Use my versatile All-Purpose Miso Sauce to make glazes, marinades, dressings, and dipping sauces. This sweet and savory sauce is the secret to many of your favorite Japanese dishes. Add it to any protein or vegetable for a boost of authentic umami flavor. This vegan-friendly sauce is super easy to put together with just four ingredients.
It’s always good to have homemade sauces around in your kitchen so you don’t end up with the store-bought stuff. Not only you have complete control over the ingredients, but a homemade sauce always tastes so much better. Today I’m sharing my secret magic sauce: the brilliant All-Purpose Miso Sauce.
Whether it is to add a little depth or complexity, this miso sauce never fails to jazz up a dish whenever something is amiss. Just like a reliable friend you can count on anytime!
The Best Miso Sauce
5 reasons to love this sauce:
- It’s full of authentic Japanese flavor. The sauce is the guarded secret to many of your favorite Japanese dishes.
- Super easy to put together & only 4 simple ingredients needed!
- Long shelf life. Make once and store well in the fridge for up to 2 months.
- Its ability to transform. You can get a whole variety of homemade sauce with varying flavors by using different miso. Mild, sweet or pungent – you decide.
- Unlike bottled seasoning sauces, this homemade sauce is free of processed ingredients and MSG (monosodium glutamate).
3 Things to Know When Making All-Purpose Miso Sauce
1. Saltiness varies based on the miso brand/type
If you’re using a different brand or type of miso, keep in mind that the saltiness level may differ from my recipe. So adjust accordingly.
2. Different types of miso yield different flavors
Miso can be made of rice, barley, soybean, or koji, and each one has different strengths and depth. Just like saltiness, if you’re using a different type of miso, your homemade miso sauce may not taste exactly like mine. It also means you can literally make a variety of this sauce by using different types of miso.
3. Miso burns easily
Miso itself burns easily while cooking, but it gets even more susceptible when you include mirin and/or sugar. Be sure to keep a close eye of the pot. Stay around to scrape the bottom of the pot and keep stirring.
Recipe Ideas with All-Purpose Miso Sauce
- Marinade: Use different proteins including fish, chicken, pork, beef, and tofu. Cook in the foil, oven or pan fry.
- Stir Fry: Add just a tablespoon or two of the miso sauce to the stir-fry dishes.
- Simmered Dishes (Nimono): Simmer root vegetables and protein with miso sauce.
- Dipping Sauce: for your steamed vegetables, hot pot, or simply, fresh cucumber.
- Dressing: Coat with all kinds of vegetables and add them to the salad dressing base.
Sweet, savory, versatile, and full of umami, that’s what makes this All-Purpose Miso Sauce so brilliant. I know you’d have fun integrating the sauce into more of your cooking.
Recipe Ideas:
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All-Purpose Miso Sauce
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Add 1 cup miso, 1 cup mirin, ½ cup sake, and 2 Tbsp sugar to a small saucepan.
- Whisk it all together. Set the pot on the stove and bring the sauce to a boil over medium heat.
- Once bubbling, reduce the heat to low. Keep stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot to prevent the sauce from burning. Simmer for 20–30 minutes until thickened. Your miso sauce is now ready to use.
To Serve
- Enjoy this All-Purpose Miso Sauce as a marinade for protein like chicken thighs in my Miso Chicken recipe. You can also use it to make my delicious Tahini Miso Dressing to serve with all kinds of vegetables and salads like my Roasted Cauliflower Kale Salad.
To Store
- Transfer the sauce to an airtight container and let it cool completely. Close the lid and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.
I just made the sauce and it turned out very salty. Do you think I can still save the sauce? I’m wondering if I should add more mirin and sake and go through the simmering process again?
Hi Jason! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
If you like to add more mirin and sake, you can do that and simmer it again. However, the balance of the flavor might need to adjust. You can also save the sauce as is and use it as condiments. Use this All-Purpose Miso Sauce to make simple glazes, marinades, dressings, or dipping sauces.
We hope this helps!
Hi Nami! Great recipe – mine came out good. Can I freeze this all purpose miso?
Hi Luz! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post and trying her recipe!
Yes, you can freeze this. But it would not be hard frozen because of Miso.
We hope this helps!
Can miso broth be used if that is the only thing available?
Hi Natalie, Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Miso broth contains Dashi, and it will not last long if you use it in this recipe. And if you are replacing the Miso amount with Miso broth, it will be more waterly and need to adjust the other ingredients. So we hope you can find Miso paste instead.
This is a great recipe. I’m on a low acid diet so I mixed it with some mayonnaise and it makes a great salad dressing or veggie dip.
Hi Pam! What a great idea! Thank you for trying this recipe and sharing your cooking experience with us!
Hi Nami,
What can I substitute sake and mirin with? This sauce looks great!
Thanks
Dorothy
Hi Dorothy! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post!
