Make Your Own Sweet and Sour Sauce

Here’s a simple recipe for homemade sweet and sour sauce that’s quick and easy to stir together. It doesn’t require any cooking or chopping of pineapple like some other recipes for homemade sweet and sour sauce. And that’s because it uses the handy ingredient of apricot preserves to provide that sweetness!

I’ve always been able to find apricot preserves at my local Aldi store and it seems to be kind of a cross between a jam and a jelly. To get started with this sweet and sour sauce recipe, you’ll need to measure out 4 tablespoons of the apricot preserves. (If I ever want to use up my leftover apricot preserves, I make a batch of my oatmeal jam bars, yum!)

Next, to add the “sour” component to this sauce, you’ll add three more ingredients. There’s a little bit of vinegar, a little bit of soy sauce, and some ketchup. I usually use rice vinegar which is a bit more mellow, but white vinegar or cider vinegar can work in this recipe too.

And once those ingredients are stirred together, your sweet and sour sauce made with apricot preserves is ready to go! You can begin dipping your favorite items such as those familiar chicken nuggets. And did you know that the MacDonald’s sweet and sour sauce also shows apricot preserves as one of it’s ingredients? But it’s the second ingredient listed and high fructose corn syrup is the first and largest ingredient. So this is a way to still get the familiar flavor, but it makes the apricot preserves the main ingredient instead.

This recipe makes enough for a nice little batch of sweet and sour dipping sauce to use with a meal. It’s also easy to double or triple the recipe if you need a larger batch, and any leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator.