You’ve just made Japanese pancakes and realised you’re out of sauce! Never fear – this 4 ingredient Okonomiyaki sauce recipe is here! With easy pantry ingredients, you’ll have it ready in minutes.
Why We Love This
This is one versatile sauce! We love using this on our Japanese Hamburgers, or to shake things up as the sauce for Oysters Kilpatrick. With this sauce as the base, you could add ginger and turn it into yakisoba sauce or add ginger, garlic and oyster sauce to make takoyaki sauce!
No need for a trip to the Asian supermarket, you should have these ingredients already in your pantry – that’s a huge win for us!
What is Okonomiyaki Sauce?
A Japanese Pancake’s best friend, this is the sauce that brings it altogether. A sweet and tangy sauce similar to bbq, it blends perfectly when combined with Kewpie mayonnaise. We love smothering the two on our Osaka style okonomiyaki!
You’ll usually see this lining the shelves in Japan, but it can be harder to find or expensive in Asian supermarkets in other countries. That’s why we love the independence of being able to recreate this at home. Of course, if you are feeling lazy, you can always buy the very popular Otafuku Okonomi sauce online.
As far as Japanese recipes go, this is one of the easiest!
What You’ll Need
We do love recipes with less than 5 ingredients – especially when it leads to a Japanese staple sauce from local ingredients! I think you’ll be surprised how much flavour it packs for how simple the recipe is.
- Worcestershire Sauce – If using an English version, use the amount in the recipe. Or, if you have the Bulldog Japanese Worcestershire Sauce, this is a lot sweeter, so you can double the amount. Otherwise, you can make your own Worcestershire sauce or use tonkatsu or bbq sauce in a pinch.
- Tomato Sauce / Ketchup – Ketchup is known as tomato sauce in Australia – they’re the same thing so either works fine.
- Soy Sauce / Mentsuyu – If you have Mentsuyu or want to make your own, we recommend this in the first instance for a more rounded sauce flavour, otherwise regular soy sauce is fine.
- Sugar – Sugar in this recipe acts as a sweetener to offset against the tang and spiciness of the Worcestershire, bringing everything into balance. Any sugar is fine – we used white, but a brown or raw sugar will work, you may just need a little extra as they’re not quite as sweet. Substitute with honey or golden syrup in a pinch.
How to use:
Squeeze straight over the top of your okonomiyaki pancake in zig zag lines. Or pour in a huge dollop in the middle of each pancake, using a basting brush to spread evenly across the top. For best flavour, pair with kewpie mayonnaise, seaweed flakes (aonori) and bonito flakes (katsuobushi).
Wandercook’s Tips
- Storage Bottle – We keep our homemade sauces in squeezy bottles we got from Doguyasuji Arcade in Osaka. These make it so easy to squirt your toppings straight on to the pancakes. We have two, one for the okonomiyaki sauce, and the other for the Kewpie Mayonnaise. If you don’t have bottles, sterilised glass jars do just fine as well.
- Tweak to Suit Taste – Everyone is different, don’t be afraid to alter the amounts if you want a spicier or sweeter sauce.
- Batch – While this recipe makes enough for one sitting, feel free to double or even quadruple the recipe. This is perfect if you want a full bottle of sauce you can keep going back to.
- Add Shichimi Togarashi – For an extra spice kick, homemade Japanese 7 Spice is perfect sprinkled over the sauce when dishing up for guests.
FAQs
Most definitely. If Worcestershire sauce isn’t available in your area, you can substitute with tonkatsu, A1 steak sauce, HP sauce, soy sauce, mentsuyu or even regular bbq sauce. Of course, this will alter the final flavour, but it won’t stop you from devouring your Okonomiyaki pancakes after popping this sauce all over it.
It should last a while, we’d say try to use it up within a month or two. Always do a smell test – if it seems off, play it safe and throw it out.
Store bought okonomi sauce is made up of many different fruits and spices, which would be super difficult to replicate exactly. So homemade sauce is as close as possible, but it will taste different to commercial – although just as delicious. The different sauce brands will also impact the final result, so tweak if you need to suit your own preferences.
Add these quick homemade Japanese sauces to your pantry:
★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a star rating and comment below!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp tomato sauce / ketchup
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 2 tbsp if using Japanese brand
- 1 tbsp soy sauce or mentsuyu
- 1 tsp sugar or honey
Instructions
- Add ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and sugar into a small dish and mix.2 tbsp tomato sauce / ketchup, 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar
- Heat in microwave for 30 seconds or on low in small saucepan on the stove for a minute to help dissolve the sugar.
- To serve, squeeze straight over the top of your okonomiyaki pancake in zig zag lines. Or pour in a huge dollop in the middle of each pancake, using a basting brush to spread evenly across the top. For best flavour, pair with kewpie mayonnaise, seaweed flakes (aonori) and bonito flakes (katsuobushi). Also goes well on Japanese Hamburgers.If using later, pour into a squeeze bottle or jar to store in the fridge.
Video
Recipe Notes
- Worcestershire Sauce – If using an English version, use the amount in the recipe. If using the Bulldog Japanese Worcestershire Sauce, this is a lot sweeter, so you can double the amount. If Worcestershire sauce isn’t available in your area, you can substitute with tonkatsu, A1 steak sauce, HP sauce, soy sauce, mentsuyu or even regular bbq sauce. Of course, this will alter the final flavour, but it won’t stop you from devouring your Okonomiyaki pancakes after popping this sauce all over it.
- Soy Sauce / Mentsuyu – If you have Mentsuyu or want to make your own, we recommend this in the first instance for a more rounded sauce flavour, otherwise regular soy sauce is fine.
- Sugar – Any sugar is fine – we used white, but a brown or raw sugar will work, you may just need a little extra as they’re not quite as sweet. Substitute with honey or golden syrup in a pinch.
- Storage Bottle – We keep our homemade sauces in squeezy bottles we got from Doguyasuji Arcade in Osaka – these make it so easy to squirt your toppings straight on to the pancakes. We have two, one for the okonomiyaki sauce, and the other for the Kewpie Mayonnaise. If you don’t have bottles, sterilised glass jars do just fine as well.
- Tweak to Suit Taste – Everyone is different, don’t be afraid to alter the amounts if you want a spicier or sweeter sauce.
- Batch – While this recipe makes enough for one sitting, feel free to double or even quadruple the recipe for a full bottle of sauce you can keep going back to.
- Add Shichimi Togarashi – For an extra spice kick, homemade Japanese 7 Spice is perfect sprinkled over the sauce when dishing up for guests.
Nutrition
2 Comments
James Archer
05/09/2023 at 1:32 pmThank you so much! Living in regional Victoria my options for Japanese cuisine are zero. So, I started cooking my own. One of my all-time favourite dishes is Okinomiyaki Pancakes. I googled the recipe and your website popped up. It’s simple yet so perfect. Tonight I’m actually making the sauce with your homemade Mentsuyu. You have sauces which aren’t even in the Women’s Weekly cookbook I bought. Thanks again for igniting my passion for Japanese cooking.
Wandercooks
07/09/2023 at 6:30 amHey James, that’s so awesome to hear! Yeah, we love being able to create the sauces from scratch too, it tastes so much better. Glad it’s enabled you to cook these dishes regionally too. Happy cooking!