Hong Kong Garlic Sauce 港式蒜蓉汁 (Cantonese: gong sik suen yong zhup) should be a familiar sauce if you frequent Hong Kong Cafés. You can usually order something called the “mixed steak platter/meal” or “雜扒餐 (zhap pa tsan)”. You choose up to 3 kinds of meat; typically chicken, steak, pork chop, sausage or fish. Then you choose either rice, pasta or fries and it’s likely to come with a soup and a drink. Some restaurants will serve it on a cast iron sizzling plate which is super aromatic when you pour on the sauce. Downside is you might get some oil splatter on your shirt!
In my opinion, the sauce is equally, if not more important than the protein on the platter. So for most Hong Kong Cafés, it’s really important to get the sauce right. The most popular sauces you can choose from are probably black pepper sauce, beef gravy, onion sauce, mushroom sauce and last but not least, Hong Kong Garlic Sauce 港式蒜蓉汁 .
In my Hong Kong Garlic Sauce 港式蒜蓉汁 recipe, I’ll show you how to make an easy and delicious restaurant-style sauce. In the photo, my mixed platter had chicken, beef and a jumbo smokie. The sauce went well with everything, including the broccoli! I always find it fun to surprise my family with a home cooked Hong Kong café style dinner with mixed steak, pasta, soup and lemon tea. Sometimes I just use ready made sweetened ice tea with a few slices of lemon and canned soup. And you can’t forget the little sweet dinner roll that comes with the meal too. When I was a kid, the roll with butter was my favorite part!
When you're short on time, just pan-fry some pork chops, make white rice and add Hong Kong Garlic Sauce 港式蒜蓉汁. This sauce freezes well so make more of it on the weekend and enjoy it any day of the week!
For more Hong Kong style dishes, check out my Hong Kong cafe recipe section.
Hong Kong Garlic Sauce 港式蒜蓉汁
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1 tbsp Oil for roux
- 2 tbsp Flour
- ½ Onion , diced (or 2 shallots)
- 8 cloves Garlic , chopped
- 1 tbsp Deep-fried garlic (optional)
- 1 tbsp Tomato paste
- 1 tsp Ketchup
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp Sugar
- 1 tsp Light soy sauce
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 400 ml Chicken broth
- 1 tbsp Oil
Instructions
- Make a roux by combining 1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp flour in a pot or sauce pan. Cook on medium heat until thickened. Set aside
- Chop 8 cloves of garlic and dice ½ an onion or 2 shallots
- In a wok or pan, use medium-high heat, add 1 tbsp oil and fry onions until aromatic. Reduce heat to low
- Add 1 tbsp tomato paste, 1 tsp ketchup, 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 2 tsp sugar and 1 tsp light soy sauce. Mix well
- Add 400 ml chicken broth and ¼ tsp salt. Turn heat up to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Turn heat to low and cook until onions are quite soft
Note that salt may not be needed depending on the salt content in the broth you use - Optional: turn off heat and use an immersion blender or regular blender to puree the sauce
- Turn heat on to high, add the chopped garlic and deep-fried garlic and bring to a boil
- Add the roux 1 tbsp at a time to get the desired thickness
- Serve over meat or pasta or both
How about the chicken? How to make it? I've been craving for this for years😆
Hi Kimmy, I usually use deboned chicken thigh (skin on) meat for these dishes. My quick and easy way is simply to season it with salt, pepper and garlic powder just before frying and finish it off with a light drizzle of sweet soy sauce so you get a bit of caramelizing on the chicken. My favorite ready made sweet soy sauce is from Lee Kum Kee and it's made for claypot rice. If you want the chicken to have flavour in the meat, then you can marinate it over night with garlic, ginger, light soy sauce and sugar. You'll find that marinating over 1 hour will result in the chicken being less juicy but more flavourful. This is why I don't marinate for this dish. You'll get a lot of flavour from the sauce so I'd rather keep more of the natural juice from the chicken. Hope this helps!