If you’ve ever had potstickers at a restaurant you’ve probably tried the slightly tangy soy-based sauce that is typically served on the side. This pot sticker sauce is a version of that savory sauce.
The great thing about this sauce is that it’s so versatile. While you can use it for all sorts of Asian-inspired recipes you can also substitute it for traditional dipping sauces for other cuisines, as well.
Homemade Pot Sticker Sauce
This potsticker sauce recipe is also easy to make. It has only a handful of ingredients and it’s super simple to whip up on the fly.
Whether you want to use this sauce as a dipping sauce or as a marinade it’s sure to be a hit at the dinner table. And while you can certainly find frozen potstickers and other dumplings at most grocery stores, if you’re looking for a homemade recipe to serve with this sauce, check out these authentic Chinese dumplings.
What is Pot Sticker Sauce?
Pot sticker sauce is a flavorful dipping sauce used with Asian dumplings, also known as potstickers. The base of this savory sauce is soy sauce that is then seasoned with sugar, rice vinegar, green onions, garlic, and ginger.
This sauce is an ideal accompaniment to dumplings because its earthy ingredients, slight spice, and vinegary zing complement the ground pork (and sometimes other meats) and vegetables traditionally found in potstickers.
Ingredients
- Low-sodium soy sauce – You can use the sodium free soy sauce or full sodium sauce instead, but I find that the low sodium sauce has the ideal level of salty flavor for this recipe.
- Water – You can add more of less of this to your pot sticker sauce to achieve your desired consistency.
- Seasoned rice vinegar – Rice vinegar adds an element of acidity to the sauce.
- Fresh scallions (green onions) – Cut these onions diagonally for a pretty presentation.
- Garlic clove – Mince or grate the garlic so that it is small and mixes well in the sauce.
- Brown sugar – I prefer to use light brown sugar but you can use dark brown sugar instead if you want a richer, sweeter sauce.
- Fresh ginger – Mince or grate the ginger to ensure there aren’t any large pieces in the sauce.
How to Use Pot Sticker Sauce
While this is named Pot Sticker Sauce, there are lots of other savory foods to pair it with besides pot stickers. Since it’s essentially a heavily seasoned soy sauce, it can be substituted for soy sauce in a variety of dishes.
- Marinade – Marinate meats or seafood before roasting or grilling.
- Dipping Sauce – Use pot sticker sauce as a dipping sauce for egg Rolls, shumai, or gyoza.
- Hibachi – Serve this sauce in a small bowl alongside a hibachi dinner as a dip for meat, seafood, or vegetables.
- Fried rice – Finish your fried rice by pouring in a bit of this sauce just before serving.
- Stir-fry – Sauce the veggies and meats in a stir fry with this condiment.
- Shabu-shabu – Serve potsticker sauce with this traditional Japanese hotpot dish.
- Ramen – Add an extra layer of flavor by adding this sauce to your ramen.
- Shrimp cocktail – Switch up this classic appetizer by serving this sauce instead of (or in addition to) cocktail sauce.
- Dim sum – Serve up a variety of Asian inspired appetizers like dumplings, scallion pancakes, and bao buns alongside this sauce.
Are Ponzu Sauce and Pot Sticker Sauce the Same?
Both sauces incorporate soy sauce and an element of sweetness, and they can be used to accompany similar foods. However, these two sauces are not the same.
Ponzu sauce has a citrusy component imparted by kabosu, sudachi, and/or yuzu. Meanwhile, pot sticker sauce has an earthier flavor from the inclusion of ginger.
Variations
- Heat – If you’re a fan of spicy food, heat up your sauce by adding a couple of teaspoons of chili garlic sauce, harissa sauce, Sriracha sauce, or crushed red pepper flakes.
- Sesame – Add a small amount of sesame oil or toasted sesame seeds. If you use the oil, do know that it will not emulsify with the vinegar, but it is still delicious.
- Spice – Chinese Five Spice Powder — a bold blend of cinnamon, fennel seed, star anise, and cloves — will add depth to the sauce.
- Sugar – Use white sugar instead of brown for a different type of sweetness in your sauce.
- Citrus – To brighten the sauce, or change the flavor so that it is closer to that of a ponzu sauce, add a bit of juice from a citrus fruit.
- Vinegar – If you don’t have rice vinegar handy you can try using white wine vinegar instead. Additionally, depending on how acidic you like your sauce you can use more or less vinegar.
Storage, Make Ahead and Freezing
This pot sticker sauce is easy to store in both the refrigerator and freezer.
Make ahead: You can make this sauce ahead and store it in the refrigerator in a sealed container like a mason jar or place it in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Heat it up on the stovetop over medium heat or in the microwave — or serve it at room temperature.
Refrigerator: Store this sauce in the refrigerator for up to 7 days in an airtight container.
Freezing: It’s easiest to store this sauce in an ice cube tray in the freezer. You can leave it in the tray or place frozen cubes in ziploc bags.
More Savory Sauces
Ranchero Sauce
Tiger Sauce Recipe
Cilantro Sauce Recipe
Pot Sticker Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon scallions green onions, cut diagonally
- 1 large garlic clove minced or grated
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger minced or grated
Instructions
- Combine the soy sauce, water, vinegar, scallions, garlic, brown sugar and ginger in a small saucepan, whisking to combine until sugar dissolves.
- Heat over low heat for 10 minutes.
- Remove and serve.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was in the comments or star ratings.
Oh my goodness, this is perfect for me. I never have enough dipping sauce but with this recipe I can make it anytime I want.
This sauce is so tasty and easy to make. We often heat up the frozen potstickers for an easy weeknight meal, and this sauce is the perfect accompaniment.
Drooling over this delicious sauce recipe. Thanks a lot for sharing.
it was so flavorful and on spot. My friends loved this sauce with dumplings and I will make this again for sure.
I really enjoyed this sauce! It had just the right amount of all of the flavors. Next time, I’m going to double the recipe so I can have more!
How much is “1/2 water”? Half a cup, tablespoon, teaspoon??
1/2 cup- sorry we will fix that!
I thought this was very good; has the right amount of sweetness, lighter than straight soy sauce. I think this would be a great on other things such as rice or vegetables.