Hoisin Sauce (Hai Xian Jiang)
No seafood!? The most famous Chinese barbecue sauce abroad
Description
A thick, reddish-brown sweet paste heavily used in Cantonese cuisine. Despite the name 'Hai Xian' (Seafood), it contains no seafood; named because 'it tastes great on seafood'. A soybean paste kneaded with sugar, garlic, vinegar, and spices. Sweet-salty and spicy, known globally as 'Hoisin Sauce', synonymous with Chinese food in the US.
Classification: Everyone, Condiment, Sauce, Guangdong Cuisine, Sweet, Peking Duck, Dipping Sauce
Shops selling Hoisin Sauce (Hai Xian Jiang)
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The How to use section below is a general reference, not instructions from the listed shops.
How to use
Ingredients
- Soybean paste
- Sugar
- Sweet potato
- Vinegar
- Garlic
- Chili
- Spices
Instructions
- [Typical Uses]
- Sweet sauce smeared on Peking Duck/Cantonese roast duck skins (sweeter and spicier than sweet bean sauce).
- The black sweet sauce used heavily in Vietnamese Pho for dipping meat.
- Marinade/BBQ sauce glazed on spareribs before baking.
Learn more Substitutes, pairings, tips
Key spices
More complex garlic/spice aroma than sweet bean sauce、with intense sweetness
Substitutes at Japanese supermarkets
Mix JP sweet bean sauce with grated garlic, a dash of vinegar, and Five-Spice
Pairing
Cantonese Roast Duck / Spareribs / Vietnamese Pho
Trivia
Lee Kum Kee's Hoisin Sauce was massively used in Western Chinese takeout, becoming one of the 'most consumed Chinese sauces globally'. Heavily used by Vietnamese immigrants, so it's common in ethnic restaurants.
Eating tips & etiquette
Similar to sweet bean sauce (Tianmianjiang), but Hoisin contains 'garlic' and 'vinegar', giving it a slight spicy complexity and tartness. A completed flavor ready to be used as a dip.
Allergen
Soybeans, Wheat