Dumpling Dipping Sauce

With just four ingredients and five minutes of your time, you can take your dumplings from meh to magnificent by making this dipping sauce. Whether you've got gyoza, potstickers, or wontons, either fried or steamed, this easy dipping sauce for dumplings will enhance your dish without overpowering the delicate flavors.

What is dumpling sauce made of?

Let's talk about those four magic ingredients that comprise dumpling dipping sauce. First, we have soy sauce, one of the oldest and most widely consumed condiments in the world. It originated in China more than 2,000 years ago, where it was made largely from fermented soybeans and brine. Though we tend to think of soy sauce as a singular food item, there are actually enough variations across countries and brewing methods to make your head spin.

When a recipe generically calls for soy sauce, it's usually referring to dark Japanese shoyu (the standard kind at American grocery stores) or light Chinese soy sauce (sometimes called "fresh" or "pure bean"). A note about gluten: The majority of modern soy sauces also contain roasted wheat, especially Japanese varieties, except for tamari.

Next, we have rice vinegar, which is made from fermented rice. While Chinese rice vinegars tend to be stronger than their Japanese counterparts, both are less acidic than the distilled white vinegar we use in the States — so do make sure you seek out rice vinegar for this recipe. You'll want a white rice vinegar here, not anything labeled black.

Tangy, spicy chile-garlic sauce is a staple condiment that contains not much more than red chiles, garlic, rice vinegar, and salt. Sort of a chunky version of sriracha, it's often used by itself as a dipping sauce. The brand you're most likely to encounter is Huy Fong, which is Vietnamese. Be sure your jar is indeed chile-garlic, not just chile sauce.

Last, this recipe calls for a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil, which imparts a deep, nutty flavor to the dipping sauce. Toasted varieties should be dark in color, not light like raw sesame oil.