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Made With Lau
萬用炒醬

Universal Stir Fry Sauce

👍 7.6K likes
✍️ Published Jul 2025, Updated Oct 2026
Prep
3 min
Cook
0 min
Total
3 min
Serves
4

The foundation of all of my dad's Chinese stir fries!

Universal Stir Fry Sauce (萬用炒醬)

Cooking Summary

Ingredients: (detailed list)

  • Main Ingredients: dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, salt, chicken bouillon, boiling water

Steps:

  1. Boil water
  2. Mix sauce

Top 3 Mistakes:

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Overview

Chinese restaurants keep gallons of this versatile sauce on hand.

It's used as is, or as a foundation for other sauces, in stir-fries and many other dishes. Try pre-making a bucket of this for your meals!

Because this is so useful and versatile, this brown sauce recipe will most likely end up in our cookbook coming out early 2027. To check out early drafts of our cookbook, sign up for our cookbook newsletter: https://newsletter.madewithlau.com

Thank you, Kikkoman!

This recipe is brought to you in part by Kikkoman. My dad has been using Kikkoman flavors throughout his 50-year career as a chef, and it's a privilege to get to partner with them on such an iconic recipe, Beef Chow Fun with Gravy!

  • Kikkoman products are a major flavor enhancer and bring out the “umami” taste, and help balance and round out flavors
  • Kikkoman® Less Sodium Soy Sauce is perfect for home cooks who are looking to cut down on their sodium levels, without sacrificing flavor
  • Kikkoman offers a wide range of Gluten-Free Asian sauces, including Gluten-Free Oyster Sauce and Gluten-Free Hoisin Sauce
  • The KikkomanUSA.com Chinese site offers easy Asian recipes that home cooks can enjoy any night of the week

You can learn more about Kikkoman and follow them on social media here:

Why this recipe

The story
Universal Stir Fry Sauce (萬用炒醬) — Daddy Lau
Daddy Lau

Most universal stir fry sauce recipes online are tested only a handful of times. My dad used to make this dish multiple times a day, every day, for 60+ years and can make this in his sleep.

I know you'll love it as much as our community does! This recipe has over 280.8K views, 7.6K likes on YouTube.

Ingredients

Serves4
Main Ingredients
(Kikkoman® Tamari)
(Kikkoman®)
(Kikkoman®)

How to make Universal Stir Fry Sauce

2 steps
1

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Boil water (¼ cup) in advance. The boiling water helps the sauce stay fresh for longer, and is easier than cooking the entire sauce like some restaurants will do.

How each knife cut changes your food
LESSON 3.3
How each knife cut changes your food
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2

scroll to play this step

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients - dark soy sauce (1 Tbsp), light soy sauce (3 Tbsp), oyster sauce (1 Tbsp), sugar (1 tsp), salt (1 tsp), chicken bouillon (1 tsp), boiling water (¼ cup).

Keep in the refrigerator. Use 1/3 or 1/4 of this batch size for any typical stir-fry dish, and thicken with a cornstarch slurry in the final stages of cooking. Enjoy!

Top 3 Mistakes

  • Using the whole sauce batch:

    This is a batch of sauce for multiple dishes, not a single stir-fry. Start with the portion suggested for one pan and adjust rather than pouring the entire mixture over your ingredients.

  • Expecting ready-thick sauce:

    Treat this mixture as the seasoning base, then thicken your stir-fry with slurry near the end of cooking. It is not meant to have its final coating consistency straight from the jar.

  • Using cold mixing water:

    Boil the water before mixing this sauce instead of using it cold from the tap. Daddy Lau uses boiling water to prepare the batch without cooking the entire sauce in a separate pan.