Despite its name, my All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce isn’t just for stir-fries. Try it, and you’ll see that it’s amazing on EVERYTHING. Plus, it’s gluten-free, soy-free, Whole30-compatible, and tastes authentically delicious!
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The one sauce to rule them all!
I’ll admit, though, that I came up with this recipe for our second cookbook, Ready or Not!, after struggling to find an easy, consistent way to whip up quick weeknight stir-fries. Having grown up in my mom’s kitchen, I’m well aware that Asian stir-fries are among the fastest and easiest meals one can prepare in a pinch. But while my mom can sense by sight and feel how to season her stir-fries, I’m not my mother. As a mere mortal, I had to come up with a pre-mixed stir-fry sauce to make spur-of-the-moment cooking as easy as possible.
It took weeks of testing and tweaking before I came up with this delicious concoction: A perfect liquid blend of savory, sweet, and tangy that instantly flavors up your stir-fries.
Best of all, this sauce can be made lickety-split.
How to use All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce
But that’s not all! It turns out that my All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce is amazingly versatile, too: It works as a crazy-good salad dressing (did you see how I used it for my Paleo Hiyashi Chūka?), a marinade for meats and veggies, a braising liquid for all sorts of Instant Pot stews, and even a dipping sauce for skewers, roasted vegetables, or my famous Wonton Meatballs!
Need more ideas, check out this ever-growing collection of recipes that use it and this post on How To Use All-Purpose Stir-Fry.)
For a while, I debated whether to post this recipe on my blog—after all, it’s one of my super-secret cookbook recipes, and one of my hands-down favorites in my new book. But hey: IT’S THE SEASON FOR GIVING, right? I decided to share this recipe as a holiday gift, and as an early kick-off present to support your New Year’s resolutions!
Plus, I figure you’ll still want more nomtastic recipes like this one, right? If so, don’t forget to grab my cookbooks Ready or Not! and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! Both feature delicious recipes that utilize All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce!
Ingredients
- Coconut aminos: The combination of coconut aminos and fish sauce is my preferred soy sauce substitute!
- Fresh orange juice: I love the smidge of sweetness and tang that orange juice adds to this sauce. If you don’t like orange juice, pineapple juice also works. If you want to leave it out, you’ll need to taste and adjust the amount of rice vinegar or add some sweetener to balance out the acidity.
- Red Boat fish sauce: Fish sauce is essential for this sauce! If you are allergic to fish, you can make my vegan fish sauce.
- Rice vinegar
- Garlic powder: Don’t use fresh garlic in this sauce because it will make it go bad faster. Plus, you can always add fresh garlic to the dish you are cooking with the sauce!
- Ginger powder: Don’t use fresh ginger in this sauce because it contains an enzyme that can make raw protein mushy and it will make the sauce go bad faster.
- Toasted sesame oil (optional)
How to make All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce
Combine all of the ingredients in a small jar.
Cover it tightly with a lid, and shake well to incorporate before using.
This sauce keeps in the refrigerator for up to a week in the fridge or frozen. Don’t forget to shake well again before using it!
As I mentioned, All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce can be used to liven up just about any meal of protein and veggies, including some of my best recipes in Ready or Not!, like Paper-Wrapped Chicken and Asparagus Beef. Through the years, I’ve used this indispensable sauce in a bunch of recipes on this blog and in my yellow and green cookbooks. This incredible flavor booster is always in my fridge so I can easily whip up all types of quick and easy dishes!
Frequently Asked Questions
No problem! My All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce can be made with pineapple juice if you can’t do orange juice. (Shh! Don’t tell anyone, but some of my readers actually prefer it with pineapple juice!)
You can totally leave it out, but you’ll need to adjust the amount of rice vinegar to balance the flavors. Alternatively, you can sub out the rice vinegar for aged balsamic vinegar to add a bit of sweetness.
Yes! Just remember to read your labels carefully for non-compatible ingredients (e.g. sweetener, etc.), especially on the fish sauce and rice vinegar.
Yes! Fish sauce adds an indescribable deliciousness (a.k.a. umami) to the sauce! (You’ve already listened to my podcast dedicated to umami, right?) Look—if you have a fish allergy, FINE—you can leave out the fish sauce and add more coconut aminos and some salt to compensate, but it won’t taste quite the same, I’m afraid. Alternatively, I have a Vegan Fish Sauce recipe, which is also on page 28 of our green cookbook, Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go!, and you can use it in place of the fish sauce in this recipe.
You can make an arrowroot slurry by whisking ½ cup All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce with 1 to 2 teaspoons of arrowroot powder. The sauce should thicken as soon as you bring it to a simmer. If you like a thicker sauce, add more arrowroot powder.
It’ll last in a tightly sealed container in the fridge for at least a week. And yes, you can definitely freeze the sauce for up to several months. I normally freeze the All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce in ice cube molds so I can pop out a cube when I need it. Don’t worry if your frozen All-Purpose Stir-Fry sauce isn’t completely solid and kind of slushy, the high solute content of the sauce may keep it from doing so.
