How to make sauces less potent so you can douse your food in them?

I love food that is doused in sauce. Especially Mexican food (like tacos or burritos) and Asian food (like stir fries) where everything is drenched.

The problem is, that a lot of the base ingredients in sauces are pretty potent. Like soy sauce or most hot sauces, if you "drenched" your food in it, it'd be too strong.

So what's the secret? Do you basically just add a bunch of water to it?