5-Minute Homemade Asian Noodle Sauce

Looking for a fast, flavorful sauce for your noodles? This 5-minute homemade Asian Noodle Sauce is zesty, savory and far superior to store-bought alternatives. It’s perfect for tossing with a variety of noodles like udon, ramen, Pad Thai or even spaghetti. Try this versatile sauce today and elevate your everyday noodle recipes.   

Best of all, this quick stir fry sauce is made without garlic, ensuring it’s suitable for various dietary preferences. Plus, it can last 2 to 4 weeks, making it a great option for meal prep.

Double the recipe for even more convenience and get ready to whip up speedy meals like our 15 minute Asian Shrimp and Noodles Recipe and more!

Ingredients and Substitutions

These 8 easy to find Essential Asian Pantry Ingredients make the best-balanced noodle stir fry sauce.

Soy sauce – The base savory ingredient for soy sauce noodles. If you want to keep this Chinese noodle sauce recipe gluten-free, use tamari sauce or coconut aminos. You can also use a lower sodium soy sauce, if needed.

Sesame oil – Gives the stir fry sauce that nutty flavor.

Mirin – is a type of Japanese cooking wine that is slightly sweet. You can usually find this Asian Ingredient down the Asian or international isle of the grocery store. It will be labeled Aji-Mirin. You can also substitute with Shaoxing wine or cooking sherry, but you will need to add more honey or sweetener to balance the flavors of the Asian noodle sauce.

Honey – to sweeten to your desired taste preference. To make vegan, you can substitute with maple syrup or homemade date paste.

Rice Vinegar – Adds a punch of acid to round the flavors of the sauce. This ingredient is also found down the Asian or international isle of the grocery store. You can use apple cider vinegar as the substitute.

Please note: if we are adding this sauce to a recipe that calls for fresh lime juice, such as in our Asian shrimp and noodles, we hold the rice vinegar or use less lime juice.

Water – As you know, stir fried noodles absorb some liquid when you add the sauce. The addition of filtered tap water increases the volume of liquid and controls the sodium level.

Ground chili peppers or Sriracha sauce – of course this is an optional ingredient but seriously, this ingredient is not to be missed. Sometimes, we add ground Korean chili pepper if making a Korean recipe. If you plan on using all of your stir fry sauce within a couple of days, be sure to try our spicy Asian garlic chili sauce for a punch of flavor.

Oyster sauce – thick, rich, and filled with umami flavor. It gives the Asian noodle sauce that bit of funky flavor that we all crave with Asian recipes. You can find this ingredient down the Asian food isle or international isle of your grocery store. If you need a vegan version or have a shellfish allergy, there are vegetarian versions available made with mushrooms. In addition, there are also gluten free oyster sauces available.

How to Make the Sauce in Less than 5 Minutes?

• In a medium bowl add soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin (cooking wine), honey, rice vinegar, ground chili peppers or Sriracha sauce and oyster sauce and mix well. That’s it!
• Use the delicious sauce in your next Asian noodle stir fry recipe.
• Store leftover sauce in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 2 to 4 weeks or the freezer for 3 months.

Garlic Free Advantage

This quick and easy noodle sauce is garlic free. The advantages of being garlic free are…

1. The sauce can be stored safely in the refrigerator between 2 to 4 weeks. Fresh peeled and chopped garlic can only last about 2-3 days in the refrigerator because of the risk of botulism. Even though this sauce has some oil and vinegar, it’s not enough to store garlic for extended periods of time.
2. No belly woes for those that need a low fodmap diet. 
3. Say goodbye to the raw garlic flavored noodles with those trendy short videos. You know the recipes where you add hot oil over aromatics for a nano-second and then add in your noodles. We are not fond of the raw garlic flavor. If you add the Asian noodle sauce at the end of the cooking process, the garlic will still be raw.

Customize the Asian Noodle Sauce

This is where you get to have a little fun and personalize your sauce! The 8 ingredients listed are just a guideline showing you the ratios of savory, sweet, spicy, sour and umami flavorings. However, you can take it one step further by trying some of these substitutions or additions.

Noodle Pairing Guide

If you have been following us long enough, you know we are all about using what you have on hand. If all you have on hand is spaghetti noodles, use spaghetti noodles for your Asian stir fry. They are slurpable and delicious. If you have access to a robust international section of your grocery store or an international market, try these fun options.

• Korean Noodles - Discover traditional sweet potato noodles for their fun springy texture.
• Chinese Noodles - Try Chinese sesame noodles with Lo Mein or egg noodles to hold on to the delicious sauce.
• Thai Noodles - Pad Thai rice noodles are one of our favorites. They come in thin, medium and large cut.
• Indonesian Noodles - Fresh thin egg noodles, Chinese wheat noodles or even ramen noodles from the package all work well with Indonesian stir-fried noodles.
• Japanese Noodles - Try udon or yakisoba for noodle slurping deliciousness.

When to add the Sauce to the Noodles?

This homemade Asian Noodle Sauce is best when added at the very end of the stir-frying process. Here are the basic guidelines for stir frying Asian noodles.

• Start with oil and aromatics in the pan.
• Cook the proteins and remove.
• Stir fry the vegetables.
• Add in the cooked/prepared noodles to the veggies along with the cooked protein.
• Drizzle in your delicious 5-minute noodle sauce and stir fry until well combined and aromatic.
• Enjoy while hot!

Ratio of Stir Fry Sauce to Noodles

The amount of sauce you decide to add to the cooked noodles is based on your taste preferences.

A basic ratio of stir fry sauce to Noodles is to use approximately 1 tablespoon of sauce for each serving of noodles.

FYI a serving of noodles is typically about 2 ounces (56 grams) of dry noodles per person. Depending on the type of noodle this can be about 1.5 - 2 cups cooked noodles. (I know! We were sad to hear this news too, because who doesn't LOVE noodles)

If you want a stronger flavor, add more sauce. However, if you want a less savory noodle, add less. We like to start out with a little less, taste the noodle dish and add more as needed.