I like to use a pint-size (16 ounce) glass mason jar or larger to make store this sauce. I also label the jar with painter’s tape and write the date I made the sauce.
Yes! I use it all the time in inventive ways and as a shortcut to deliciousness and have lots of recipes that use itin my yellow and green cookbooks, Ready or Not! and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! I also have an ever-growing of recipes that use All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce listed here.
Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013), Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017), and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2022).
PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE CARD
All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup coconut aminos
- ½ cup fresh orange juice
- ¼ cup Red Boat fish sauce or my Vegan Fish Sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons ginger powder
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil optional
Instructions
- Combine all of the ingredients in a small jar. Cover it tightly with a lid, and shake well to incorporate before using.
- This sauce keeps in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Don’t forget to shake well again before using it!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Thanks, Michelle. What a GREAT Christmas present! 🙂
Have you ever tried freezing this? Might be cool to have a stock sitting in the freezer easy to quickly thaw out.
I haven’t, but I bet you can freeze it in ice cube molds!
Thank you for sharing! I love your recipes. Is there a substitute if I don’t, say, love fish sauce?
It’s tough to replicate the flavor of fish sauce. There’s a vegetarian fish sauce recipe from America’s Test Kitchen: https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/6610-making-a-vegetarian-substitute-for-fish-sauce (Just use coconut aminos in place of soy sauce in the recipe.)
Thank you for asking this. I know many of the recipes use it, but I can’t handle the fish sauce. The smell or flavor. I wish she would put an alternative as not everyone likes fish sauce.
I have a vegan fish sauce recipe in our new cookbook, Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go.
Is it ok to use fresh garlic and fresh ginger? How much of both would you add? Will it mess with the spoil date?
I think it will mess with the spoil date. I actually add fresh ginger and garlic to the stir-fry when I’m cooking it!
Is there substitute for rice vinegar?
Balsamic vinegar and apple cider vinegar also work!
Geezus, 1/4 cup fish sauce? I’d start with 1 or at most 2 tbsp and then increase a little at a time while tasting every addition. For people not used to fish sauce, I’d be on the conservative side and work my way up, lol.
Nope. You gotta trust and believe.
The recipe is a o good the way it is! Love your cookbook.
Touche, it’s a great combination of ingredients. Red Boat is a little lighter than other fish sauces, so I promise to give the recipe a try as it is written. Thanks for the encouragement.
I thought the same, especially as I haven’t been a fan of fish sauce in the past. But I tried it as written and it is AMAZING! Thank you Michelle for this hack!
I agree 100 per cent.
I resisted using it, ( just the thought, the smell, etc. turned me off) But Michelle’s recipes are phenomenal, so I tried it….. what I found was, I didn’t taste it smell it, nada….. but everything
Tasted better. I’m doing AIP right now (bland, bland, bland). I have to try to liven it up…. And my go to trick is 1-2 tsp.
of Red Boat Fish sauce
(Enhances all the flavors) and Co Co Aminos for a salt taste,
and the Mexican trick of a quarter lime. Livens up every meal with protein.
On another note, I have frozen the stir fry sauce
In soft bottom I e cube trays, with a sliding cover lid found on Amazon. Pop out only what you need. There are larger ones available that I use for
Chicken broth and beef broth, when u don’t need a full can or carton. Hey Michelle,
With AIP, what would U substitute Sesame Seed
oil with……which I LOVE…. But can’t use….. also…. A big ask…. Wish U could share some AIP alternative recipes!!!!!!
In all your spare time!
Just kidding……
It’s delicious exactly how it is. You get a lot with this recipe. I often halve it, and it’s still quite a bit. So the 1/4 cup is not for one dinner, it’s spread out over several. And it’s balanced beautifully by the other ingredients.
Can you use liquid aminos instead of coconut aminos?
I made it using liquid aminos and it was very salty and needed to be diluted down. Otherwise it was very tasty. Not sure if coconut aminos is less salty. Will have to put that on my shopping list and give it another try.
Coconut aminos are sweeter!
Tried it again using coconut aminos, but forgot to get some oranges for juice. Used lemon juice instead but only half the amount and was ready to use some apple juice to sweeten. The lemon juice worked fine and I love the flavor. Next time I’ll make it with orange juice! Great recipe, my husband loves it!
Thanks lisa…I was JUST wondering if some lemon juice w/a bit of sweetener (honey or monk fruit etc) would work. I’ll def try it w/orange when I remember to buy one, but I’m going to give Lemon a whirl!
Woot! I need a good stir fry sauce. Thanks for this!
Is there anything that can be used in place of fish sauce? I have anaphylaxis reaction to fish and shellfish.
I love this for both marinating meats and stir frys. My MIL is sensitive to citrus, do you have a suggestion to substitute the orange juice?
Pineapple juice!