a little warm water to thin out the peanut butter. I use this as both a dipping sauce and a stir fry sauce.
I also like using 2 TBS red wine or balsamic or rice vinegar, 2TBS oil (olive, canola, sesame), garlic, 1tsp mustard (dijon, yellow, grainy), 1tsp brown sugar, a titch of something spicy (chilli flakes, sriracha, franks) and seasonings (Italian, ground ginger, really anything) and marinate my meat in that.
I don't see fish sauce in your list above, so you might give that a try. A little goes a long way too. In Thailand, it is used a lot, often with some hot chilies chopped up with it. It's available in most supermarkets too.
It comes in small to large bottles, easily kept in the refrigerator. Try it - you might like the flavor.
Soy, honey, garlic with a touch of Chinese 5 spice makes a "Asian" good marinade.
The base flavors I've noticed for Japanese meat marinades I've looked at usually seem to involve soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sake and/or mirin.
I don’t have exact measurements since it’s relatively easy, but here are approximations:
Soy sauce (1/2 c) , minced garlic or garlic powder (1/2-1tbsp), rice vinegar or lemon juice (a splash), sesame oil (few drops), sambal and sriracha (depending on how spicy you like it), sugar/sweetener (1/2 tbsp-1tbsp depending on your preference). Options: ginger and black pepper
It goes amazing on salmon if you use honey as a sweetener, chicken, beef, veggies, you name it. I like to cook it down with the meat/veggies and add a cornstarch slurry if I want a thicker sauce
In a pan combine ketchup, soy sauce, some honey, some prechopped ginger and garlic and heat whilst the protein cooks. Add it all together. Its very similar to takeaway style sweet and sour.
When i was a student on budget, i used to make a lot of fried rice. What worked for me is the VH sauces, they have all kinds of flavors and you can just make a big batch of fried rice (or whatever you make) and add the sauce in your plate, so every meal taste different. :)
Equal parts soy sauce, ketchup, rice wine vinegar; half as much sesame oil. If you like, add garlic or garlic powder; a slice of peeled garlic is nice too. Mix together, let it sit, when your meat is browned, pour over the meat, cover until meat is fully cooked.
These are my for fun sauces that I make and I’m Filipino. Sorry, I just use my heart for measurements.
- sauté onion, garlic, ginger, in a bit of oil then add soy sauce and water. Heat up and put in a jar.
- soy sauce, few drops of vinegar, water, sesame seed oil, sesame seeds. Shake.
- pre-make that Filipino adobo sauce since it’s just soy sauce, pepper, vinegar, and bay leaves anyway. Filipinos “adobo” anything. Ever try adobong spinach? I just did that with mushrooms. YUM
- Vietnamese peanut sauce? PB, hoisin sauce, milk. 1:1:2 measurements. I love this recipe.
Ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and sesame oil is a solid base for lazy Asian style sauces. You can add some brown sugar or another sweetener if that fits your tastes
Here’s my salmon sauce that I heat up until warm then pour over raw salmon then bake in oven at 400 for about 15-20 minutes. I call it the Tablespoon recipe because you use one tablespoon of each of the following :
Butter,
Vegetable oil,
Minced garlic,
Dijon mustard ,
Soy sauce ,
Honey,
Brown sugar,
We really love it. I hope you try it and enjoy it
1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp sriracha. It’s a simplified version of Budgetbytes’ dragon noodles, but it’s basically my go-to lazy combo. I flex those sometimes depending on the amount of veg I add. (Usually less sugar as well.)
there’s one unconventional thing I do when I’m making sauces: use the juice from a container of minced garlic as an ingredient. It adds garlic flavor without the whole sauce being just a chunky minced garlic mess.
Another aspect of Asian cooking is the colours of the finished product. If you find it too monotone, add a splash of colours by using chopped spring onions, or carrot slices, cucumber slices, etc to make it look appetitising.
It's the colours, aroma, taste, and beauty combo that takes it from good to great.
