Sweet and Sour Teriyaki Sauce

My Sweet and Sour Teriyaki served on Andrew’s Chinese take-out breaded chicken.

THAT’S RIGHT. HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO! The great flavors of Sweet and Sour AND Teriyaki all rolled into one wonderful, full bodied, fragrant, and multi-purpose sauce!

Around here we don’t waste our money on store bought teriyaki sauce. It isn’t that it’s expensive. There are, of course, plenty of really cheap and junky brands readily available. It’s really just so easy to make a simple teriyaki sauce that it isn’t even worth the walk down the isle.

For the love of cooking! Invest in higher quality soy sauce. It is SO worth it.

For a simple teriyaki I start with equal parts soy sauce and water over medium, adding brown sugar until I am appeased. I also like to add garlic and ginger, and splash of vinegar. That’s great. It’s teriyaki.

But what about the wonderful flavors of sweet and sour? Andrew perfected his homemade version of a chunky sweet and sour sauce and I love it, but sweet and sour sauce is just so sweet. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I tend to lean farther toward the savory side of cooking. What if I could take the wonderful red and green pepper, and pineapple flavors found in sweet and sour, and combine them with a bold garlic and ginger teriyaki sauce? That would be heaven, wouldn’t it?!

WELL that is what I did. It may seem like a lot of ingredients but it’s so worth it. This recipe makes a jar full that you can keep on-hand in the fridge. It’s really easy to warm for a sauce on rice or noodles, and just as easy to drizzle straight from the fridge into stir-fry vegetables or to have on the side for dipping.

Bringing out the aromatics of these beautiful ingredients using a little bit of oil and heat.

Like I said, it may seem like a lot of ingredients to work with, but once you have them prepped, because the cornstarch is already added to the water, the cooking process rolls on quite quickly and with little effort.

So don’t be intimidate, and I dare you to take on the challenge if you are. That’s right, I dare you!

pickled vegetables and sweet and sour teriyaki served over a fried wonton

This was wonderful! Daikon radish and home grown bean sprouts, each pickled, and layered over white rice and a deep fried wonton. Sweet and sour teriyaki was drizzled intermittently, with a beautifully glazed (and delicious) piece of pineapple from the sauce finishing off the bite.

By:vduley
Serves: lots~ have a jar set aside

Ingredients:

1 t green onion: sliced in rings
2 t lemongrass: sliced in rings and crushed*
2 t ginger: fine minced
2 t red bell pepper: minced
2 t green bell pepper: minced
1 medium garlic clove: minced
1/2 cup cold water
1 T cornstarch
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 T rice vinegar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 can of pineapple: chunks or crushed;
- 1/2 cup of pineapple juice
- 1/4 pineapple cupped or crushed

Directions:

Saute the green onion, lemon grass, ginger, red and green bell peppers, and garlic with a little bit of olive oil, in the bottom of a sauce pan, until fragrant.
Add the cornstarch to the cold water and mix until dissolved.
Add the water/cornstarch, soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, pineapple, and pineapple juice to the pan of sauteed vegetables and bring to a boil.
Reaching a boil should activate the cornstarch to thicken the sauce.
Remove from heat.
Serve over rice or vegetables, use as a dipping sauce, or as a glaze on meat; chicken, pork, or fish.
Store in the fridge in an airtight container.