The Ultimate Guide To East Asian Sauces

East Asian cuisine is incredibly vast, diverse, and full of regional variation. If you love eating food that originating from this part of the world, you'll know how flavor-packed dishes can be, often with a touch of sweetness, saltiness, acidity, umami, (even some pleasant bitterness), or all of the above in a perfect balance. Sauces play a big role in much of the cooking and eating, and often add the final touch or work as the base for a dish. 

If you find yourself in the condiments and sauces aisle of an Asian grocery store, it can be overwhelming if you don't know what's what. There may be hundreds of different sauces, but even different types (and of course different brands) of the same sauce. Not to fear, once you know what type of cuisine you want to cook, or at least familiarize yourself with the uses and flavors of the basics, you'll know what to reach for — and even make yourself.

As a culinary-trained cook and recipe developer, I've had the privilege of working with chefs from East Asia or with East Asian heritage, who have shown me the ropes. Understanding these sauces has taken my cooking to the next level — as it can for you too. Here is the ultimate guide to get you started with East Asian sauces (and some Southeast Asian ones too).

Any list of East Asian sauces would be incomplete without soy sauce. It's one of the oldest condiments, and one of the most common sauces across East Asia. It's used in multiple ways and multiple dishes, and there are various different types of soy sauce that you may not be aware of. Depending on the type, it may differ in ingredients and method, but at its essence, it is always made from fermented soybeans and wheat. This potent sauce is packed full of umami and will deepen the flavor of the food you add it to.

If you're getting soy sauce from your big grocery store chain, you're probably reaching for a bottle of Kikkoman, the most common soy sauce in the US. However, if you want to go a little deeper, you'll find so many incredible brands of soy sauce out there, and you can also find some smaller, artisanal brands that taste even better. Plus, you'll also find that there is light soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and in different countries in East Asia, soy sauce might have a different name. For example, in Japan, the broad name for soy sauce is "shoyu" and in Korea, it's "ganjang".

If you like barbecue sauce, then you'll likely love hoisin sauce. You can think of it as a Chinese barbecue sauce and it goes great with so many dishes. Made from a base of fermented soybean paste, and other flavor powerhouses like garlic, chiles, and sesame. While its direct translation means "seafood sauce", it's not actually made with any seafood, and surprisingly it isn't served with many seafood dishes either. In Chinese cuisine, hoisin sauce is an important ingredient in dishes like Peking duck. In Cantonese cooking, it's often a marinade or sauce for barbecued meat like Char Siu pork.

You may also know it from Vietnamese cuisine as it's the sauce you'll find served alongside phô. This steaming bowl of noodle soup is transformed with a couple of spoons of hoisin sauce, giving it a deeper salty, sweetness. There are plenty of ways to incorporate hoisin sauce into recipes as a beginner. You can always substitute it for American barbecue sauce with your grilled meats, add it to stir fries or make a thick glaze for your roast duck. The possibilities are endless.

Gochujang may seem like the new popular kid in town, but it's been around Korea since at least the 18th century. It's a staple ingredient in Korean cooking, often the key flavor ingredient various dishes are built upon. While technically gochujang is a paste, it's the base of many sauces. Made from red chiles, fermented soybeans, glutinous rice, salt, and sweeteners. This paste packs a punch of heat into your cooking, so it's not for those who can't tolerate spicy food. Other than a fiery kick, it also imparts incredible flavor and is so good even in unexpected dishes like gochujang carbonara.

Gochujang has become an all-purpose flavor ingredient in my cooking. With the perfect balance of salt, spice, funk, umami, and a hint of sweetness, it rounds out and deepens the flavors of all sorts of stews, soups, and sauces. It's also great as a marinade for meats and chicken wings. The rise in its popularity means that it's starting to become more accessible in mainstream stores, but if you can't find it, take a visit to any Asian grocery store or H Mart. You'll easily find these distinct red tubs of gochujang on the shelves.

You can't talk about popular sauces in Southeast Asia without mentioning fish sauce. This sauce is non-negotiable for so many dishes in cuisines from Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, and more. If you're unfamiliar, you might think a sauce made from fermented fish (and sometimes shrimp or krill) is too funky for you. In truth, you'll likely love it. Yes, it's strong, but in the best way possible. You should give it a taste, or a couple of tastes, to get used to it, because it's too good to miss out on. It instantly completes a meal and you can balance it out by mixing it with other flavor elements like lime juice, vinegar, garlic, and more.