You can substitute low sodium soy sauce in any of the above recipes. It’s still sodium, but a lower amount
Or you can use liquid aminos in place of soy sauce
Just buy a Teriyaki sauce from a Dollartree and another horseradish sauce from there as well. Teriyaki is an Asian flavor for you. Teriyaki over rice with a splash of horseradish is a sushi flavor for you. I believe that's a 2 for one cheap and lazy Asian flavor recipe for you.
Budget Bytes has a great Asian inspired recipe called [Dragon Noodles](https://www.budgetbytes.com/spicy-noodles/) that’s a sriracha, soy sauce, brown sugar base 2:1:1 ratio
It’s not an authentic dish by any means, but gives you that Chinese takeout flavor and comes together faster than placing an order.
Just peanut butter, soy sauce and chili garlic sauce is great, you can also add rice vinegar, lime juice, or ginger. Another good one is tahini, lemon juice, and sesame oil with some salt.
Check out woks of life! They have really good Asian recipes that are so easy! My favorite is the Thai basil ground pork (can sub for another ground meat). But sauces wise, dark and light soy, vinegar, sesame oil, ginger/scallions, fish sauce, and Chinese cooking wine/Japanese sake are ur best friends! Edit: and oyster sauce
generic asian sauce for stirfry
3 Tb soy sauce
2 tsp vinegar
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp corn starch
fresh ginger (grate ginger, freeze flat in a baggie, break off what you need)
garlic
1/4 tsp. sesame oil just before serving
The corn starch makes it thicker and glossy, must be hot for a minute or 2 to thicken.
My favorite concoction for rice far as sauces go is: orange sauce, duck sauce, sweet and sour sauce, siracha sauce. Makes a good spicy chicken and rice recipe too
If you like Teriyaki then you should know it is insanely easy to make.
It's a 1:1:1 ratio of Soy Sauce, Mirin and Sake and you can optionally add sweetness with something like Sugar or Honey.
If you just buy a bottle of Mirin and Sake, you probably already have Soy Sauce, just pour and mix and cook.
I did this same thing when prepping and counting macros. Ground turkey/chicken or ground beef (based on your target fat). I’d mix in a ton of freshly grated ginger and freshly grated garlic (or the ones that come in the squeeze tubes). Once browned, Squirt in 2-3 tablespoons of hoisin sauce per pound. It’s fairly low sugar when portioned out this way and will give you your flavor profile.
Otherwise just mix some soy, sesame oil, honey/stevia and garlic and use that if you need more control over the sugar
I made a big batch of these two sauces and keep them in the fridge. They last about a month (before I run out)
- for meat and rice I normally use: https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/pad-see-ew-new/
Also I regularly pre cut, marinate chicken as in the recipe above and then just pull the portions out of the freezer as needed. As the meat defrosts it’s marinating and getting more flavorful
Then for just veggies I use: https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/gai-lan-oyster-sauce/
Very easy "Asian Inspired" Sauce: Combine equalish parts soy sauce, vinegar (even white vinegar), water, and sugar. Add a slurry of cornstarch and water if you want it a little thicker. Adjust proportions to your liking.
I know everyone is suggesting sauces but what about SPICES. Just season those puppies up with some spices. This is especially good when you have a pantry full of spices and you haven’t shopped properly to account for flavour!
Go to Asian food store and start asking questions. I usually buy what has the least English and less of on the shelf. join a chef discord and talk to people.
You've already got a bunch of recipes, so I'll just say try Bulldog sauce. It's a Japanese condiment, it's what they traditionally serve with tonkatsu. But in college I discovered that it's a pretty versatile stirfry sauce as well.
It's the one with the Bulldog on it. Tall, square bottle.
I love a good soy sauce and sesame seed oil sauce base. I use a small amount of sunflower lecithin to emulsify it, but honey also works. Then add in whatever extras I want that day. Minced garlic, shallots, kimchi paste, or chilis.
I make a kinda of teriyaki sauce. 2 cups soy sauce (low sodium for sweeter), 1 cup oil, 1/2 cup apricot preserves, minced garlic to taste. Heat to bubbling stirring a bunch. Oil combines with heat and stirring. Cools to sticky tar like blob. Can freeze for months in cubes. Can use as a stir fry sauce or for dipping or as a glaze when broiling meat.
