Shaoxing Wine substitutes
The best substitute for shaoxing wine is dry sherry: 1:1. The standard swap in Chinese restaurant cooking and near-identical on the nutty, oxidised note. Use fino or amontillado, never cream sherry.
Why it matters. Amber fermented rice wine that removes the raw edge from meat and seafood and adds a nutty, faintly sherry-like depth to Chinese cooking. Its alcohol also helps tenderise meat in a velveting marinade. Water in its place leaves the dish smelling flat and slightly gamey.
BestDry sherry
●●●●●1:1
Keeps the flavour, liquid and tenderizer roles.
The standard swap in Chinese restaurant cooking and near-identical on the nutty, oxidised note. Use fino or amontillado, never cream sherry.
Dry sake
●●●●○1:1
Keeps the flavour, liquid and tenderizer roles.
Cleaner and less nutty, so the finished dish tastes lighter. That actually suits seafood, where Shaoxing can be heavy.
Dry white wine
●●●○○1:1
Keeps the flavour, liquid and tenderizer roles.
More acidic and grapey. It still deglazes and tenderises, but the dish reads European rather than Chinese.
Mirin
●●●○○1:1, and cut the sugar in the recipe
Keeps the flavour, liquid and tenderizer roles.
Sweet, so it shifts the balance of a savoury braise. Acceptable in a marinade, wrong in a clear soup.
Dry vermouth
●●●○○1:1
Keeps the flavour, liquid and tenderizer roles.
Botanical and herbal, which shows badly in a simple stir-fry. Use it only where there are plenty of aromatics to hide behind.
Stock + a drop of rice vinegar
●●○○○Per 1 tbsp: 1 tbsp chicken or mushroom stock + 1/4 tsp rice vinegar
Keeps the flavour and liquid roles; loses tenderizer.
Alcohol-free, which is the whole reason to use it. But without alcohol it will not strip the raw smell from meat or tenderise it, which is half of what Shaoxing is doing in the recipe.
Other liquid substitutes
Measuring by weight instead? Use the kitchen converter.