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The Best Sweet and Sour Sauce has only 5 ingredients and is ready in minutes! This super easy recipe can be served alongside some of your favorite meals!
You need a Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe in your arsenal. Not only is it delicious, but it is also a very versatile sauce, and you can use it in many different ways!
HERE IS WHAT OUR READERS ARE SAYING:
“I normally don’t comment on recipes I find but I had to on this one. I have use ALOT of different recipes for sweet and sour sauce that I find on the internet. This recipe is FAR the best I have ever made. Great taste and Great color too. I will definitely stick with this one.” – Dianne
Use it as a dipping sauce or a glaze stirred into some of your favorite dishes. It’s a great copycat Chinese takeout recipe that you can make at home.
Like I said this sweet and sour recipe is super versatile and you can pretty much use it in or with anything that you want to have a sweet and sour taste to it.
Sweet and Sour Chicken is obviously a huge staple at your local Chinese Restaurant, and this is the perfect copycat!
All that sweet and tangy flavor, and thickened with a cornstarch slurry, you will totally impress your guests with this one!
Just think of all the things you can do with it! Sweet and sour pork, dip your chicken nuggets, sweet and sour meatballs, stir fry, crab rangoons… The list goes on!
If you are a fan of homemade sauces instead of store-bought then this Sweet and Sour Sauce is one that you need to keep on hand, not only because it’s delicious but because it’s just simple.
Some of our favorite sauce recipes on our site include: Homemade BBQ Sauce, Easy Homemade Tartar Sauce and Homemade Mayonnaise.
Jump to:
- WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- INGREDIENTS NEEDED (SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST FOR THE FULL RECIPE CARD):
- HOW TO MAKE SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE:
- FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS RECIPE:
- HOW DO I THICKEN SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE?
- ALTERNATIVES AND ADD-INS:
- WHAT CAN I USE THIS SAUCE IN/FOR?
- HOW DOES IT GET ITS RED COLOR?
- HOW TO STORE:
- DANA’S TIPS AND TRICKS:
- Homemade Easy Sweet and Sour Sauce
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- With minimal ingredients and 5 minutes, this is super easy.
- Double this recipe to have more on hand for other dishes.
- This can be used in or with so many different foods.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST FOR THE FULL RECIPE CARD):
Cornstarch Slurry
HOW TO MAKE SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE:
- In a small saucepan, add the sugar, vinegar, and water.
- Place over medium heat, whisking constantly until sugar is melted. Add the ketchup whisk to combine.
- In a small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and water to make a slurry. Bring the vinegar mixture to a slow boil, slowly stream in the cornstarch slurry while whisking constantly until it thickens to your liking. You may not use it all.
- Cook until thickened, about 30 seconds. Let the sauce cool, or not. Serve.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS RECIPE:
HOW DO I THICKEN SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE?
Use a cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce plus a little time boiling.
If the recipe is not as thick as you want it to be you can add a little more of the slurry at a time until you reach your desired thickness.
ALTERNATIVES AND ADD-INS:
This super simple sauce has only five ingredients.
However, you can still make it your own by adding a few things!
A few dashes of hot sauce or sriracha would be SO good. Or, even some sweet chili paste would go wonderfully in this sauce.
Or, even a pinch of chili flakes or star anise would be good too! Add a dash of Chinese 5 spice for an unexpected twist.
Add even more sweet and sour flavors with some fresh pineapple juice! Isn’t Asian cuisine fun?
WHAT CAN I USE THIS SAUCE IN/FOR?
This is great as a dipping sauce, a glaze, or even mixed into recipes.
Some of our favorite recipes to use this with include:
There are many more uses for this great recipe, but these are some of the more frequent recipes that we use it with!
HOW DOES IT GET ITS RED COLOR?
In our easy homemade sweet and sour sauce, we use ketchup, which not only adds a lot of flavor but also gives it its signature red color.
A lot of other recipes and restaurants will add red food coloring to it, but thankfully we found a way around that!
HOW TO STORE:
This can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.
This can also be frozen, placed in a freezer container, and kept in the freezer for up to 3 months.
To defrost, remove to the refrigerator overnight until thawed.
You can reheat it in the microwave or on the stovetop if you want it warm.
DANA’S TIPS AND TRICKS:
- You can thicken this to your liking, and add more of the slurry for a thicker consistency.
- This versatile condiment can be served with various different dishes, see some of my favorites above.
- Try it on different things to find your favorite food. Veggies are a perfect example!
