Three of our four experts suggest using soy sauce as a marinade. So if you don’t use it this way, you’re missing out. It can add great depth of flavor to any ingredient you marinate in it. And, since it is liquid, it mixes easily with other ingredients and is well absorbed. Unlike salt, you don’t need to stir it well to ensure it dissolves with the other ingredients in the marinade, and it’s less complicated to use than broth, another common ingredient that adds salty flavor to the marinade.
Dr. Bryan Quoc Le says the “rich, deep flavors” of dark soy sauce make it a perfect choice for marinades. “I use light soybeans for lighter marinades,” says Buddha Lo. Philippe Chow also recommends light soy sauce for this purpose. It’s good when you want a salty flavor without an overwhelmingly rich soy sauce flavor.
It’s easy to make a basic marinade with soy sauce. We recommend mixing it with an acidic ingredient (like lemon juice or rice vinegar) and something sweet, like sugar or honey. You can then add additional seasonings depending on the flavor profile of the dish you are making. For example, if you’re making something Thai-inspired, you can add some chopped lemongrass and galangal, or for an Indian-inspired dish, you can add garam masala and chili flakes.
