What Is Ponzu Sauce—and How Do You Cook With It?

You can never have too many sauces in your refrigerator, or sauce recipes up your home chef’s coat sleeve. And if ponzu sauce isn’t yet in your repertoire, it’s time to add this Japanese staple to your kitchen. The deep brown sauce, fluid and easy to stir into or spritz onto anything, is quite easy to make from scratch, and adds a whole new level of salty, tangy flavor to a range of dishes from a myriad of cuisines. Here’s everything you need to know about ponzu sauce in order to embrace it. 

What Is Ponzu Sauce?

“Simply put, ponzu sauce is a Japanese citrus vinaigrette—a flavorful condiment and a zesty marinade,” says Megumi Hwang, co-founder of Kankitsu Labo, a Japanese citrus company. “The resulting flavor is full of depth that exhibits both tanginess and floral-sweetness. It is a one-of-a-kind sauce that can deliver a flavor that encompasses a perfect balance of sweet, salty, bitter, and sour all at once.”

The fun thing about ponzu sauce is that it’s full of zing and zippiness, and offers a kind of surprising, full flavor, despite its apparent simplicity. “You wouldn’t expect such a complex flavor from this unassuming brown, watery sauce,” says Hwang. “It’s also quite refreshing and very versatile.”

Ponzu Sauce Ingredients

While ponzu sauce recipes vary slightly, it’s typically made with soy sauce, dashi, and citrus juice.

Nanako Fujitani, sous chef at Azabu New York combines two types of soy sauce—tamari and light soy sauce—with mirin and sudachi juice (a citrus juice) to make his ponzu. Hwang makes hers with soy sauce, sake, dashi (kelp, bonito), citrus juice, rice vinegar, and mirin.

Ponzu sauce is made by boiling soy sauce and its flavor agents, and then cooling the combination and adding citrus juice, if you choose. Cooking down the citrus juice would hide its flavor.  

“Depending on which type of citrus juice you choose, the ponzu flavor can change,” says Hwang of this key ingredient. “Yuzu is a typical type of citrus used in Japan to make ponzu. The term yuzu-pon is widely known amongst Japanese as Yuzu-Ponzu. Sudachi citrus is another type of citrus that is commonly used in Japan to make ponzu. Sudachi ponzu is more commonly favored amongst Japanese culinary experts for its elevated and deeper flavor.”

Ponzu Sauce Recipe 

Now that you know what goes into ponzu sauce and roughly what it tastes like, here’s how to make ponzu sauce on your own at home.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons sake or mirin 
• 2 tablespoons dashi (or a vegetarian alternative)
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2-3 tablespoons citrus juice, like yuzu, lemon, or lime

Instructions:

1. Bring all of the ingredients, except the citrus juice, to a simmer. Allow everything to cool. 
2. Stir in citrus juice to taste. 

How to Use Ponzu Sauce

There are seemingly endless ways to use ponzu sauce! “One of the most common ways to use ponzu sauce is as a dipping sauce for dumplings or steamed vegetables,” says Hwang. “It is perfect with hot pot dishes such as shabu-shabu or nabe. You can even use it as a wonderful accompaniment to sashimi, or add a uniquely distinctive flavor to raw oysters.”

Beyond dipping, ponzu sauce can also be a flavorful marinade for fish, chicken, beef, and pork. “Try it instead of teriyaki sauce, or combine it with other flavors such as ginger or togarashi seasoning,” suggests Hwang. “You can use a bit of ponzu sauce to liven up rice dishes, or you can use it in place of your regular salad dressing to add more bite and umami to salads and vegetables.”

Ponzu sauce can also be drizzled over soups or noodles for some extra tang or saltiness, or subbed into any recipe that calls for plain saltiness for a flavor boost. “The citrus profile of ponzu can sometimes change a dish’s flavor dramatically,” notes Hwang. “A little experimentation may be necessary to find the perfect balance in some dishes.”

At Azabu, Fujitani mixes their homemade ponzu sauce with truffle oil to make a sauce for gyoza, or simply serves it over seaweed. At home, he uses it as a dipping sauce or salad dressing. 

Ponzu Sauce Substitutes

No ponzu sauce? You could always mix up a batch relatively quickly with this hack: “Adding any lemon or lime juice to soy sauce makes a simple and refreshing ponzu sauce,” says Fujitani. 

Pre-made ponzu sauce can also be purchased by the bottle, or even in bulk.