- Double this recipe to serve more people or to keep it on hand for later use.
- This can be frozen, see above on how to do that.
Love a good homemade sauce that is just like your favorite takeout?
Then you absolutely must make our Sweet and Sour Sauce!
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
Tried this recipe for SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE? Let me know how it turned out in the comments! You can follow me over on PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM OR FACEBOOK to find some more of our mouthwatering recipes!
Homemade Easy Sweet and Sour Sauce
Ingredients
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup white vinegar
- ⅔ cup water
- 2 ½ tablespoons ketchup
Cornstarch Slurry:
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, add the sugar, vinegar, and water.¾ cup granulated sugar, ⅓ cup white vinegar, ⅔ cup water
- Place over medium heat, whisking constantly until sugar is melted. Add the ketchup whisk to combine.2 ½ tablespoons ketchup
- In a small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and water to make a slurry. Bring the vinegar mixture to a slow boil, slowly stream in the cornstarch slurry while whisking constantly until it thickens to your liking. You may not use it all.3 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons water
- Cook until thickened, about 30 seconds. Serve.
Video
Notes
- You can thicken this to your liking, and add more of the slurry for a thicker consistency.
- This versatile condiment can be served with various different dishes, see some of my favorites above.
- Try it on different things to find your favorite food. Veggies are a perfect example!
- Double this recipe to serve more people or to keep it on hand for later use.
- This can be frozen, see above on how to do that.
Nutrition
Love This Recipe?
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Yasss!! Making this to dip everything in!!!! Thanks!!!
YES! Give me everything sauce! Totally versatile and way better than buying at the store! Thanks!
I have used this recipe many times for sweet & sour chicken, for Egg Rolls and anything else I want to dip it this great sauce. I tried other recipes but they don’t comapre with this. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much, I feel the same way hehe!
This recipe was super easy and super good!
awesome recipe
This is great. If you want a little kick add red pepper flakes after removing from stove.
how long does this keep in the fridge for?
This would keep for at least a week. I would heat it up first before reusing.
I did that too. It was good. Trying to creat Szchewann style.
The best DIY sweet and sour sauce ever!!
Made this tonight to go with home made chicken tenders- so yummy, definately make this again 🤪
Absolutely amazing sauce!
Definitely 5 star worthy
Nailed it!!! I had doubts with the simplicity of this recipe, but it’s great! I like a thinner sauce, so I added a little water at the end. Next time, I’ll reduce the cornstarch a little. I also added 2 drops of red food coloring, only because my kids love the pink sauce at our favorite Chinese take-away. The flavor was spot on!! I’ve tried several others before I found this one, and it’s a perfect imitation of our fav. Love it!!
Awesome Love the fact there isn’t any salt.
Excellent recipe didn’t change a thing, thanks for sharing,
LOVED IT! This is just like restaurant Sweet and Sour Sauce. Thank you!
We cooked up some sweet and sour cut pork ribs with seasonung salt and garlic on the bbq. Doubled this recipe, chopped up the ribs and threw it into a 300° f oven for 2 hours . Added sliced onion and yellow pepper for the last few minutes. AMAZING. Would totally recommend.
Wonderful, I doubled which I will freeze. Easy recipe, will save this. Thanks.
This is the easiest, tastiest Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe ever!
BEST Sweet and Sour Sauce EVER. This one’s a keeper
Told ya so.
Thank you for an easy delicious recipe!
So glad you liked it!!
I couldn’t find any sweet-and-sour sauce at the store, so I looked up this recipe and I can’t believe how amazing and delicious it is. So easy and fast I can’t wait for my husband to try it. He has to have sweet-and-sour sauce on his stirfry. thank you so much for sharing.
You’re so welcome, glad you loved it!!
Thank you so much for this recipe! So easy, so quick, so delicious!! I never buy store-bought S&S sauce any more; why would you when you can make a batch of this in a few minutes for pennies? Love it!
Totally agree, we never buy it, only use this recipe. I’m so glad you love it too!
Wow, fun recipe. Thank you for good ratios and great instructions. I’m always fiddling with recipes so, of course, I made changes here. I didn’t have ketchup, so I used about half as much gojuchang paste. Added a little bit of salt to make up for what would have been in the ketchup. And grated in some fresh ginger to taste.
Sounds delicious!
Legit sweet and sour sauce. Quick, easy, and good!
Thank you!
