Savory soy sauce, sharp vinegar, and fresh garlic make this stir fry sauce in 2 minutes. I mix the three ingredients in a bowl or shake them in a jar, then add the sauce to chicken, beef, shrimp, or vegetables in the pan.
This is the three ingredient sauce from my video on getting dinner on the table when you're short on time. I mix soy sauce, vinegar, and minced garlic, then use it as the base for a stir fry. No simmering a separate pot of sauce before dinner can even get started.
The flavor is salty, tangy, and garlicky. It stays thin, so it seasons the food as you toss it through the pan. If you're looking for a sweet, sticky glaze, my keto teriyaki sauce is a better fit.
I use this combination in my chicken stir fry, with ginger and sesame oil for extra flavor. Those additions are optional here. The simple base leaves room for the vegetables and protein you have ready to cook.
A batch makes about 3/4 cup, or six portions of roughly 2 tablespoons. You don't have to use the whole jar for one dinner. Start with a little sauce, toss, and add more as needed so the soy sauce doesn't overwhelm the food. Refrigerate any unused sauce promptly and use it within 3 to 4 days.
Ways to change the flavor
Ginger and a little toasted sesame oil are the additions I use in my chicken stir fry. Ginger adds warmth; sesame oil adds a nutty finish. Add sesame oil alongside the vinegar, rather than replacing the vinegar with it.
Red pepper flakes add heat. A squeeze of lime brings a different tartness. Start with a little, taste the sauce before it touches raw meat, and adjust from there. Bottled additions such as hoisin or oyster sauce change the sugar content and allergens, so check their labels.
Do you need to thicken it?
The three ingredient base is meant to stay thin. Toss it through your food instead of reducing it down to a syrup, which concentrates the salt.
For a complete stir fry with an optional thickener, use my chicken stir fry recipe. It lists arrowroot with its own sauce quantities. Thickener amounts depend on how much sauce and vegetable liquid is in the pan; cornstarch, arrowroot, xanthan gum, and egg yolks are not interchangeable by the spoonful.
What to cook with this sauce
Use the sauce with chicken, beef, shrimp, or tofu and vegetables such as broccoli, bell peppers, mushrooms, or zucchini. Cook the protein through according to the recipe you’re making, then toss the sauce through the food.
Serve over shirataki noodles or cauliflower rice. Start with less sauce for a small pan of vegetables; you can always add another spoonful.
Storage and meal prep
Refrigerate the sauce promptly in a clean, sealed jar at 40°F or below. Make only what you’ll use within 3 to 4 days. Mixing fresh garlic into bottled condiments does not give the homemade mixture the bottles’ shelf life.
Freeze extra sauce in small portions promptly if you won’t use it in that time. Thaw in the refrigerator. Label the container with the date, and keep sauce intended for later meals separate from raw meat and used utensils.
Add refrigerated sauce directly to your stir fry while cooking. If it has been used as a raw meat marinade, discard it afterward; set aside a clean portion before marinating if you want sauce for serving.
How to make stir fry sauce
Mix: Add 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup vinegar, and 2 minced garlic cloves to a bowl or a jar with a lid. Stir or shake to combine.
Add to the pan: Pour a little over your stir fry, toss, and add more to taste. This is a thin seasoning sauce, not a thick glaze.
Choose the sauce by its label. For gluten free cooking, use soy sauce or tamari explicitly labeled gluten free. Liquid aminos can contain soy; Bragg Liquid Aminos is made from soybeans. For a soy free option, choose coconut aminos labeled soy free and check the other ingredients you add. Coconut aminos changes the sweetness, saltiness, and carb count.
Vinegar: White vinegar or unseasoned rice vinegar works for the base. Seasoned rice vinegar may contain added sugar and salt. Fresh minced garlic supplies the garlic flavor.
Add soy sauce, vinegar and minced garlic to a small bowl or mason jar.
2
Mix
Stir, or seal the jar and shake, until combined. Add a little sauce to your stir fry in the pan, toss, and add more to taste. Refrigerate unused sauce promptly in a clean, sealed container and use within 3 to 4 days.
Nutrition
Per serving: 1/6 batch (about 2 tablespoons)
Calories
15
Fat
0g
Protein
1.4g
Total carbs
3g
Net carbs
3g
Nutrition is an estimate calculated from the ingredients listed. Brands vary, so check labels if you track closely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use this sauce as a marinade?
Yes. Marinate in the refrigerator, following the timing in your chicken or beef recipe. Reserve a clean portion first if you want sauce for serving, and discard the sauce that has touched raw meat. The vinegar does not make raw meat safe to eat.
Is liquid aminos soy free?
Not necessarily. Bragg Liquid Aminos contains soybeans. For soy free cooking, use coconut aminos labeled soy free and check all other ingredients. For gluten free cooking, choose a soy sauce or tamari labeled gluten free.
Can I use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce?
Yes, but expect a different balance of sweetness and salt. Use a product labeled soy free if that is why you are substituting, and check its nutrition label because the listed recipe estimate will change.
How much sauce does this make?
About 3/4 cup, divided into six portions of roughly 2 tablespoons. For a stir fry serving 4 to 6 people, start with half the batch and add more to taste. You may not need the whole batch.
How long can I keep it?