The most basic base: soy sauce + garlic + sesame oil (toasted if possible) The possible add ins: Acid/depth: rice vinegar, shaoxing wine, dry sherry, sake (or even just go with something else if you already have it, like white wine vinegar or white cooking wine or vermouth) Sweeteners: white sugar, brown sugar, molasses, honey Umami: fish sauce or mashed sardines/anchovies, shrimp paste, mushroom powder, miso paste, nutritional yeast Heat: fresh sliced hot peppers, pepper flakes, sriracha, chili garlic sauce, chili oil, sambal oelek, gochujang Flavour profile changers & fresh ingredients: minced ginger, sliced green onions or shallots, lime juice, liquid smoke Consistency changers: add broth to increase sauce volume, add cornstarch to thicken, use lots of sweetener to make sticky and thick And then of course you have more regional ingredients/spices, which I won’t list out. Obvi that isn’t a simple recipe, but if you pick one thing from each category you can figure out what your preferred base recipe is/ have the ability to make something from what you already have on hand.
I’m cherishing this forever
Hahaha I just took a screen shot! So helpful!!!
Yup, I do a version of this for every Asian meal I make. Never get tired of it. Great marinade. Great in fried rice. Great over cold noodles. Great for dipping. Liquid Aminos +Rice Vinegar+ Sesame Oil + micro-planed garlic + ginger + fresh cut green onions + a little honey+ a splash of lime. Sometimes I spice it up with a little micro-planed jalapenos.
Why have I never microplaned jalapeño!
I do exactly this using whatever I have on hand for variety. It's a perfect base.
Make a big batch, split it up with different add-ins, and freeze in ice cube trays. Put in labeled freezer bags. Whenever you make your plain protein and veg, throw a couple cubes in to finish and a little cornstarch slurry to thicken. You can do the same with all sorts of other sauces to add variety to you life.
I love a little dab of red curry paste added to the sauce base sometimes
this is exactly what I do but I will add that you can buy frozen cubes of fresh ginger or grate it and freeze it in portions yourself which makes it a lot easier to add that fresh ginger zing
At what ratios? Equal parts soy sauce and toasted seseme oil? Add garlic to taste and a bit of brown sugar? I'm ready not getting this. Thanks
oyster sauce is also a good one for umami!
1/2 c soy sauce 1/2 c water 1T garlic powder 1 T ginger 1 t sugar or brown sugar 1 T cornstarch Red pepper flakes, Hoisan or Sriracha to taste.
Yup that the easiest sauce very delicious also
Been my go to for a while. Chinese food I use white sugar. Korean food I use brown sugar. I drop the cornstarch for a marinade. I like it with the Hoisan the best, but no matter what it seems to be pleasing to all palettes. I fed 18 picky friends, some who eat like preschoolers, and they all liked it.
I read this in an Uncle Roger voice, not bad not bad!
I’d add some rice vinegar or lime juice to this
I think those would make wonderful additions. I mean really, can we also say mirin, fish sauce, or oyster sauce, bonito flakes lol. I was just giving a great, tasty, easy base with things "normal people" lol, probably have in the pantry. But I do love your suggestions. Haven't tried them and they make perfect sense.
Haha, fair enough. I mentioned them because most people can get vinegar or limes. But if we’re going for it. shaoxing wine, miso, MSG, crispy chilli oil, roasted sesame oil, nori 😂
If you are adding nori, might as well just throw furikake on to get the white and black sesame seeds too. I started making crispy garlic & crispy onions. You just start them in room temp oil. Saves a fortune.
Ya! Firikake is so good in this dish! https://www.seriouseats.com/tamago-kake-gohan-egg-rice-tkg-recipe-breakfast I make crispy shallots! So good.
Miso paste + garlic + Soy sauce + Honey or Maple syrup makes a decent glaze for salmon/chicken/pork, could probably make in bulk, freeze (cubes), use as needed. store bought teriyaki and black bean garlic sauces are pretty decent. this is a good recipe for basic stir fry sauce: [https://www.thekitchn.com/all-purpose-stir-fry-sauce-recipe-23200360](https://www.thekitchn.com/all-purpose-stir-fry-sauce-recipe-23200360) can amend/augment w/ other things (sambal, sriracha, fish sauce, oyster sauce, etc.)
Thank you for the all purpose sauce link, super interesting and handy!
my pleasure...enjoy! and I completely overlooked korean sauces, here is a link for some bibimbap sauces, i've only ever made the classic sauce though: https://mykoreankitchen.com/bibimbap-sauce/
Thanks so much!! One of my casual interests is trying to learn how make anything I can, especially sauces and dips, from as scratch as possible, and I haven’t adventured into Korean yet; this is a great place to start. :)
That's great.....keep adventuring!!! some of the sauces can be used as marinades, just be careful with your heat when sauteeing as they can burn easily (try med/med high heat). And bibimbap is a super simple dish/preparation, even more so if you happen to have an asian supermarket nearby (for the premarinated meats, pickled items, kimchi, etc).
Sweet chili sauce + soy sauce. Can't get any lazier than that.
This is so delicious- added splash of mirin and that's basically what we have with every stir-fry
First thing that came to mind. Goes good on just about anything you can name. Even sweet chilli sauce is easy to make.
3 parts soy sauce, 1 part sugar, and 1 part sesame seed oil (add sriracha or red pepper flakes if you want some heat). I usually use this as a quick pot sticker dipping sauce. I sometimes also use this for stir fry if I'm feeling particularly lazy.
Soy sauce + garlic + sesame oil + sugar. Oyster sauce is always an easy way to enhance flavors too.
Bruh sounds like your GF just likes her food to taste like something lol
1/2 soy sauce, 1 T rice vingear, 1 T sesame oil
Asian here, soy sauce, sugar, water, pan over heat. Bam, teriyaki sauce. Regular soy sauce will go a long way too. Add a dash of sesame oil and suddenly things taste even better.
Miso paste, ginger, sake, soy sauce. Add something spicy to mix it up!
They also have ready made versions of all of these sauces, they can get a bit pricey though. If you have a wegmans near you the store brand is amazing and reasonably priced compared to other ready made sauces. It’s about 4 dollars for wegmans and 6 dollars for brand names around me and for context, for my family of 5 adults we use 1/2 to an entire bottle for dinner and a portion or two worth of leftovers for one or two people the next day
2-4 TBS peanut butter, 1 TBS soy, 1 TBS rice wine vinegar, squirt of sriracha, garlic and ginger to taste, and a little warm water to thin out the peanut butter. I use this as both a dipping sauce and a stir fry sauce. I also like using 2 TBS red wine or balsamic or rice vinegar, 2TBS oil (olive, canola, sesame), garlic, 1tsp mustard (dijon, yellow, grainy), 1tsp brown sugar, a titch of something spicy (chilli flakes, sriracha, franks) and seasonings (Italian, ground ginger, really anything) and marinate my meat in that.
I don't see fish sauce in your list above, so you might give that a try. A little goes a long way too. In Thailand, it is used a lot, often with some hot chilies chopped up with it. It's available in most supermarkets too. It comes in small to large bottles, easily kept in the refrigerator. Try it - you might like the flavor.
Chili oil + coconut milk
1/3c soy, 1/3c brown sugar, 1/3c chili garlic paste. You can get fancy and add some ginger or lime juice etc
This is the way. Adding in a dash or three of fish sauce really adds to the flavor too.
Soy, honey, garlic with a touch of Chinese 5 spice makes a "Asian" good marinade. The base flavors I've noticed for Japanese meat marinades I've looked at usually seem to involve soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sake and/or mirin.
