Ten Things to Do with Japanese White Sauce Besides Dip Your Shrimp
The moment you realize you can make this sauce at home whenever you want, something changes. The sauce stops being a once-in-a-while restaurant treat and starts being an ingredient. A jar of it in your refrigerator turns out to be useful in ways that go well beyond what a Japanese steakhouse puts it on. Here are ten of the best.
On grilled chicken. This is the most obvious extension of the restaurant use, and it's just as good at home. Grill or pan-sear a boneless chicken breast or thigh, slice it, and serve with white sauce on the side or drizzled over the top. The sauce's richness and slight sweetness complement grilled chicken better than almost any other condiment.
As a burger sauce. Spread white sauce on both halves of a toasted bun before adding a burger patty. It functions similarly to special sauce or thousand island dressing, but with a cleaner flavor and less sweetness. Works particularly well with beef burgers and with turkey burgers that need help in the flavor department.
On a grain bowl. A base of rice or farro, some roasted vegetables, a protein, and a drizzle of white sauce on top turns a basic grain bowl into something worth eating. The sauce brings all the components together the way a good dressing does for a salad.
As a dip for french fries. This may be the most addictive use on the list. The creamy, slightly tangy sauce does for french fries what aioli does in European cooking, elevating something simple into something you want to keep eating. Try it once and it becomes difficult to eat fries any other way.
On a baked potato. Instead of sour cream, try a spoonful of white sauce on a hot baked potato. The sauce melts slightly from the heat, the garlic and paprika season the potato, and the butter in the sauce adds richness without the weight of actual butter.
As a sandwich spread. Use it anywhere you'd use mayonnaise on a sandwich, but expect it to add more flavor. It works especially well on sandwiches with grilled or roasted vegetables, on fish sandwiches, and on any sandwich where you want a bit of complexity beyond what plain mayo provides.
Drizzled on pizza. After the pizza comes out of the oven, drizzle a small amount of white sauce over the top. This works best on pizzas with simple, savory toppings: sausage, mushroom, or plain cheese. The sauce adds a creamy, slightly tangy element that contrasts nicely with the tomato sauce and melted cheese.
With raw vegetables. The sauce makes an excellent vegetable dip. Carrots, celery, cucumber, bell peppers, snap peas: all of them are improved by white sauce. It is considerably more interesting than ranch dressing and pairs naturally with the same crunchy vegetables.
On tacos. A small amount of white sauce drizzled on a fish taco or a grilled chicken taco adds a creamy element that works particularly well alongside lime juice, cabbage slaw, and salsa. The sauce's garlic and paprika notes fit naturally into the flavor profile of Mexican-inspired food.
Mixed into rice as a side dish. Stir a tablespoon or two of white sauce into plain cooked rice while it's still hot. The heat loosens the sauce, which coats every grain. Add a little soy sauce, mix, and serve as a side dish. It's an easy way to make plain rice taste like something from a restaurant.
The common thread across all of these uses is that the sauce works best when it's providing richness and a savory, slightly sweet background note, the same role it plays at the steakhouse. It is not a spicy sauce, not an acidic sauce, and not a heavy sauce, which makes it more versatile than it might appear at first glance.