Hoisin sauce is a common ingredient in Asian cuisine, used for glazing and flavoring a wide variety of grilled or stir-fry meat and seafood dishes. It can even be used for preparing marinades, but also as a dipping sauce for spring rolls, egg rolls, grilled tofu, and other appetizers, or as a base for preparing more complex sauces.
With a unique blend of flavors, the aromatic hoisin sauce is usually made with starches such as sweet potato, wheat or rice, fermented soybeans, sesame paste, garlic, rice vinegar, red chili peppers, and brown sugar. With its distinctive, well-balanced flavor of salty, sweet, and spicy notes, hoisin sauce adds a boost of umami to many classic Chinese dishes such as
Peking duck and
moo shu pork.