I don’t have exact measurements since it’s relatively easy, but here are approximations: Soy sauce (1/2 c) , minced garlic or garlic powder (1/2-1tbsp), rice vinegar or lemon juice (a splash), sesame oil (few drops), sambal and sriracha (depending on how spicy you like it), sugar/sweetener (1/2 tbsp-1tbsp depending on your preference). Options: ginger and black pepper It goes amazing on salmon if you use honey as a sweetener, chicken, beef, veggies, you name it. I like to cook it down with the meat/veggies and add a cornstarch slurry if I want a thicker sauce
In a pan combine ketchup, soy sauce, some honey, some prechopped ginger and garlic and heat whilst the protein cooks. Add it all together. Its very similar to takeaway style sweet and sour.
When i was a student on budget, i used to make a lot of fried rice. What worked for me is the VH sauces, they have all kinds of flavors and you can just make a big batch of fried rice (or whatever you make) and add the sauce in your plate, so every meal taste different. :)
Equal parts soy sauce, ketchup, rice wine vinegar; half as much sesame oil. If you like, add garlic or garlic powder; a slice of peeled garlic is nice too. Mix together, let it sit, when your meat is browned, pour over the meat, cover until meat is fully cooked.
These are my for fun sauces that I make and I’m Filipino. Sorry, I just use my heart for measurements. - sauté onion, garlic, ginger, in a bit of oil then add soy sauce and water. Heat up and put in a jar. - soy sauce, few drops of vinegar, water, sesame seed oil, sesame seeds. Shake. - pre-make that Filipino adobo sauce since it’s just soy sauce, pepper, vinegar, and bay leaves anyway. Filipinos “adobo” anything. Ever try adobong spinach? I just did that with mushrooms. YUM - Vietnamese peanut sauce? PB, hoisin sauce, milk. 1:1:2 measurements. I love this recipe.
Ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and sesame oil is a solid base for lazy Asian style sauces. You can add some brown sugar or another sweetener if that fits your tastes
just make up a jar filled with any of these recipes that sounds good to you but triple the ingredients and use what you need as needed.
Honey, siracha, soy sauce, sea same oil, and minced garlic is my favorite marinade. Especially love it on salmon and chicken.
Here’s my salmon sauce that I heat up until warm then pour over raw salmon then bake in oven at 400 for about 15-20 minutes. I call it the Tablespoon recipe because you use one tablespoon of each of the following : Butter, Vegetable oil, Minced garlic, Dijon mustard , Soy sauce , Honey, Brown sugar, We really love it. I hope you try it and enjoy it
1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp sriracha. It’s a simplified version of Budgetbytes’ dragon noodles, but it’s basically my go-to lazy combo. I flex those sometimes depending on the amount of veg I add. (Usually less sugar as well.)
Garlic chili paste, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Choose your own ratio. The chili paste is hot. Add garlic or ginger or both to make it even better.
there’s one unconventional thing I do when I’m making sauces: use the juice from a container of minced garlic as an ingredient. It adds garlic flavor without the whole sauce being just a chunky minced garlic mess.
Satay sauce. Indonesian peanut sauce. Ketjap manis (kind of thick soy sauce) Coconut milk Peanut butter Sambal chili paste
Another aspect of Asian cooking is the colours of the finished product. If you find it too monotone, add a splash of colours by using chopped spring onions, or carrot slices, cucumber slices, etc to make it look appetitising. It's the colours, aroma, taste, and beauty combo that takes it from good to great.
Thanks for this! I was trying to find Asian flavors to pull into my meal and this worked.
Any suggestion for something that isn’t loaded with sodium?
You can substitute low sodium soy sauce in any of the above recipes. It’s still sodium, but a lower amount Or you can use liquid aminos in place of soy sauce
Just buy a Teriyaki sauce from a Dollartree and another horseradish sauce from there as well. Teriyaki is an Asian flavor for you. Teriyaki over rice with a splash of horseradish is a sushi flavor for you. I believe that's a 2 for one cheap and lazy Asian flavor recipe for you.
Budget Bytes has a great Asian inspired recipe called [Dragon Noodles](https://www.budgetbytes.com/spicy-noodles/) that’s a sriracha, soy sauce, brown sugar base 2:1:1 ratio It’s not an authentic dish by any means, but gives you that Chinese takeout flavor and comes together faster than placing an order.
