This Hoisin Sauce recipe takes only minutes to make at home from ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.
What is Hoisin Sauce?
Hoisin sauce is a thick and intensely flavorful sauce commonly used as a glaze for meats, a dipping sauce, or a stir fry pan sauce in Chinese cooking.
(If you like to use teriyaki sauce in your stir fries, then there’s a good chance hoisin sauce will be right up your alley.)
Hoisin sauce could be compared to a barbecue-style sauce, with its dark color, thick consistency, and sweet and tangy flavors. (But not quite as sweet and tangy as sweet and sour sauce.)
In fact, you may even hear it called Chinese Barbecue Sauce.
However, there is one other element that makes this sauce stand apart from traditional barbecue sauce, and that is its soy-sauce saltiness.
If you can image a sweet, tangy, and soy-infused barbecue sauce, then you’re probably pretty darn close to imagining the flavor and consistency of hoisin sauce.
Is There Seafood In Hoisin Sauce?
The word hoisin (pronounced HOY-szin) is from the Chinese word for seafood.
Despite the name’s meaning, hoisin sauce does not contain any seafood, nor is it commonly used with seafood.
How the sauce got its name is a mystery that no one seems to know the answer to.
Hoisin Beef and Asparagus Stir Fry
What Is The Difference Between Soy Sauce And Hoisin Sauce?
Hoisin sauce is going to be much thicker than soy sauce and much sweeter in flavor.
We use soy sauce in our hoisin sauce, but hoisin sauce also contains a number of other ingredients that give it a distinct flavor.
Hoisin Sauce vs Plum Sauce
While they are similar in flavor, hoisin sauce is not to be confused with plum sauce.
Hoisin sauce is typically spicier with more potent flavors, while plum sauce is more of a jammy sauce made from plums.
The good news is that they are close enough in flavor that, in a pinch, the two can be substituted for each other.
What Is Hoisin Sauce Made Of?
A main ingredient in traditional hoisin sauce is fermented soy bean paste.
This bean paste gives the sauce its thick consistency and deep and tangy flavor.
The flavor and texture of bean paste are quite unique, but don’t think that you can’t make your own homemade hoisin sauce just because you don’t have bean paste!
Our Homemade Hoisin Sauce Recipe
Our homemade hoisin sauce recipe is designed to create an authentic tasting hoisin sauce using pantry staples.
No bean paste here!
Actually, we’re using two pretty simple ingredients to mimic the effects and flavor of bean paste:
- creamy peanut butter
- molasses
While, yes, the flavor will be slightly different than if you used a traditional, fermented bean paste, these substitutions are a great way to be able to whip up some hoisin sauce at home, using ingredients that are already in your pantry.
With these simple substitutions, you can create your homemade hoisin sauce in less than 10 minutes!
How To Use Hoisin Sauce
Hoisin sauce is used often in Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine as a dip and condiment.
Here are some ways to use it:
- As a dip for your favorite Chinese egg rolls
- As a sauce for Peking duck and Chinese barbecue pork
- As a dip for Vietnamese spring rolls
- As a condiment for Vietnamese Pho, beef noodle soup
- As a sauce for a beef stir fry
What do you love hoisin sauce on?
Homemade Hoisin Sauce
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients except cornstarch. Heat over medium heat until the molasses and peanut butter have dissolved.
- In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with 1 1/2 tsp cold water. Stir until the cornstarch has dissolved.
- Increase the heat under the saucepan to medium-high and whisk in the cornstarch mixture. Simmer until the mixture begins to thicken, 1-2 min.
- Remove the sauce from the burner to cool. (The sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.)
- The sauce can be used immediately to marinade meat, as a dip, or sauce for a stir fry.
- Store extra sauce in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks. (The sauce will firm up in the refrigerator, just give it a good stir before using.)
Notes
Nutrition
I had all the ingredients – it only took minutes to make. Saved me a trip to the grocery store. So delicious!! Thanks.
So glad you enjoyed it!
Most hoisin has 5-spice which I find off-putting used in large quantities.
This sauce is nice that it uses peanut butter and omits 5-spice.
It’s a good alternative.
Thanks Tom. Glad you enjoyed it!
Omg,this sauce is so good I had chance to try it before, even it is good as dip sauce for spring roll. Many thanks for the post.
Glad you enjoyed the hoisin sauce Alice!
Oh I tried it when I travel to Vietnam, I ate Pho and they gave use this sauce, it was so good with the adding of fresh chili and some lemon juice. Thanks for the post, now I know how to make it.
Sounds delicious! We hope you enjoy making it yourself!
Yay! A recipe without the bean paste! I am allergic to soy. I can have soy sauce which is the fermented liquid poured off the beans but I can’t eat the beans or I get sick. I love Kung Pao dishes but most call for Hoisin sauce which is normally made with the beans that I cannot eat! Thank you, thank you!
And for the person saying this is substandard because it doesn’t have the bean paste, well sometimes there are good reasons for having alternate foods!
