The thick Indonesian sweet soy sauce you know and love – Kecap Manis! You only need 2 ingredients and 7 minutes to easily make this popular condiment at home.
Why We Love This
This sauce is SO versatile. Use it in a stir fry, salad, as a marinade or a dipping sauce! One of our favourite ways to use it is for dipping with pandan chicken or spring rolls!
It also keeps a long time in the fridge, as it’s only sugar and soy sauce.
Related: Unagi Sauce / Yakitori Sauce
What is Kecap Manis?
Kecap Manis (ketjap manis) is a popular sweet soy sauce from Indonesia. You may know it as the sweet dark sauce in a packet of mie goreng, used it in dishes like nasi gila or squeezed it on top of a big bowl of bakso soup.
At local supermarkets the most popular brands to look out for are the red bottle – ABC Kecap Manis and the blue bottle – Bango Kecap Manis.
What You’ll Need
- Soy Sauce – Use regular or light soy sauce for best results. If you want a sweeter sauce, use reduced salt soy sauce or add more sugar.
- Sugar – Brown sugar will work great, or use the more traditional palm sugar if you have it. Molasses or golden syrup also make great substitutes.
How to make homemade Indonesian sweet soy sauce:
1. 2. 3.
- Place the soy sauce and brown sugar into a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Bring to a boil, it will bubble up quite a bit, so stir as you go to avoid any sticking. Important: Remove from heat immediately if it starts to boil over, then reduce the heat slightly to avoid a repeat.
- Continue boiling for around 7 minutes. You’ll notice the sauce reduces quite a bit. Turn the heat off and allow to thicken on standing.
Wandercook’s Tips
- Keep Watch – It’s so easy for this sauce to boil over, we can’t stress enough to keep watch!
- Storage – Once made, store in a clean jar in the fridge. It should last well over a month if only using sugar and soy sauce.
FAQs
The best substitute if using in a dish would be regular soy sauce and sugar without cooking it down, to give both the salty and sweetness. Next options would be to use hoisin sauce or oyster sauce.
Yes! It’s sweet AND salty. “Manis” literally translates to sweet in Indonesian.
Nothing, it is the same sauce. Sweet Soy Sauce is the English name, and Kecap Manis is the Indonesian name for the sauce.
Variations
- Make Sambal Kecap – Once your homemade kecap manis is cooled, add some sliced shallots, sliced chilli, sliced fresh tomato and a squeeze of lime juice for a spicy dipping sauce.
- Add Extra Flavour – For a more robust kecap manis, add in some garlic, ginger and star anise to pack some flavour punch!
These dishes pair perfectly with Kecap Manis:
★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment and a star rating below!
Ingredients
- ½ cup soy sauce 125ml / 4.2floz, light or regular, reduced salt is even better
- ½ cup brown sugar 60g / 2oz, palm sugar (most traditional) or molasses
Instructions
- Place the soy sauce and brown sugar into a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.½ cup soy sauce, ½ cup brown sugar
- Bring to a boil, it will bubble up quite a bit, so stir as you go to avoid any sticking. Important: Remove from heat immediately if it starts to boil over, then reduce the heat slightly to avoid a repeat.
- Continue boiling for around 7 minutes. You’ll notice the sauce reduces quite a bit. Turn the heat off and allow to thicken on standing.
Video
Recipe Notes
- Make Sambal Kecap – Once your homemade kecap manis is cooled, add some sliced shallots, chilli, tomato and a squeeze of lime juice for a spicy dipping sauce.
- Add Extra Flavour – For a more robust sauce, add in some garlic, ginger and star anise to pack some flavour punch!
- Keep Watch – It’s so easy for this sauce to boil over, we can’t stress enough to keep watch!
- Storage – Once made, store in a clean jar in the fridge. It should last well over a month if only using sugar and soy sauce.
Nutrition
6 Comments
marcus
13/03/2023 at 6:54 amFound a recipe calling for “sweet soy sauce”, I was at a loss. GOOGLED it and found this website and recipe. Had required ingredients in pantry. AMAZING how delicious and versatile this sauce is! Pasta, rice and potatoes all benefit from this sauce. Had gathering of 14 people – all gave rave reviews. 1 guest wanted to know if I could cook for her upcoming dinner… and make this!
Wandercooks
14/03/2023 at 7:23 pmOh that’s so awesome Marcus. What a cool story. Thanks for the feedback. We do love a quick recipe, especially if it saves $$ and a trip to the shop hehe.
Dslayer298
10/03/2023 at 8:12 amWow, how cheap and easy is this to make!!
The kind you buy is pretty overpriced, I can’t thank you enough!!
Wandercooks
11/03/2023 at 7:58 amYou’re very welcome! So much easier when you can make it yourself hey! 😁
Bobbi
02/03/2023 at 10:30 pmI had just gotten a new cookbook, and found myself scrambling. Drunken Noodles — I found everything I needed but the sweet soy sauce. Soy sauce comes in a sweet variety?!?!?! I had never known. None of the markets around me carry it so I was at a loss. To google I turned, and Google did not disappoint. This recipe worked very well, and came together so easily. Keeping this one in my recipe box for sure!
Wandercooks
03/03/2023 at 10:00 amOh yay! So glad we could help you out with the homemade version and hope your noodles were amazing!