Refrigerate promptly in a clean, sealed jar at 40°F or below and use within 3 to 4 days, or freeze promptly in small portions. Do not keep sauce that has touched raw meat for a later meal.
Is this the same as teriyaki sauce?
No. This sauce is thin, salty, and tangy, with no sweetener added to the base recipe. Teriyaki sauce has a sweeter flavor and a thicker glaze. Use the recipe that matches the finish you want.
Double the garlic if you’re using beef, two cloves disappear once the soy sauce hits the pan. I spent a year ordering stir fry from the place two blocks away because I figured homemade sauce couldn’t compete without sugar or cornstarch. This one does, and I made it faster than it used to take me to open a delivery app.
A jar makes the prep quick. Refrigerate this homemade sauce promptly and use it within 3 to 4 days, or freeze extra portions promptly. Keep any sauce saved for later separate from raw meat and used utensils.
Tara, a seven-year-old stamp of approval is the hardest kind to earn. Nothing in those three that tastes diet to a kid either, no sweetener, nothing off.
Took me twelve batches. The move is adding this off heat instead of cooking it down. Garlic stays sharp, sauce keeps a clean consistency instead of that thick paste you’d have to thin. I batch a double portion on Sundays now. Three net carbs per serving. Two minutes no matter the batch size.
Twelve batches to land on that, Stephanie, and you’re right about the garlic. I stir mine in off heat too when I want that sharp bite to stay put, especially with the vinegar already doing the work. Cooked down it goes pasty on me every time.
Figured out this works as a marinade and it changed how I use it entirely. Twenty minutes in it before the chicken hits the pan (no heat yet, just resting) and the garlic actually gets INTO the meat instead of just coating the outside. I do a triple batch every Sunday now because of this. Stir fry goes on Sunday night, the rest stays in the fridge, and it just gets better over two or three days as the vinegar mellows and the garlic softens. By Wednesday it’s like a different sauce and I honestly don’t know what to do with that information except make more of it. Treating it as a fridge staple instead of a last-second step was what made everything click.
The Wednesday batch is different from Sunday. Garlic sitting that long in the vinegar loses the bite and just becomes this background thing that makes everything taste more put-together. Triple batch from the start always.
Kept putting this off because three ingredients seemed too bare for a real stir fry sauce. Finally tried it on shrimp last night. The vinegar does the work of five ingredients by itself.
Shrimp was my first test protein for this. The vinegar is why the ingredient count stays at three. I kept trying to add things during testing and none of them improved it.
Two months tracks. The rice vinegar sharpness is what I kept coming back to when I was testing this , pulled it out once to see what happened and put it straight back in.
I have tried every bottled keto stir fry sauce out there and most of them either have sweetener you can taste or that weird gummy texture from the thickeners. This one with the rice vinegar and fresh garlic just cuts through everything and actually tastes like something made in a kitchen. My wok nights are not going back.
The gummy texture thing drove me crazy for years. Xanthan gum in bottled sauce just doesn’t taste like actual food. Rice vinegar keeps this one sharp and clean without needing any of that.
Made this over chicken and broccoli on a weeknight and my husband, who keeps Kikkoman in the pantry like it’s non-negotiable, didn’t glance at the shelf once. Told him it was three ingredients. He went quiet. Better than a compliment.
Made this at the table during a stir fry dinner with friends because it’s literally three ingredients in a mason jar, and two people watched me shake it together and asked if that was actually the whole sauce. One of them said she’s been buying bottled teriyaki for years and couldn’t believe homemade was this simple. Something about the garlic and vinegar ratio just tastes like it took way longer than two minutes. Keeping a jar in the fridge on rotation now.
A jar makes the prep quick. Refrigerate this homemade sauce promptly and use it within 3 to 4 days, or freeze extra portions promptly. Keep any sauce saved for later separate from raw meat and used utensils.
I was convinced three ingredients couldn’t taste like anything worth pouring over chicken, but here we are. The vinegar and garlic do something to each other that I can’t explain, it just works.
My mom used to make her own stir fry sauce every Sunday and I couldn’t have it anymore after going low carb. Made this with the soy sauce and garlic and it took me right back. Didn’t expect that at all.
Had no idea three ingredients could turn into anything worth repeating, but the garlic does something once it hits the pan. Made it on a cold weeknight and it’s already replaced my go-to bottle.
I only had coconut aminos so I used that instead of soy sauce and figured it would be close enough, but it came out way more mellow and the garlic flavor actually got to shine without everything tasting like salt. Then I grabbed the sesame oil by accident when I was reaching for the vinegar and drizzled some in anyway, and I’m glad I did because now that’s just part of my version. This whole sauce took me two minutes on a cold weeknight and I poured it over chicken and zucchini and it was so much better than anything I’ve bought at the store. I feel like I’ve been wasting money on those little sauce packets for years. Already have a batch sitting in the fridge for tomorrow.
A jar makes the prep quick. Refrigerate this homemade sauce promptly and use it within 3 to 4 days, or freeze extra portions promptly. Keep any sauce saved for later separate from raw meat and used utensils.
A jar makes the prep quick. Refrigerate this homemade sauce promptly and use it within 3 to 4 days, or freeze extra portions promptly. Keep any sauce saved for later separate from raw meat and used utensils.
