As I’m about to tell you about the value of making your own sauces from scratch, I feel it’s only fair to also tell you I bought a not-insignificant-sized jar of Cheez Whiz last week. So please, don’t take me too seriously. I mostly make my own sauces because I don’t remember to buy them, not because I’m opposed to jars.
You know I believe strongly in healthy, balanced eating, and I believe just as strongly that dessert should be full of all the calories. (Remember last week?) Those desserty calories, though, should be things like real-deal butter, cream, and chocolate, and I generally draw the line at processed food (I’m looking at you, Cool Whip.)
(But not you, cake mix. You make my life so much easier and my cake so much fluffier.)
All of which to say, I basically make food choices to suit my convenience at least 50% of the time. SO. Make it homemade if you can, and don’t stress if you can’t, just buy the thing with the least unpronounceable ingredients and call it a day. We’re all human here, and we all have busy lives that involve more than worrying about dying from overconsumption of Cheez Whiz.
That stuff won’t kill you, it’s magic.
But seriously, honey garlic sauce? Super easy. Takes about as long as opening a jar, if opening the jar involves going downstairs to disturb your working husband so he can twist off the cap for you and make you feel safe with his muscular display.
What, just me?
You might wonder why, with this super-simple version already on the blog, I’m talking about honey garlic sauce at all. Or you might (more likely) not be wondering that at all, but hey, I’m going to tell you. It’s mostly because I only use that sauce with that recipe, and a little because I wanted a version with ginger and I had an excuse. You see, Litehouse came out with some new freeze-dried seasonings and kindly offered to send me a few to try out. Not one to turn down a bit of spice in my life, I said “Sure”, and behold!
The red onion is the one I use most often and which is basically gone, because I hate buying an enormous red onion for the inevitable tiny bit I need for a salad or a pizza or roasted Brussels sprouts or some such use where they add so much flavour but you really need so little. Ginger is another one I rarely have on hand in the fresh version, so these little freeze-dried chunks are perfect! They rehydrate during cooking and so the measurements are basically equivalent to fresh, and they add great fresh flavour without the stress of using the excess within the next 5 days.
This honey garlic sauce thickens as it cools, so if you’re using it right away things will be a lot saucier than if you keep it in the fridge overnight. It will be runnier than it looks in the post-refrigeration pictures, is what I’m saying :) I don’t recommend freezing it – I did, to see what would happen, and while it still tasted good, the texture never recovered. I used the thawed sauce on chicken, which tasted great, but a lot of the sauce slid off.
So instead of making all my mistakes, this sauce is best used fresh. Then it is perfect for stirfry and for tossing chicken pieces (thighs, drumsticks, wings) after pre-baking
them. Bake your chicken until almost cooked through, toss in big bowl with the sauce to coat, and bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for another 5-10 minutes to finish the chicken and caramelize the sauce a bit. Finger-lickin’ good!
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon minced fresh ginger root (1 tsp dried)
- 2½ cups water
- 5 tablespoons honey
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ½ tsp each salt and pepper
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- ⅓ cup water
- Mix together the brown sugar, garlic, ginger, 2½ cups water, honey, and soy sauce in a saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil.
- Whisk together the cornstarch and ⅓ cup water in measuring cup or a small bowl; whisk into the sauce mixture and let simmer gently until slightly thickened. Sauce will thicken further as it cools, but as-is it is perfect for a nice saucy stirfry or for tossing with a batch of wings or chicken drumsticks!
Adapted from Krista’s Sticky Honey Garlic Wings.
Can this sauce be canned for longer storage? Water canning or pressure canning method?
I have no idea, sorry! If you try it out let me know!
Garlic does not pressure can well. You can use garlic powder, tho
My husband loved it. Raved about it the whole meal.
What the shelf life?
It will easily last a week or two in the fridge! Just reheat and stir well to use.
I didn’t take out my ingredients first, so I didn’t realise that I didn’t have enough honey, so I used corn syrup instead and it was really good, although 10 minutes on med-hi was too long
Perfect recipe! Thank you for sharing :)
Just wondering what the quality of honey was that you used because I used real raw local honey and my sauce didn’t separate at all after refridgerating it,it stayed the same consistency absolutely delicious recupe thank you!!!
As for the muscles, I still request a display from Dad on a regular basis (opening jars, of course ;). As for the spices from Litehouse, I will definitely try their spices. Their dressings are delicious, so I expect no less from their spices. :) As for honey garlic, I am not usually a fan, but I know lots of people who are so I may try it for their sake. :)
This was a fun post to read. I love getting my small dose of Anna through reading your writing. :) And just last night I had to ask Stan to open a jar for me! ;) LOL.
Just so you know, ginger root works well to freeze and grate off what’s needed when it is frozen. If it’s a bit too hard to grate, I run the cut end under warm water for a few seconds and then grate it. I use a potato peeler to cut away the peel for the amount that I plan to grate. Works like a charm :-) This way I can always have ginger root on hand without thinking ahead for what I’m going to be making for dinner.
Good to know! Thanks for the tip!!