Sugar Free Stir fry Sauce

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This quick and simple sugar free stir fry sauce is packed with flavour and takes minutes to make, much like my sugar free teriyaki sauce. Its sweet and savoury, and just the right consistency. Prepare ahead of time for later use, or make it and add your favourite meat, veges, rice or noodles.

a jar of sugar free stir fry sauce with a spoon in

Once you know how to make a simple homemade stir fry sauce, you’ll realise how much better they taste than store bought ones. When you start with a simple base recipe, its also really easy to add in extra flavourings to get different variations of the sauce.

Why Make This Sauce

Takes only minutes to make
There’s no added sugar
Super simple and way healthier than store bought sauces
You can make it ahead and store it in the fridge
Make it serve it straight away over noodles or veges, or both
Use it as a flavour base to add more of your favourite ingredients
So easy to make it more of less spicy, with extra garlic, sweeter, or more zingy

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

Soy Sauce: I love using light soy sauce because of the flavour, but regular soy sauce, or Tamari would also work.
Liquid Chicken Broth/Chicken Stock: This is the flavour base, and chicken can be substituted with either the same amount of beef broth/stock, or vegetable stock/broth. You can use an already made liquid stock/broth, or a cube dissolved in boiling water
Lemon Juice: this helps to balance out the flavours. Lemon or lime juice would work here. You could also substitute the lemon for rice wine vinegar.
Ginger and Garlic: For convenience sake, I use the jars of crushed garlic and grated ginger, but feel free to use fresh. He garlic and ginger imparts a great flavour base to this sauce and these can be adjusted up or down to suit tastes. Foe example, I like an extra hit of garlic when I make my sugar free stifry sauce, so I double the amount.
Chilli Paste: I love my home made stir fry sauces to have a little kick. But add this is optional. Chilli paste is available in the spice aisle at Coles and Woolworths. Alternatively you could use Sambel Olek – a Malaysian chilli paste found in the Asian food aisle, or even dried red chilli flakes.
Granulated Sweetener: I use Monkfruit sweetener (classic), however any granulated sweetener that measures like sugar would also work – for example stevia. You could also substitute with Pure Honey, or Maple Syrup.

How To Make

Option 1: Making The Sauce To Use Now

Have precooked meat and veges on hand to add to the stir fry sauce, and set aside.

Add soy sauce, chicken stock/broth, lemon juice, ginger, garlic, chilli paste and sweetener to a pot over medium to high heat. Stir until the sweetener has dissolved and sauce starts to bubble.

Mix the cornstarch/cornflour and water in a separate bowl, whisking well so its smooth with no lumps. Add to the sauce and stir through. It will thicken quickly.

a pot of stir fry sauce after thickening

Add meat and veges to the stir fry sauce and toss through to coat. Serve immediately with your choice of rice or noodles.

Option 2: Making The Sauce To Use Later

Add soy sauce, chicken stock/broth, lemon juice, ginger, garlic, chilli paste and sweetener to a pot over medium to high heat. Stir until the sweetener has dissolved and sauce starts to bubble.

Remove from heat as soon as it reaches the desired consistency. Let it cool in the pot, off the heat for 5 minutes, then pour into a clean mason jar with lid. Store in the fridge for 5 days.

When using the pre made sauce on a stir fry, pour over cooked meat and veges. To thicken sauce, add 1 tablespoon of cornflour or cornstarch to 1 tablespoon of tap water and mix in a cup. Pour into the stir fry on high heat and it will thicken quickly.

sugar free stir fry sauce in a glass jar

FAQ’s For Making a Basic Stir Fry Sauce

How do you thicken stir fry sauce without cornstarch?

An alternative to cornstarch or cornflour is to use plain flour, arrowroot flour, tapioca flour, or potato starch mixed with water.

These all work in different quantities, so make sure to read the instructions. Even using one or two teaspoons of powdered soup mix or instant potato mash would work to thicken the sauce if that is all you have.

How much stir fry sauce should I use?

This recipe makes 1 cup of stir fry sauce. If you making a stir fry with meat and vegetables to feed 2 people, use half a cup of sauce. For four people use one cup.

What meat is best to use in a stir fry?

Some great options are thinly sliced chicken or turkey breast, diced skinless chicken thigh, thinly sliced beef, firm white fish cut into 1 inch pieces, calamari rings, skinless salmon cut into 1 inch pieces.

What vegetables are best for a stir fry?

I love to use capsiucums or bell peppers, red onion, diced mushrooms, sliced green beans, asparagus, baby spinach, snow peas, sliced cabbage, sliced carrots. The more colourful the better!

Expert Tips

More Heat: add an additional teaspoon of chilli paste for a well rounded medium flavoured homemade healthy stir fry sauce
Not Spicy: Omit the chilli paste.
Extra Garlic: add an additional teaspoon of crushed garlic. You may also like to add a quarter of a teaspoon of garlic powder.
Extra Ginger: add an extra teaspoon of grated ginger for a little more zing, along with an extra teaspoon of lemon juice.
Other Add Ins to Try: ¼ teaspoon of onion powder, ½ a teaspoon of your favourite dried herbs (I like to use dried coriander). Other ideas include dried mint, and little Szechuan pepper, or a little Chinese five spice powder.

Ways To Use This Sauce

Over stir fry Noodles and Veges that have been heated through
Over a store bought BBQ chicken (shredded or chopped) and veges stir fried in a wok
In a beef, turkey, salmon or seafood stir fry with your favourite veges or noodles

Making a sugar free stir fry sauce from scratch is pretty easy once you know how and once you start trading store bought sugar laden sauces for healthier make at home versions, you’ll notice how different and better they taste.

Sugar Free Stir Fry Sauce