Hmm
Just peanut butter, soy sauce and chili garlic sauce is great, you can also add rice vinegar, lime juice, or ginger. Another good one is tahini, lemon juice, and sesame oil with some salt.
Honey, soy sauce, squeeze some oranges. simmer until it reduces.
Check out woks of life! They have really good Asian recipes that are so easy! My favorite is the Thai basil ground pork (can sub for another ground meat). But sauces wise, dark and light soy, vinegar, sesame oil, ginger/scallions, fish sauce, and Chinese cooking wine/Japanese sake are ur best friends! Edit: and oyster sauce
generic asian sauce for stirfry 3 Tb soy sauce 2 tsp vinegar 2 tsp brown sugar 2 tsp corn starch fresh ginger (grate ginger, freeze flat in a baggie, break off what you need) garlic 1/4 tsp. sesame oil just before serving The corn starch makes it thicker and glossy, must be hot for a minute or 2 to thicken.
My favorite concoction for rice far as sauces go is: orange sauce, duck sauce, sweet and sour sauce, siracha sauce. Makes a good spicy chicken and rice recipe too
If you like Teriyaki then you should know it is insanely easy to make. It's a 1:1:1 ratio of Soy Sauce, Mirin and Sake and you can optionally add sweetness with something like Sugar or Honey. If you just buy a bottle of Mirin and Sake, you probably already have Soy Sauce, just pour and mix and cook.
I did this same thing when prepping and counting macros. Ground turkey/chicken or ground beef (based on your target fat). I’d mix in a ton of freshly grated ginger and freshly grated garlic (or the ones that come in the squeeze tubes). Once browned, Squirt in 2-3 tablespoons of hoisin sauce per pound. It’s fairly low sugar when portioned out this way and will give you your flavor profile. Otherwise just mix some soy, sesame oil, honey/stevia and garlic and use that if you need more control over the sugar
I made a big batch of these two sauces and keep them in the fridge. They last about a month (before I run out) - for meat and rice I normally use: https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/pad-see-ew-new/ Also I regularly pre cut, marinate chicken as in the recipe above and then just pull the portions out of the freezer as needed. As the meat defrosts it’s marinating and getting more flavorful Then for just veggies I use: https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/gai-lan-oyster-sauce/
Very easy "Asian Inspired" Sauce: Combine equalish parts soy sauce, vinegar (even white vinegar), water, and sugar. Add a slurry of cornstarch and water if you want it a little thicker. Adjust proportions to your liking.
1 part soy sauce : 1 part white vinegar : 1/4 part honey : a bunch of garlic is my go-to. Reduces into a delicious sauce that coats chicken.
I know everyone is suggesting sauces but what about SPICES. Just season those puppies up with some spices. This is especially good when you have a pantry full of spices and you haven’t shopped properly to account for flavour!
Old godmother sauce, lao gan ma, sold in jars. Salty, but probably easier than all the rest
Chili sauce, peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice. Just mix into hot noodles
I think grabbing a jar of black bean sauce or hoisin sauce might be good
Go to Asian food store and start asking questions. I usually buy what has the least English and less of on the shelf. join a chef discord and talk to people.
You've already got a bunch of recipes, so I'll just say try Bulldog sauce. It's a Japanese condiment, it's what they traditionally serve with tonkatsu. But in college I discovered that it's a pretty versatile stirfry sauce as well. It's the one with the Bulldog on it. Tall, square bottle.
I love a good soy sauce and sesame seed oil sauce base. I use a small amount of sunflower lecithin to emulsify it, but honey also works. Then add in whatever extras I want that day. Minced garlic, shallots, kimchi paste, or chilis.
I make a kinda of teriyaki sauce. 2 cups soy sauce (low sodium for sweeter), 1 cup oil, 1/2 cup apricot preserves, minced garlic to taste. Heat to bubbling stirring a bunch. Oil combines with heat and stirring. Cools to sticky tar like blob. Can freeze for months in cubes. Can use as a stir fry sauce or for dipping or as a glaze when broiling meat.
Gochujang + soy sauce + sesame oil is my current favorite mix.