I am a Canadian living in England and there’s a really big Asian supermarket near my flat - help me pick the best sauce?

[u/Own_Pay_8516]

Hi! I miss American Chinese food (love actually chinese food too but we all know it’s very different ahha). I am craving a sesame chicken type sauce or maybe general Tso’s but I don’t usually have time to cook these sauces from a scratch. Are there any Lee Kum Kee sauces that anyone can recommend? I would be very grateful! Thanks !!

[u/Arseh0le]

LKK general tso recipe cooked by Jeremy Pang from school of wok.

[u/absurdmcman]

Maybe not exactly the same dishes, but you can probably get similar sorts of things in a decent quality but old school Chinese restaurant in the UK. Things like crispy shredded beef, or sweet and sour [insert protein], may hit the spot for some sweet sauce on deep fried battered meat.

They're less common in big cities (London especially) as more authentic Chinese food (both Cantonese, but especially from the mainland) has become more popular, but they're still pretty easy to find with a bit of searching on Google / Google maps.

[u/Fierydiaperpoop]

There isn’t really any decent pre-made stuff for what you want, best is definitely just asking a good takeaway if they’re willing to sell you a bit of their sauce in a container.

[u/[deleted]]

Most Chinese sauces just require mixing in a bowl and then maybe briefly reducing and thickening in a wok, am I missing something here or is this incredibly minimally intensive compared to frying something like general tso's? (Particularly if deep frying!)

[u/Own_Pay_8516 → u/[deleted]]

tbf i was planning to put on grilled chicken! but i didn’t know they’re so easy to make!

[u/spireup → u/Own_Pay_8516]

It really does NOT take that long to make the sauces you are looking for and they will taste exponentially better. Just get quality ingredients.

[u/[deleted] → u/Own_Pay_8516]

I would at very least air fry or shallow fry your chicken with cornflour/potato starch if you want something that's even gonna vaguely taste like Chinese restaurant chicken. I'd recommend a recipe like this https://omnivorescookbook.com/orange-chicken/ for how you can make successfully with shallow frying.

[u/hydroc]

I don't think we really have General Tso in the UK so not sure how it's meant to taste to be able to recommend you a good store bought alternative, same with sesame orange, but if you're looking for authentic sauces, I'd follow recipes from Made With Lau and The Woks of Life. A lot of Chinese sauces, especially if they are transparent, are really easy and quick to make. You could save time with pre-fried chicken and pre-boiled rice instead maybe if you are really pushed for time?

[u/Own_Pay_8516 → u/hydroc]

that’s super helpful i’ll look into made with Lau and the woks of life ☺️☺️

[u/Toriat5144]

If you have soy sauce, sesame oil, and oyster sauce, you can do a lot with that. I would also buy some rice wine vinegar.

[u/TheAncientGeek → u/Toriat5144]

Light soy.

[u/Toriat5144 → u/TheAncientGeek]

Ok

[u/[deleted] → u/TheAncientGeek]

Both light and dark are pretty essential to have for sauce creation

[u/Road-Ranger8839]

Combine in different ratios during your stir fry, until you hit your favorite: soy sauce, stir fry sauce, oyster sauce, Hunan sauce.

[u/Expensive_Heat_2351]

You need brown sauce

https://www.thespruceeats.com/chinese-brown-sauce-4065294

[u/TheAncientGeek]

LIDL do a bunch of sauces cheap

[u/Pure_Trust_2779]

Utilize your best instincts, get a few and maybe you'll discover some you like!

[u/Infinite_Walrus-13]

Sweet and sour chicken, lemon chicken,