Here are links where Nami explains how to substitute condiments. We hope this helps!
https://www.justonecookbook.com/mirin/
https://www.justonecookbook.com/sake/
Hi Nami! Loved the sauce although mine had a bitter after taste. I must’ve burned the miso by accident. Any remedies? 🙁
Hi Eli, Thank you for trying this recipe. We are sorry to hear that it has a bitter burned taste.
The burnt taste and smell are not easy to cover up. Maybe you can add a little soy sauce to it..? We hope it works.
While in Japan I ate a hot dipping sauce for vegetables. The most we could understand was that it was made with barley miso. Do you happen to have a recipe for a hot barley miso veggie dip? It was unforgettable. I am going to try this recipe for miso sauce, just wondered if you might know of a barely miso recipe. Great blog. Love it.
Hi Roberta, Thank you very much for your kind feedback! We currently have non-spicy miso sauce like this one on the site. They have many different Miso Sauce types in Japan, and not sure which hot dipping sauce you enjoyed in Japan. It may have Japanese red hot pepper, Karashi (Japanese mustard), or Asian hot sauce in the Miso Sauce.
If you use Barley Miso for this recipe and add your favorite spice, you may find the taste you enjoyed in Japan. We hope this helps!
I tried it out but my sauce is more liquid than creamy and i used your meassurements….(in ml) hmm
Hi Danica, Thank you very much for trying this recipe! This sauce needs to reach the point that you see bubbling (Step 4), then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20-30 minutes until thickened. So if you put back your sauce in the pot and heat up again, and simmer (low heat), it should be fine. We hope this helps!
I have made the miso sauce and am excited to use it! Would it be a good marinade for a flank steak? If so, how would you use it to do this, (ie mix with sake or vinegar, etc), and how long would you marinate for?
I have used several of your recipes and am very pleased with how well they turned out–especially because my husband and son enjoyed them so much!
Hi Heather, Thank you very much for trying many of Nami’s recipe. If you would like to use it as a marinade, marinate the beef with just a small amount of AP miso sauce and REMOVE the miso COMPLETELY before cooking. (because miso burns really easily.) Then You can heat the sauce and drizzle a bit before serving. We hope this helps!
The recipe suggests “Use this All-Purpose Miso Sauce to make simple glazes”. What’s the difference between this miso sauce and a miso glaze? If there is a difference how do you make the glaze?
Hi JC, They are the same recipe, but how you use it is the difference. The glaze is formed by thickening the sauce so that it turns into a shiny concoction that can be brushed on cooked or raw meat to enhance the flavor. The sauce may be used as a quick marinade to grill or bake fish or seafood. We hope this helps!
Hi Nami, preparing to make this and noticed the quantities are off in the Print version. For example the header says 1ml (1.25 cup), the Ingredients list 0.01 cup for miso, Kirin, sake and then 0.01 tbsp for sugar. I am very used to ml as a European but still, should probably be fixed 🙂 ? Love your stuff!
Hi Con,
Thank you for trying this recipe!
We’re preparing to update the recipe plugin that incorporates metric measurement (so that we don’t have to manually calculate and add to the note next to the ingredient). We hope it will be better.
Thank you for writing to us!☺️
Are you supposed to keep it in the fridge for two months before use or can it stay in the fridge for two months?
Hi Elliot! You can store it in the fridge for 2 months (and use it meanwhile). 🙂
What kind of sugar do you usually use ? It doesn’t seem like you are using white sugar from the picture above. Does it make a difference ? Just wonder since I would like to follow exactly . 😊 Thanks a lot.
Hi Bessie! I use organic cane sugar for my cooking and use white granulated sugar for baking. One in the picture is organic cane sugar from Trader Joe’s or Costco…
Q: Could you mix in the Miso as the sauce cools?
Thank you for putting this information out here. I am new to Asian cooking, but I’m tired of unhealthy foods. I do have one question though, I use Miso for it’s living culture as much as for it’s taste. Could you mix in the Miso as the sauce cools? If not in this recipe do you have another that preserves the natural cultures?
Thank you
Evelyn Mitchell
Hi Evelyn! We use miso in dipping sauce or dressing, and that’s not being cooked/added heat. We use miso for simmering, soup, broiling, many dishes as seasoning. 🙂
Thank you
Hello, Nami!
Can I use the Korean soybean paste (easily available where I am [Philippines]) instead of the miso paste that is used in the recipe here?
Hi Ana! I’m sorry but 1) I have never used it to make this recipe (as a substitute), 2) Miso is the main ingredient in this recipe, so I’m afraid it won’t work missing the main component of the recipe… I know a lot of readers in the Philipines make my recipes, and I assume they can find miso there.
Have you checked this list?
https://www.justonecookbook.com/japanese-grocery-stores-around-the-world/#Philippines
Thanks so much for your response! I will check out one of these stores.