Thank you Timaree! We are so glad this recipe fits your needs!
This sauce sounds great! I like to make hoisin wraps when I don’t have a lot of time to make dinner. I buy the coleslaw mix add in hoisin sauce a bit of sesame oil and teriyaki sauce and wrap it all up in a flavored wrap. I’ll add chicken and peanuts if I have them. A quick and easy dinner anytime especially in the summer.
Those sound great1 We’re so glad you’re enjoying the sauce!
Great recipe! It made it easy for me to do the job. Thank you for sharing it
Glad you enjoyed it!
Sarah, nice idea! This sauce look absolutely delicious! I need to try it!
Thanks! Enjoy!
It’s amazing! I just randomly found your blog looking for this recipe. Awesome! Good for you!
Thanks! Enjoy!
I have made this recipe successfully the first few times, but after substituting with a different peanut butter (more organic ingredients), and tripling the hot sauce, the sauce is getting way to thick and not at all liquidy like in the pictures. Is there a way I can fix this? Perhaps omit the cornstarch for the thickening? Or add more water? Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.
Hi Paul. Since you’re adjusting the ingredients, it’s hard to say how to fix the texture. My guess would be that it’s due to the more organic peanut butter, which often is thicker and has less oil and sugar than conventional peanut butter. I would try adding some peanut oil or sesame oil and possible a little bit of molasses or honey to see if that helps your consistency.
Sarah ,, thanks! Very tasty sauce turned out. Very cool photos!
Glad you enjoyed it Alyssa!
It’s really awesome! This will quickly become a favorite in our house!
Glad you like it!
Do you know how many carbs per Tablespoon?
Hi Colleen. There are approximately 5.3g of carbs per Tbsp.
I made this today to use in a recipe for general taos chicken, I’m pretty excited! I gonna make this often!!! Thankyou!!!
So glad you’re enjoying the hoisin sauce!
Super easy and super tasty. I was skeptical about sauce thickening at first because my molasses was liquid already, But it thickened in no time and the sauce went really well with my PHO, thank you for the recipe!
So glad you enjoyed the hoisin sauce Paul!
Excellent – a nice addition to my stir fry. Thank you.
So glad you enjoyed the hoisin sauce Darlene!
Can I use blackstrap molasses for this?
Hi Angel. We haven’t tried making this recipe using blackstrap molasses. But, blackstrap molasses has a stronger, less sweet flavor and is more acidic. I would guess that you could use it to make the hoisin sauce, but you will most likely need to add honey or another sweetener to balance out and sweeten the sauce. If you give it a try, stop back by and let us know how it turns out for you!
Made it last night. It is delicious and surprisingly I had all the ingredients. How long will this keep in the fridge or could I freeze it?
Hi Mary. So glad you enjoyed the hoisin sauce! We have kept it in our fridge for up to 2-3 weeks. You could probably freeze it, as long as you would be cooking with is after thawing it. I would think freezing would change the consistency of the sauce, so you wouldn’t want to use it as a dip after thawing.
Thank you so much! I’m keeping this recipe and will make it often. I usually prefer homemade things to store bought and this was both easy to make and delicious!
We hope you enjoy it!
I ate this once at the restaurant, but now I really know it’s called hoisin sauce. Sounds tasty! I will try it tomorrow. Thank you!
Enjoy!
thank you for reply, I hope you have more tips
This is so tasty and easy! I really enjoyed it, and I had to keep making more batches. Thanks for your sharing!!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Is hoy sien jeung sauce same as hoisan sauce ?
Hi Marie. I am not familiar with hoy sien jeung sauce, so I’m afraid I am not much help there.
I tried this to add to a stir fry sauce and it worked great. Great hack!
Wonderful! So gland you enjoyed it!
Sounds delish, but since soy beans are almost 95% GMO, I’d probably look for a Non GMO product as a substitute. Like Coconut Ameino’s or non GMO soy sauce. I will try it that way. Thanks for the Recipe!
Hi Suez, There are brands that make organic soy sauce. That’s actually what we typically look for. Enjoy!
Hi, I have never heard of using peanut butter as ingredient for hoisin sauce. It is a known fact that hoisin sauce is made from fermented black bean sauce. Rather buy hoisin sauce from supermart than make own with poor substitute.
Hi Gret. Thanks for your comment. As we mention in the article, we’re using peanut butter and molasses to mimic the flavor of bean paste, which is the traditional ingredient in hoisin sauce. This recipe is for people who don’t typically have bean paste in their pantry and want to whip up a quick hoisin sacue that tastes quite similar to the traditional, with ingredients they already have on hand. If you’re concerned about authenticity and not in search of an easy recipe using pantry staples, then by all means, pick up some hoisin sauce from your supermarket or make your own using bean paste!
Just an FYI, just because something is grown organically doesn’t make it non-GMO. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Hi Wendy. Actually, if something is certified organic, it is non-GMO. Certified organic products are not allowed to contain any genetically modified ingredients.