Updated on June 26th, 2022
Some of you may wonder how they make the brown sauces at the Chinese buffets. The truth is, there are many different ways to make a brown sauce and each of them is probably different in some way. Here is a pretty standard recipe for Chinese brown sauce that can be used with chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, etc. This is great for stir fry’s and I usually just coat chicken bits with a little corn starch, deep fry them and serve with this sauce. If you require some heat in your sauce try adding some red pepper flakes or chili paste.
Chinese Brown Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 garlic cloves (minced)
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon oil
Instructions
- In a bowl mix soy sauce, brown sugar, chicken broth, and corn starch. Make sure the mixture is well combined and set aside.
- Add 1 teaspoon of oil to a wok or saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and stir fry for 10 seconds.
- Add the chicken broth mixture and bring to a boil. Cook until the sauce becomes thickened and bubbly.
Thank you for the basic sauce recipe. Our fav restaurant closed and I miss the sauces!
This recipe looks definitely good and would love to try it, but what can replace the cornstarch with? Any tips? Thank you.
misstopaz – try replacing cornstarch with flour.
Just made this sauce for our stir-fry for dinner tonight. Loved it! Kids ranging in ages from 2-10 loved it. Husband loved it. Best brown sauce recipe I have found on web. I have tried a number of other recipes this one has been the most delicious. Thank you!!
I just made this recipe for the first time. I looked at a couple of other recipes before I chose this one. Since I love baby corns in brown sauce, I wanted to make them at home, since buying them from a chinese restaurant gets expensive. I bought a can of baby corns at the grocery store, and the recipe was a success! I had to add 2 extra tablespoons of corn starch though, because I felt the sauce was not becoming as thick as I wanted it to. The recipe tasted just like the chinese restaurant’s baby corns. I will definitely be using this recipe again.
This sauce made Dad’s Chinese chicken, broccoli and rice a huge hit! This is my third time making in a week and a half!!!!! Great sauce the kids have now put this in the weekly dinner rotation!!!!!
Thank you for this. I saw many recipes online and this was the most simple – but tasted EXACTLY like I was looking for. I was trying to recreate a dish I had at a sushi restaurant by my house and it turned out fantastic. I know I can improve a bit and learned a lot from this first time trying to make this.
Pan seared sea bass with Chinese brown sauce, scallions, jalapenos, and bamboo shoots. Served with white rice.
Just tried this for the first time… this was my first attempt at a brown sauce… good but to much sugar. i would start low on the sugar and work your way up
I tried this recipe tonight and it was a hit! Tasted very close to my fave Chinese restaurant. I did, however, added 3 tbsp of cornstarch because 1 tbsp was not the thickness I was looking for. This recipe is a keeper. Thanks for sharing.
Replace corn starch with arrowroot
Just made this. Its actually pretty good! Added a tad bit more cornstarch for a thicker consistency.
Thanks so much. I love this sauce but most restaurants oreoare it too sweet for my taste, is there a difference between this sauce and garlic sauce?
Diane – I believe this would be very similar to garlic sauce, but I am not positive.
try using oyster sauce rather than the soy. It have a little thicker consistance. Also has a little better flavor than soy..
Great sauce! Tried it today and it tastes so good
What do I add to make it a bit spicy
You could try adding some crushed red pepper flakes, maybe about 1/2 teaspoon.
Why is chicken broth used and not beef broth? Or does it really matter?
I have not tried this with beef broth but it should work in its place.