THE SPLIT PLATE / RECIPE

TKS Sauce

Sweet heat + umami glaze. Macro-conscious takeout, six ingredients, two minutes.

YIELD2 servings
TOTAL TIME2 min
COOK METHODSee method
EST. / SERVING~55 cal | ~6g protein

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp Verka Organic Ginger Garlic Paste
  • 1/2 tsp Dynasty Sesame Chili Oil
  • 1 tbsp Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegar (Mild & Sweet)

Ingredients — continued

  • 2 tbsp Kikkoman All-Purpose Soy Sauce (1/8 cup)
  • 1 packet Bare Bones Instant Chicken Bone Broth (15g, 10g protein)
  • 1.5 tbsp Taste Flavor Co. Hot Honey Sriracha

You want General Tso-style takeout flavor without the cornstarch-and-sugar bomb. Six ingredients, two minutes, one batch coats 1 lb of crispy chicken for two servings. The bone broth powder is doing the work most takeout sauces do with starch and oil — body without fat, depth without sugar.

Method

  1. 1.COMBINE. Add ginger-garlic paste, sesame chili oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, bone broth packet (open it and pour the powder in), and hot honey sriracha to a small bowl or shaker bottle.
  2. 2.WHISK AGGRESSIVELY. Until the bone broth powder fully dissolves — no clumps. The powder is what gives the sauce body; if it's not dissolved, the sauce stays thin and tastes flat.
  3. 3.TASTE + ADJUST. Too salty → add 1 tsp more vinegar OR 1 tsp more hot honey. Too sweet → add 1 tsp more soy. Too flat → bump the sesame chili oil to 3/4 tsp. Too thin → simmer 60 sec in a small pan (rare; usually the toss-in-hot-pan step at the dish level fixes this).
  4. 4.READY TO USE. For crispy chicken, pour around the edge of a hot dry skillet, add the cooked chicken, toss aggressively 60-90 sec until coated. The dry skillet + residual breading starch + sauce = natural cling, no slurry needed.

SPLIT PLATE SERVING

Adult: Serve the adult portion as described above.

Kid: Serve the kid portion as described above.

If something fails

Sauce tastes flat / one-dimensional: Bone broth packet wasn't fully dissolved. Whisk harder or use a shaker bottle — the powder is doing more than half the savory work.

Too thin, doesn't cling to the chicken: Don't add cornstarch. Pour the sauce into a hot dry skillet with cooked chicken and toss 60-90 sec — the breading starch + sauce caramelize into glaze. If you absolutely need it thicker as a dip, simmer 60 sec in a small pan to reduce.

Too salty: Soy sauce brands vary in sodium. Add 1 tsp more rice vinegar OR 1 tsp more hot honey sriracha to rebalance. Don't dilute with water — that kills the depth the bone broth provides.

Not spicy enough: Bump the hot honey sriracha to 2 tbsp. Or stir in 1/4 tsp Dynasty chili crisp at the end.

Too thin for dipping (rice bowl drizzle, wrap): Simmer 60 sec in a small saucepan to reduce by 1/4. Don't add starch — the bone broth powder + soy concentrate naturally on heat.

Storage and reheating

Store: Pre-mix in a small jar with a lid. Fridge between uses — bone broth powder + soy stay stable.

Reheat: Use cold or warm. If using on rice bowls, drizzle straight from the jar. If glazing chicken, the hot pan does the heating.

Lasts: 4-5 days in fridge. Make fresh per use is honestly fastest (2 min); the make-ahead is for batching across multiple dinners in a week.

Estimated nutrition

~55 cal | ~6g protein.

Per-batch macros (110 cal / 12g protein / 2g fat / 10g carbs) computed from ingredients, with the Bare Bones packet doing most of the protein lift (10g of the 12g batch total). At 2 servings = 55 cal / 6g protein each. Calorie-wise this is a real Tier 1 sauce — flavor work without macro damage. Flagged as estimated because soy brand sodium and seasoned vinegar sugar content vary.

thesplitplate.com/cookbook/tks-sauce

TKS Sauce
Split Cook Method™Sauce

TKS Sauce

Sweet heat + umami glaze. Macro-conscious takeout, six ingredients, two minutes.