Fish sauce is usually a thin, salty liquid, and you don't need a lot in volume to make an impact. It's often used as a seasoning ingredient that sits on the table, like salt and pepper does in the US. It's a key ingredient in dishes like pad thai, tom yum soup, and many Thai salads. There are many creative ways to use it.

It's an essential part of the popular Vietnamese dipping sauce named nước chấm, where it's mixed with water, lime or lemon juice, sugar, chiles, and sometimes garlic. This delicious dipping sauce can be used for egg rolls, spring rolls, bánh cuốn, and more.

Sriracha was all the rage for a while, and while the craze has somewhat died down, this sauce is still very much beloved all over the world and is a staple in many people's pantries. Originating from Thailand in the 1930s, Sriracha is made from chiles, salt, sugar, garlic, vinegar, and other ingredients, to make this bright red, spicy sauce that seems to go well on everything. Plus, if you like a little heat, but not too much, Sriracha is the perfect hot sauce. It isn't super spicy compared to other hot sauces on the market.

There are countless ways to use Sriracha, both in your cooking or as a finishing sauce. People love to add it to their eggs or make a Sriracha mayo dipping sauce. It's also delicious in brothy soups, or on burgers and hot dogs. You can find it in most grocery stores and it's also relatively simple to make yourself with this homemade Sriracha recipe.

Peanut butter lovers will love satay sauce, otherwise known as peanut sauce. You may have seen chicken satay on the menu before, but in countries like Thailand and Indonesia, satay refers to a dish with different types of grilled meat, and it's not super common to find chicken satay. Satay is also always served with peanut sauce to go along with it. This rich, salty, tangy, and slightly sweet sauce has different versions and ingredients depending on the cook, but is usually made up of peanuts, soy sauce, garlic, chile, lemon, coconut, and salt.

This peanut sauce is about as easy as it gets to make, especially if you start with peanut butter. Instead of grinding or pulsing whole peanuts yourself, using peanut butter saves you a lot of effort and lets you start off with an already creamy base. I also recommend using peanut butter only made of peanuts so that you can adjust the saltiness and sweetness without having it overpower your other ingredients. While it's the perfect accompaniment to a satay-styled grilled meat dish, it's also delicious as a sauce for stir fries, noodles, and to dip your rice paper rolls into.

Growing up, my mother used oyster sauce in her cooking a lot, and because I knew how it tasted, I believed that there was no way the sauce actually contained oysters, which I detested. I never thought to fact-check myself because I was so sure, but when a friend corrected me that oyster sauce is made from oysters, I was stunned. This dark caramel-colored sauce was so savory, it was almost beefy and had a subtle, salty-sweet taste I love.

It turns out that through some processing, oysters could become this magical condiment. So, if like me, you don't like oysters, don't be put off by the name. This sauce doesn't taste fishy in any way, and it will add a lovely umami savoriness to your dishes, as it's been doing in Chinese (specifically Cantonese) cooking for over a century. Add a couple of shakes of the stuff into your next stir fry or beef braise, and taste the results for yourself.

Ketchup may be old school, but it's still a beloved condiment in the U.S. and abroad. In fact, it's the reason banana ketchup exists. Banana ketchup (also called catsup) is a tangy, sweet, and complex sauce from the Philippines. Its origins are fascinating, dating back to WWII, when there were shortages in various foods, including ketchup. A food scientist named Maria Orosa came up with an alternative that used an ingredient that was plentiful in the Philippines: bananas.

Bananas are puréed and cooked with other seasonings, like salt, sugar, garlic, onions, and more. Often, red food coloring is added to give it that signature red color that ketchup is known for. However, beyond being an imitation sauce, banana ketchup is delicious in its own right. In Filipino cuisine, banana ketchup is usually served with fried chicken, or dishes like embutido, arroz a la Cubana, and sweet spaghetti. I use it as a dipping sauce for all kinds of fried savory snacks, from chicken nuggets to samosas, and even fries. It also works great as a barbecue sauce-like marinade for grilled meats and on most burgers.

