An Asian Wing Sauce Without the Sugar!
I’ve always been a huge fan of Asian wing sauce. In all honesty I can do without Buffalo sauce. All I need is a spicy, salty, and subtly sweet Asian style wing sauce and I’m a happy camper. The problem is there are virtually no keto friendly options at the grocery store. Buffalo sauce is easy to find, but every time I search for an asian sauce it is littered with sugar, honey, hoisin, or soy. After multiple trips in which I returned home defeated and empty handed I set out to make my own, homemade Asian wing sauce!
The ingredients
The ingredient list is somewhat lengthy, but just about every ingredient is critical! If you can’t take the heat you can leave out the chili’s but everything else you’re going to want.
Finely chop all the ingredients pictured above. A trick I use for the ginger is to put it in the freezer and then grate it with a cheese grater. I thought it was weird at first, but it allows you to get the ginger really finely ground. I just store all of my ginger in the fridge now.
Set it and Forget it
The longer the sauce cooks the better, to a point. I like to allow it to cook for a minimum of 15 minutes, but usually closer to a half hour. This allows for the flavors of all the spices to really come out and impart themselves into the sauce. I’ll detail the cooking process in the recipe instructions below.
The Wings
If you’re still looking for a good wing recipe(I feel your pain) check out our recipe for the crispiest oven baked wings you’ve ever had! They are a great vessel for this fantastic sauce. I would recommend not applying the sauce until after the wings are done cooking though. That will help to achieve maximum crispiness!
Asian Wing Sauce
Ingredients:
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 2 small chilis finely chopped
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 1 medium shallot finely chopped
- 1 tbsp Sesame Seeds
- 1/2 cup Water
- 2 tbsp liquid aminos
- 1 tsp Sesame Oil
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar Or lime juice
- 1 tbsp ghee
Instructions:
- Start by prepping all of the ingredients. Chop the garlic, chili's, shllot and grate the ginger.
- Heat ghee in a saucepan over medium-low heat. When ghee is up to temperature add garlic, shallot, ginger, chili's and sesame seeds. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until garlic/onions begin to change color.
- Add all of the liquid ingredients to the sauce pan. This includes water, sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar. Turn heat to high and cover. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes check the thickness of the sauce. If it is not thick enough take the lid off and continue to reduce the sauce until it is to your liking. If the sauce is too thick add a bit of water to it.
- Toss your favorite wings in this Asian sauce and enjoy!
Notes
Written by
Matt Gaedke
Matt is a former college basketball player turned computer engineer who discovered his passion for health and nutrition after cutting sugar from his diet in 2016. That year he founded KetoConnect with Megha in order to share their ketogenic lifestyle through recipes, videos, and educational content. Matt is always seeking to grow and try new things, a passion he shares with his wife and two amazing sons.
Can I assume that the majority of the carbs is from the rice wine vinegar?
It would be from the shallot, chilis, and ginger, and probably a small amount from the vinegar. You can find rice wine vinegar with zero sugar though, so I would look for that.
The instructions mention soy sauce but the ingredients don’t have soy sauce listed at all??
It is the liquid aminos which can be substituted for soy sauce.
I simmered in high for about 10 minutes and removed the lid. I continued to simmer ON HIGH and for 5 more minutes and the sauce came out great. When you cook it’s important to watch the stove people! Don’t leave a sauce simmering on high for 20 minutes, walk away, and come back to find out that its burnt. Lol common sense
is it 9net carb for the whole recipe?
No it should be per 1 cup.
First I burnt the sauce, 2nd try it was really salty…not sure why. I didn’t use salt. Puzzled
What do all those carbs come from?
What other types of chili’s can you use….I dont have any chilis available. Red pepper flakes?
Yes! That will work, or even ground red pepper or cayenne.
I’m super impressed! This turned out amazing, along with your wing recipe. I added just a liiiittle bit of stevia to give me that classic sweet/spicy/savory combo. This’ll definitely be a regular treat. 🙂 Waaaay better than BWW!
Do you think I can use this sauce to marinate chicken before cooking.
They were so yum thank you. I might end have got the sauce 100% correct but good enough to say best chicken wings ever. I served them with cauliflower fried rice ?
PLEASE change your directions for the following excerpt from your recipe! Fortunately I read the comments before I burned down my kitchen. 😉
“Add all of the liquid ingredients to the sauce pan. This includes water, sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar. Turn heat to high and cover. Allow to simmer for 20 minutes.”
Should be, turn to low and cover.
Sorry about that. Put the stove to a temperature where the sauce can simmer until the desired consistency.
can we substitute ghee?
You can sub with butter.
Can you use butter instead of ghee or is it critical to use ghee? Also any substitute for sesame oil?
Yes, you can use butter.
Hi . thanks for this amazing and easy recipe. I was having so much difficulty in finding a low carb sauce.
Are you removing the ribs and most of the seeds from the Chilis when you prep the vegetables or just chopping them as is and adding to the veggies?
Just chopping them all up.
Awesome sauce! Couldnt wait the 20 min- at 10 min I tossed the beef and broccoli in it-
Will use this sauce over and over.
Thanks!
You should fix the directions. 20 minutes on high set off my smoke alarm and has caused me to have to sit outside for 30+ minutes. Thanks.
Fantastic versatile sauce! I tossed together shrimp, bok choy, shitake mushrooms and a few red pepper slices, placed them on a sheet pan, drizzled it with this sauce, stirred and roasted it all for 20 min at 450degrees. Yummy-O delicious. I will definitely use this sauce again. Home run guys!
What kind of chili’s are you using?
Just small red chillis. Smaller than jalapenos.
Do you really mean to say turn to high heat and cover for 20 minutes? Or is it supposed to be bring to a boil then reduce temp to simmer for 20 minutes?
It just needs to simmer until it reduces to where the consistency is thick and sticky. This should be done at a simmer and it takes about 20 minutes, but might vary slightly.
Alas I read the comments too late to save my batch of sauce. I questioned the instructions when I read them but went with the literal. It would be helpful to change the text in the original. For tonight I’m gonna have to resort to the bottled sauce.
yep cooking on high with the top on if totally gonna burn your sauce, should be changed to simmer and stir for 20 mins to reduce.
Agree! Literal directions are always better! It saves these type of mistakes. Thanks for pointing this out.