This was amazing!! Thank you so much for sharing. The only question I have is in your picture it is a bright red, but although it tastes great mine wasn’t the beautiful bright red. Can you recommend any thing?
You could add a little food coloring if you like! It is more of an orangey red; the photos may appear more saturated due to photo editing.
Super easy and extremely delicious 😋!!!
I want to make this sweet and sour but what is a cup all cups are different sizes can you advise but weight
1 cup is always the same, it is 8 ounces. So, if a recipe calls for 1 cup it will always be the same weight- 8 ounces. This recipe calls for 3/4 cup of granulated sugar, 1/3 cup white vinegar, 2/3 cup water – the other ingredients are in tablespoons. You will need to measure these by volume, not weight. If you have different sizes of measuring cups, these measurements will be listed on each one.
I love how easy this recipe is. This also tastes like the sauce you get in the restaurant. This is a keeper.
Good and easy recipe. I subbed pineapple juice for water and added 2 T soy sauce.
Followed the recipe exactly as written. It was absolutely delicious and turned out perfect! We served it on meatballs over rice for a quick and easy dinner.
This is the third sweet and sour sauce I’ve made in the past month – by far the best! I added some red pepper flakes. Had it with chicken and egg rolls. Delicious!
This recipe for x3 is a lie. I made it exact and it ruined my whole dinner
It is the correct ratios, what was wrong with it?
Love how simple this recipe is. I did end up adding a tablespoon of pineapple juice. Tasted really good. A bit sweet but not too bad.
This really is the easiest & best sauce. I use A lot if silly girl’s recipes and they’re all easy and tasty.
That’s so sweet, thank you!
Very good recipe and easy to make..
Enjoyed my visit here so much I asked to be put on your mailing list !!!
Thank you so much !!
Donna Z.
Amazing flavor and so easy to make!!
Made this tonight and it was delicious. I did use a little less sugar (1/2 cup) as we are trying to cut down on sugar. Would have been perfect as a dipping sauce, but I wanted it thinner to pour over rice and shrimp so I thinned it with water. Next time I will use less slurry if making for sweet and sour shrimp or use pineapple juice to thin since it did affect the flavor after adding the extra water. I will definitely make this again. I am trying to do more cooking from scratch so I can control the ingredients. Thanks for this recipe to help me with that.
Wasn’t so sure about this sauce and I really don’t like sweet and sour sauce, but we made egg rolls. This was so good and we made it just like the recipe. Very good and very fast to make.
This was not really for me. The amount of cornstarch listed in the recipe made the sauce waaaay too thick to my taste. More gloopy than a sauce. And the balance of sweet to sour feels off for my taste. The whole thing ends up tasting horribly sweet.
OMG, soooooo good! The hubby loves it too! Thanks for this one!!!!
So simple yet so good.
This is by far the easiest recipe and best tasting sweet and sour sauce we have had since 2019. Takes just like the restaurants.
I doubled it and followed the directions. It was perfect. I did use the suggestion of the pineapple juice at the end someone mentioned and added pineapple tidbits –
This thickened up way too much. I had to add more vinegar and water plus some more ketchup. Then I added more sugar/water. It is a good base for this recipe.
Thank you for posting it
My family loved it. Won’t be buying sauce in a jar again. Was so simple to make. Excellent!
Absolute best sweet and sour recipe!
I normally don’t comment on recipes I find but I had to on this one. I have use ALOT of different recipes for sweet and sour sauce that I find on the internet. This recipe is FAR the best I have ever made. Great taste and Great color too. I will definitely stick with this one.
Sooooo amazing I personally like half as much ketchup than what it calls for. I like that the longer you heat it the more it will thicken so pull it off heat just before it’s the thickness you want. I chose to use classic monk fruit sugar in place of regular sugar. it’s delicious and diabetic friendly along with good immunity properties in monk fruit.
So simple with simple ingredients and a remarkable flavor
Thanks for the recipe. It was fantastic! Although I cut back on the cornstarch. It is definitely a keeper! I made sweet and sour chicken with a tempura batter.
Nice Info
It was very ketchup-y.
I’ve made a similar sauce using apricot jam, which came out very well.
Super easy! Taste better than bottled.
Flavor is good but WAY too thick. I thought “man that’s a lot of cornstarch slurry for this amount of liquid… but decided to trust the recipe thinking “It can’t be too bad. Right?” Big mistake. I could hardly dip in this sauce it was so thick!
The recipe should say “Add cornstarch slurry in small amounts while whisking UNTIL desired consistency is achieved.”
