Sweet and sour sauce is a Chinese take out staple dipping sauce. Just like the name implies it is sweet and tangy. Save yourself a trip to the restaurant and make this easy and flavorful sauce at home. Just a few simple basic ingredient and the sauce is ready in no time. Perfect for dipping chicken, potstickers, wontons, and spring rolls. Or anything your heart desires pretty much. How to make this sweet and sour sauce? Here is the recipe!

The sweetness comes from pineapple juice and brown sugar adding some delicious tropical flavors to the sauce. The sour component is from the rice vinegar which is pretty mild and delicate in comparison to other vinegars. The sweet and sour sauce with pineapple juice is perfectly balanced and not sharp at all. Soy sauce brings in the savory note and cornstarch slurry works as a thickening agent. Ketchup adds even more depth of flavors to the red sweet and sour sauce in this recipe. The bright red color of the take out version is due to the red food coloring. This step is optional you can add it or completely omit it.

All you need to do to create this multidimensional flavored sauce is to bring the soy sauce, sugar, ketchup and pineapple juice to a boil to dissolve the sugar. How to thicken sweet and sour sauce? You can thicken the concoction with the cornstarch mixture.

Your homemade sweet and sour sauce is ready. It is hundred times better than the take out version. Less sweet and just an overall better balance of flavors. You can make your favorite sweet and sour chicken using this mouthwatering creation or just for dipping, tossing, marinating, glazing anything you like.