Unless you're familiar with Korean cooking, you may not know the lesser-known green tub you find alongside the famous red gochujang tubs in the store. These tubs hold an equally tasty sauce called ssamjang, it contains gochujang, but it has quite a different flavor profile. When I first tasted ssamjang, my mind was blown. I was amazed at the depth of savory and nutty flavor it has, and that it was ready to eat. Unlike some other sauces on this list, ssamjang is totally ready to eat, and no heat needs to be applied to it. Made from mixing soybean paste, gochujang, and things like garlic, onion, sugar, and sesame oil, this thick brown paste oozes with umami richness.

Ssamjang is usually served with Korean barbecue, inside a lettuce or perilla leaf wrap. You assemble some rice, meat, ssamjang, and perhaps some kimchi inside this leaf, for a texture and flavor bomb which will have you going back for more. Alternatively, you can also use it as dipping sauce for veggies, and I like to throw in a tablespoon of it into hearty stews, soups, or even a pot of Bolognese, to add some extra body to the taste.

Originating in Indonesia, sambal is the catch-all name of the table hot sauce that accompanies many meals. Outside of Indonesia, we can usually find jars of sambal oelek on supermarket shelves, but in Indonesia it's usually made from scratch. At its most basic, sambal oelek is made from fresh chiles pounded into a sauce with a mortar and pestle. However, depending on what the local ingredients and preferences are, different ingredients are often added to sambal like garlic, lemongrass, makrut limes, and shrimp paste, among other things. Other variations might include spices, herbs, and other seasonings, and some keep their sambal raw, while others prefer to cook it.

The sambal oelek we find on the shelves is often watered down and mixed with vinegar and salt. While still delicious, it's worth making it from scratch to taste what a fresh batch is like. Plus, you can customize it with the ingredients that you can find or that you like the taste of. There's no one rule for making sambal, and households often have their own recipe. You can get physical and hand-pound it yourself or throw everything in a food processor and have it ready in seconds.

If we think of hoisin sauce as the Chinese barbecue sauce, then teriyaki sauce is the Japanese equivalent. When you compare the two tastes, teriyaki is more sweeter and lighter. Made from soy sauce, sugar, and sake, or mirin, it's actually relatively simple to make yourself, but the store-bought bottles are pretty great too. In Japan, teriyaki technically refers to the cooking technique of specific grilled meats and vegetables. The accompanying sauce is popularly referred to as teriyaki sauce. And as the cooking technique of grilling suggests, this sauce goes great with grilled foods.

I use it as a finishing sauce on my barbecue and as a marinade for meat that doesn't take long to cook, (as the sugar content can lead to burning if you cook too long with it.) It's also great as a dipping sauce for dumplings, or mushroom skewers. Alternatively, give any of your barbecue favorites a Japanese twist by using teriyaki as a substitute for your American barbecue sauce.

XO sauce is a powerhouse condiment in a small bottle. This fairly recent arrival was created around the 1980s in Hong Kong. It gets its name from an expensive French cognac called XO, because it's made from high-priced ingredients like dried seafood and Chinese-aged ham. That, and the fact that it takes hours to prepare, XO sauce is considered a pricey ingredient, and be prepared to fork out more than the average fare for a sauce. In my opinion, it delivers on flavor, and the fact that it's really potent makes it worth the price. Plus, if you see how complicated it is to make it, you might not mind splurging a little extra to buy it.

With XO sauce, you only need a small amount to make a big impact. It's smoky, savory, jammy, and a little spicy, and can take any simple dish to new heights. Add some to your fried rice, grilled proteins like meat or fish, steamed or roasted vegetables, or some noodles. It's a worthy investment for delicious cooking.

Mắm tôm, a Vietnamese shrimp paste, has a strong smell, and an even more robust flavor. This fermented shrimp (and sometimes anchovy) paste can be an acquired taste if you're not accustomed to it. You might not like it on the first try, so I recommend trying it until you get used to it, as it's an incredibly rewarding sauce and will give your dishes a major boost.

Fermented seafood paste is pretty common in other places beyond Vietnam. Countries like Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and more, have their own versions too. Mắm tôm originates from Northern Vietnam and has a distinct taste. It's usually dark in color and quite pungent. It's used to season many dishes like soups, noodles, and meat and fish dishes, and can be balanced out with some calamansi juice (although you can use other citrus like limes or lemons if you can't find calamansi). It may be a little trickier to track down an authentic mắm tôm than some of these other sauces, and finding a Vietnamese goods store is your best bet.