This easy homemade duck sauce combines simple ingredients to make a delicious sweet and sour condiment. It’s perfect to serve alongside things like egg rolls, wontons, chicken and more.
Forget hoarding little packets from your take-out meal or buying a premade bottle from the store, you can make your own homemade duck sauce at home with just a few ingredients.
When we would go out to eat at a Chinese restaurant or got take-out, I always had to remind my mom to make sure to get extra packets of duck sauce. I couldn’t even think to eat my egg roll without this tasty sauce and a little bit of Chinese hot mustard.
After moving to California I realized that it was hard to find and most people didn’t know what I was even talking about. That’s when I decided to come up with this recipe.
What is duck sauce?
Chinese duck sauce is a sweet and sour flavored condiment that has a jelly like texture. The name is thought to have originated because it was originally served with fried duck.
Now, it’s typically served as a dip at American Chinese restaurants alongside things like spring rolls, egg rolls, lumpia and fried wonton strips. This sweet sauce is a great compliment to fried, salty foods.
What you need
There are many different variations of this sauce recipe. This is a simple version with easy to find ingredients.
Apricot Jam – This can be found in the jelly and jam section of the grocery store. I prefer using apricot but you could substitute with peach jam.
Rice Vinegar – You can also substitute with white vinegar.
Soy Sauce – For this recipe I use low sodium soy sauce but either works well.
Sweet Chili Sauce – This adds a hint of sweetness to the sauce. If you don’t want to buy a jar of chili sauce, you can replace with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.
Garlic Powder – Adds another layer of flavor.
How to make
No need to buy the store bought version of this sauce that’s full of corn syrup and other strange ingredients. This recipe can be made from scratch in about 5 minutes and it lasts for several weeks.
- Mix together apricot jam, soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic powder, and chili sauce.
- Place a strainer over a bowl and put the mixture through the strainer to achieve a smooth sauce. *** You can skip this step if you like a chunkier sauce.
- Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator.
Recipe tips and variations
- If you would like to experiment with flavor, try using 1/2 cup apricot jam and 1/2 cup peach jam. You could also add 1/2 tablespoon of dry ground mustard for some added flavor.
- No strainer, no problem. It tastes delicious smooth or chunky.
How to store
This will last 2-3 weeks in covered in the refrigerator. I would not recommend freezing.
More easy sauce recipes
If you made this recipe please feel free to let me know how you liked it in the comments.
Homemade Duck Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup apricot jam
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sweet chili sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Stir together apricot jam, chili sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and garlic powder.
- Place strainer over a bowl and put the mixture through the strainer to remove any chunks.
- Serve immediately or cover and store in the refrigerator.
Barbara
For countless years, when I have a get together my friends request my homemade eggrolls… They’re fantastic! Last night I had a party, I have never made Duck Sauce before… I didn’t have the jam but I had the real fruit. So, I boiled and reduced the fruit, both peach and apricot. And then incorporated that into your exact recipe for the sauce. It was fantastic! I want to say again it was fantastic! Huge hit, everyone loved it… Thank you!
Diane G
I’ve been craving duck sauce with the freshly fried crispy noodles that I used to get when having Chinese food in a quality restaurant up north…I’m in a tiny GA town and all I can get are the little packets 🙁 I’m making the sauce tonight and tomorrow I’ll drive a half hour to get egg roll wrappers to fry up.
Janice
Wow. Amazing. A Californian, here, for some reason they just don’t know what duck sauce is. I always get that neon red, ultra sweet sauce. But your sauce is excellent. I didn’t have any apricot or peach preserves, but substituted with mandarin orange marmalade. Perfect recipe. Thanks
Carole
This is really good! Easy to make. Not one of the previous comments made the sauce – they just thought it looked good. Why not just try it?
Anosa Malanga
This ia my first time to learn about this recipe and I am so interested to try it out. I hope I will be able to make this correctly on my first try. Thank you for sharing this to your readers.
monica y
Wow so simple to make, I think I am buying the ingredients this weekend and make some next week, I love adding sauces like this to appetizers and even salads
Rosemary
I do love duck sauce though I’ve never thought of making it at home. It’s so much easier than I thought and I’m quite surprised about the apricot jam. I can’t wait to try it.
Diana
I hear you, we are from up north and have the same problem, and when my husband ask for extra packets they wanted to charge him 75 cents, he said see ya I will not be back!!
Swathi
This homemade duck sauce looks so yum. Need to try this best with eggrolls.
Shoma
Duck sauce is a must-have in our house! I usually have 10-20 packets ready but I love that you have provided a homemade recipe!
Catalina
This sauce sounds fancy and looks so delicious! It’s on my next to make list!
Kita Bryant
I have always wanted to make a duck sauce. This looks so good!
Mama Maggie's Kitchen
Yum! I can’t wait to make this Homemade Duck Sauce! 2Surely, my husband and son will love to have this on our table. Thank you for sharing.
Acupofassamtea
. The duck sauce sounds awesome. I love the ingredients you are using
Ruth I
I’ll definitely love this sauce. This looks good and i always wanted to have this kind of flavor with my filipino fried dishes. I think I’ll be making many of this.
Tasheena
I’m a huge fan of duck sauce. I can’t wait to make this and have it on hand.
Heather D
I never though to make my own. This is so helpful when the chinese food place forgets it.
Heather
I had no idea those were the ingredients in duck sauce! That was my favorite as a kid!
Marysa
My daughter LOVES duck sauce, and I will have to give her this recipe. We never seem to have duck sauce on hand and I never thought to make our own!
Monica Simpson
Is this similar to sweet and sour sauce? If so, my kids will love it. I can see them dipping their chicken nuggets into this sauce.
Amber Myers
Yum, I will have to make this. I love to make egg rolls with fried rice, so this is perfect.