That tip was in the notes, but I updated the recipe.
Subbed pineapple juice for the water. Came out marvelous
Thanks
Great so easy, don’t think I will buy a jar again thanks
I replaced the water with pineapple juice from a can of tidbits. I also added one extra spoonful of ketchup for darker color and used monk sugar. Absolutely delicious.
Easy and tastes like the restaurants. Thanks
I am the queen of Pinterest fails, but this recipe actually turned out exactly the way I hoped it would. My kids are very picky about their sauce being too sweet or too sour. This was just right. Great recipe!
Wow! Really easy and really good. I added1/2 tea of sesame oil, but it would be good without it too.
This recipe was great! Super easy and made the perfect sweet and sour sauce like we get from our local Chinese restaurant! Love it!
Taste great and easy to make.
Made it for the first time..perfect thickness and tasted delicious
Thanks for the recipe
Excellent & approved by my whole family!
I found this when shopping for a sweet-and-sour sauce and every review was terrible so I couldn’t decide which one to get. I decided I’d rather try making my own than buying something everybody that was terrible!
I added a couple squirts of Sriracha and had a bowl of warm pineapple tidbits available for each person to add if they desired; everything else was exactly by the recipe!!
Very good for my egg rolls
I really liked this sauce. Had some leftover breaded sweet and sour chicken, but the sauce was gone, so I needed something I could make quick. I actually made it in the microwave, and microwaved between adding in the ingredients.
Made this tonight for a stir fry and WOW!! This is really, really good! Thank you!
Not overly fond of leftover pork chops.
Made this.
Sweet and sour pork chops and rice.
Thank you! This is a keeper!
Excellent!!!!
My daughter didn’t even know it was homemade! She thought I bought that yummy sweet and tangy sauce from our local Asian restaurant. WIN!
I have tried many different recipes but none I would serve to company until now. This sweet and sour sauce is the best ever! So easy, making it and saying it is homemade gets compliments. I used fake sugar and will continue to do so.*****
Easy peasy and delicious. I made if for crispy chicken wings. Loved it
I made this tonight to go on my Spring Rolls. It is amazing sauce. I like it better than any other sweet-n-sour sauce I’ve ever had! Better than the restaurants because I get the thickness I want with the wonderful flavor! Thank you for providing this recipe online.
I made a shrimp rice stir fry. looked up your sweet and sour recipe
It was wonderful. So easy and fast to make. we used almost all the
first batch so made a second for future use. thanks so much
Loved the recipe. Used Korean BBQ sauce instead of ketchup.
Too much scrolling to find recipe card.
Thank you for your feedback. Where do you recommend we put it to make it a better customer experience?
My hubby has never been a fan of sweet and sour sauce. I’ve been experimenting with egg rolls. When I made this recipe for sauce…. HE LOVED IT!!!! Today I’m making egg rolls and he made sure to ask if I was making the same sweet and sour sauce! Hands down, easy to make and SUPER DELICIOUS!!! It’s hard to get him to try new things. Usually, I just make it and, of course, he eats and raves about the meals he eats. Again, SUPER DELICIOUS!!! Thanks for sharing!!!
Thank you for your feedback. We are grateful.
OFF THE CHAIN! SO SIMPLE AND YUMMY! I added a dollop of ginger, a tiny bit more ketchup and rice vinegar in place of white. Didn’t need all of the slurry but almost. Your encouraging words to tweak your recipe had me feeling brave! Lol! Thank you! PERFECTION!
This brings me so much joy!!! Thank you for sharing your additions and your success story,
It was great. I added mango and pineapple to it .
Clever really like the pineapple idea – thank you for sharing.
Absolute winner – I was beyond surprised, The ratios were perfect – not alteration needed.
Thank you so much Ricardo!!!!
I made sweet and sour sauce and I will not be buying it ever again this is a wonderful recipe . You should give it a try.
I have and we have a youtube video of me and my daughter going over the recipe that we are releasing on Sunday. Please check out https://www.youtube.com/@ThisSillyGirlsKitchen we are starting to turn these recipies into videos that my daughter and I turn into videos. It is the best quality time I have with her. Such a blessing.
Way too many ads!!! Nearly gave up!
Thank you for your feedback we are working on that.
Made this in a pinch, very good and easy… Kicked it up a notch with about 1 1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce. Absolutely will make again.
Thank you for letting us know – so happy it worked out so well that you will make it again. Have a blessed day!