Make this when

You want General Tso-style takeout flavor without the cornstarch-and-sugar bomb. Six ingredients, two minutes, one batch coats 1 lb of crispy chicken for two servings. The bone broth powder is doing the work most takeout sauces do with starch and oil — body without fat, depth without sugar.

Total time
2 min
Yield
2 servings
Protein / serving
~6g
Cal / serving
~55
Flavor target

Layered — soy + bone broth for salt and savory depth, rice vinegar to sharpen, hot honey sriracha for sweet heat, ginger-garlic paste for backbone, sesame chili oil for takeout aroma. Smooth pourable glaze that clings to crispy chicken when tossed in a hot pan. NOT sticky-sweet, NOT cornstarch-thick, NOT the orange-sauce-packet you discarded.

Ingredients

Batch cookYields 2 servings — quantities below are the full batch.

Ingredients

Method

  1. 1
    COMBINE

    Add ginger-garlic paste, sesame chili oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, bone broth packet (open it and pour the powder in), and hot honey sriracha to a small bowl or shaker bottle.

  2. 2
    WHISK AGGRESSIVELY

    Until the bone broth powder fully dissolves — no clumps. The powder is what gives the sauce body; if it's not dissolved, the sauce stays thin and tastes flat.

  3. 3
    TASTE + ADJUST

    Too salty → add 1 tsp more vinegar OR 1 tsp more hot honey. Too sweet → add 1 tsp more soy. Too flat → bump the sesame chili oil to 3/4 tsp. Too thin → simmer 60 sec in a small pan (rare; usually the toss-in-hot-pan step at the dish level fixes this).

  4. 4
    READY TO USE

    For crispy chicken, pour around the edge of a hot dry skillet, add the cooked chicken, toss aggressively 60-90 sec until coated. The dry skillet + residual breading starch + sauce = natural cling, no slurry needed.

Adult plate | Kid plate

Adult plate

Adult

Full recipe. Toss with 1 lb crispy chicken in a hot dry pan for 60-90 sec — the residual breading starch + sauce caramelize into restaurant glaze.

Kid plate

Kid

Halve the hot honey sriracha if kids are spice-sensitive. The sauce loses the sweet-heat edge but keeps the savory backbone — still good on plain chicken or rice.

Go deeper

Storage and nutrition

Storage: Pre-mix in a small jar with a lid. Fridge between uses — bone broth powder + soy stay stable.

Reheat: Use cold or warm. If using on rice bowls, drizzle straight from the jar. If glazing chicken, the hot pan does the heating.

Lasts: 4-5 days in fridge. Make fresh per use is honestly fastest (2 min); the make-ahead is for batching across multiple dinners in a week.

Watch the full cook

Brands I use

Verka
Verka
Organic Ginger Garlic Paste
Pre-minced ginger + garlic in jar — saves 10 min of knife work per use. The paste form distributes evenly through liquid sauces (fresh-grated ginger clumps).
Dynasty
Sesame Chili Oil (3.5 oz)
Toasted sesame aroma + slow chili burn = the 'takeout smell' that makes the sauce read as restaurant. Only 1/2 tsp here — this is the aromatic top note, not the main heat.
Nakano
Nakano
Seasoned Rice Vinegar (Mild & Sweet)
Seasoned variant has sugar + salt already added — does double duty as acid + sweetener so the sauce doesn't need a separate sugar source.
Kikkoman
Kikkoman
All-Purpose Soy Sauce
Clean salt + umami. The default soy on this site.
Bare Bones
Bare Bones
Instant Chicken Bone Broth (15g packet, Classic Chicken)
10g protein per packet. THIS is the move — bone broth powder gives body, savory depth, and protein boost without oil, butter, or cornstarch. The trick that makes the sauce 'macro-conscious takeout' instead of 'inspired by takeout'.
Taste Flavor Co.
Taste Flavor Co.
Hot Honey Sriracha
Sweet heat in a single bottle — replaces sugar + sriracha separately. 1.5 tbsp here delivers the candy-heat finish that makes takeout chicken taste like takeout.
#Crispy chicken (1 lb = 2 servings)#Rice bowls#Wraps#Stir-fry glaze#Dipping for dumplings#Future TKS Wraps / TKS Bowls / TKS Shrimp