Whether it’s used as an Asian marinade for beef, chicken, pork, tofu or fish, or as a dressing for vegetables, salads, or pastas, or even as a flavoring for rice, quinoa, or any number of grains, this is the ultimate Asian master sauce and is the secret to making meal prep easier than ever before.
In This Post
Healthy and delicious food doesn’t have to be complex. In fact, when your cooking method centers around meal prep and batch cooking, the most basic of ingredients can easily be transformed into craveable dishes everyone will want and come back asking for more.
The secret is in the master sauce, and it’s the whole idea behind batch cooking.
This strategy is the centerpiece of our Nourished Planner Batch Cooking Basics meal prep guide, where we share the strategy and recipes for preparing five basic master recipes as the interchangeable base to build just one meal, or even a whole week’s worth.
This Asian master sauce recipe is a multi-layer tool that isn’t limited to just being a seasoning added to a dish at the end. With a simple shake of a mason jar, this master sauce can become a marinade, a salad dressing, added to the cooking water for a more flavorful grain or sautéed or tossed with vegetables for even more infused flavor within reach of your garlic-scented fingertips.
Ingredients for Asian Marinade Master Sauce
This marinade is super simple with just a few ingredients that together become a flavor-infusing powerhouse:
- ponzu sauce—a citrus-flavored soy sauce found in the Asian aisle.
- sesame oil—keep your sesame oil in the refrigerator after opening where it will stay good for up to 2 years.
- canola oil—you can also use another neutral flavored oil like vegetable or grapeseed oil.
- rice vinegar—use seasoned or regular rice vinegar. Seasoned rice vinegar has a bit more sugar and salt in it.
- honey—you can also use brown sugar or granulated sugar
- fresh garlic—I prefer pressed garlic rather than minced because it melds together better
- fresh ginger—grate or mince, but like the garlic, I prefer grated
- red pepper flakes—optional, but I never leave them out
Add 2 tablespoons of fresh juice (orange, pineapple, mango) and toasted sesame seeds, or swap out the ponzu sauce with fish sauce or regular soy sauce for a slightly different flavor. 
How to Use As an Asian Marinade
To use as a marinade, add this Asian master sauce to your choice of protein and marinade for 15 minutes for more delicate proteins like shrimp, fish, or tofu and up to overnight for pork, chicken, or thinner cuts or cubes of beef. *I’ll be sharing the recipe for the marinated steak above later this week so stay tuned! Thicker pieces of meat can tolerate a longer marinade up to overnight, or double the recipe and use as the braising liquid for thicker cuts like roast pork ribs, with 2-3 cups of a beef broth for a low and slow braise in the oven (275°F for 3-4 hours). 
How to Use As an Asian Stir-Fry Sauce
To turn this sauce into a stir-fry, add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch to thicken as a sauce with your favorite protein and vegetables over rice, noodles, or quinoa. Or season veggies all on their own too. *And, I’ll be sharing the recipe for the steak and broccoli ramen noodles above later this week too! To use this Asian master sauce as a flavoring, add 2 tablespoons or more to grains or rice as it cooks (or stir in afterward), or use as a dressing for a green lettuce Asian chicken salad or a Vietnamese-inspired rice noodle salad with shredded carrots, bean sprouts and cucumbers. 
The Secret Ingredient for Easy Meal Prep
Check out the Nourished Planner Batch Cooking Basics meal prep guide to learn how to add more variety but not much more time in the kitchen with the secrets to turning 5 basic recipes into 20+ meals by basic ingredients in different ways so your weekly meal planning doesn’t taste like the same old thing. If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on this recipe below and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.
Asian Marinade and Master Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ cup ponzu
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 3 cloves garlic minced or pressed
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red chili flakes optional
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a jar with a fitted lid and shake well until combined, or stir with a whisk. Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.
We send good emails. Subscribe to FoodieCrush and have each post plus exclusive content only for our subscribers delivered straight to your e-mail box.
Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for more FoodieCrush inspiration.
As always, thank you for reading and supporting companies I partner with, which allows me to create more unique content and recipes for you. There may be affiliate links in this post of which I receive a small commission. All opinions are always my own.
Perhaps it’s an unclear energetic fiber, however my most loved brand of additional firm tofu is Liberté. The plain or fine herbs assortments are both incredible, and the surface makes it extremely simple to plan . Check the expiry date when you get them, however they more often than not keep very nearly a month in the cooler, and tofu can be solidified
Very good food yummy. Thanks for sharing keep up the good work.
Moving boxes
Thank you so much, Ali!
I Must Say We Should Have An Online Discussion On This.
I am a previous gourmet specialist and now a Lacto-Ovo vegan, and I utilize it like squeezed tofu, the BLT thought is a decent one, I make mix fry’s, stewed dishes, Asian soups, cleaved fine and sauteed with onions and made into a veggie messy joe or bean stew. With any sort of squeezed protein, similar to tofu or seitan even quorn, it is quite well open to anything, if your a long-lasting veggie, at that point meat was never in your eating routine, yet as a previous meat eater I take a gander at these items now as a meat substitution and how to function them into my more established formulas.
lemon juice, salt, and pepper to a blender, then combo it until its all integrated. soften your butter until the foaming stops, and, at the same time as the butter continues to be very hot, slowly flow it into the walking blender. the heat from the butter “cooks” the eggs lightly within the same manner a double boiler could. you would possibly want to have a bit more butter handy because this could come out a piece thicker than conventional hollandaise. After the butter is performed, throw in a pinch of dill, tarragon, cayenne, or something you like.
hey guys roblox is now with free robux generator lets check it out
This seems a tasty sauce, but you should change the name to avoid confusion.
“Master Sauce” in Chinese cooking is an entirely different thing with centuries of people making their versions from the various meats and herbs they were able to acquire over time.Something like ponzu would never be an ingredient because it is a fresh condiment that would not stand up to continuous redeductions.
Love your article, find the “gray” Print extremely hard to read. The black headlines however are very easy to read. Would it be possible to make the entire article in the “normal” colored print. Unfortunately I have macular degeneration and reading the article on my iPhone is nearly impossible.
Used this to make your ramen noodles with marinated steak and broccoli and the flavors were spot on. Yum!
really nice marinade, I have a sesame based one that’s similar to this but doesn’t include ponzu, nice, thank you
Hi I can’t get Ponzu what should I use instead?
Hi I can’t get Ponzu what should I use instead? Thanks in advance
I have the ingredients copied down but it did not show the quantities. Could you please send them again.
This is a great Asian marinade master sauce.
Thank you this marinade sounds amazing
Will have to buy some ingredients and do it
For my next chicken meal
I’m interested in trying this recipe and as a former AE at a television station, I understand the importance of advertising revenue but does the Vaseline ad have to cover the instructions?
It makes it difficult to read.
I’m going to make this tomorrow. I have everything including the ponzu sauce. I just need to pull on the chicken from the freezer.