Sriracha Thai Chili Sauce is a famous hot sauce made from a mix of chili, garlic, sugar and vinegar. The original version comes from Thailand. Sriracha is not only known for being one of the most delicious hot sauces on earth (by popular demand), there’s also an entire cookbook written about it.
Homemade Sriracha Hot Sauce ซอสพริกศรีราช
With the recipe, you’ll never need to buy another bottle of Sriracha again! It’s easy, quick, and in my opinion it’s way tastier than the store bought stuff. (Yes, it’s even better than the original Thai Sriracha!) If you’re into DIY sauces, also try this easy sweet chili sauce which is also another staple in a Thai kitchen!
Homemade Sriracha Hot Sauce ซอสพริกศรีราชา
- Yield: About 1 cup
Ingredients
- 150 g red, hot chili peppers of your choice, roughly chopped (see note)
- 10 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed just until broken
- About 1 cup distilled vinegar (5% vinegar)
- About ¼ cup + 1-2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
Note: The original Thai Sriracha is made from spur chilies, but the popular one from Huy Fong Foods is made from red jalapenos. Fresno and red serrano chilies are two other good options. Use whichever red, hot chili peppers you have access to, as long as they have a substantial amount of flesh, so we can achieve the thick, luscious consistency iconic of Sriracha. The spiciness of this sauce will vary depending on the pepper you use, but if the peppers you have are not spicy enough for you, you can add extra Thai chilies to boost the heat.
Instructions
- Add chilies and garlic to a small pot and add just enough vinegar to cover (you may need a little more or less than 1 cup). Simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes, or until the garlic cloves are soft.
- Transfer to a blender—if you want to tone down the heat slightly, leave behind the seeds. You can do this by using a slotted spoon to transfer just chilies and garlic to the blender, then pour remaining vinegar into blender through a strainer to catch seeds. (See video for this technique).
- Blend until smooth.
- Strain the sauce through a fine mesh sieve into a small pot, pushing out as much liquid as possible with a rubber spatula, and occasionally scrape the bottom of the sieve with a knife to get the sauce that is hanging on there.
- Put the sauce back on the stove over medium heat. Add salt and ¼ cup sugar and stir until the sauce comes to a simmer. Remove from heat, taste, and adjust seasoning with the remaining sugar if needed.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge, it should last you a few months.
Homemade Sriracha Sauce Recipe
This homemade sriracha sauce recipe is more like the original Thai recipe, so much better than anything from the grocery store, and can be made with fresh or fermented peppers. Time to make sriracha hot sauce!
It’s Homemade Sriracha Sauce time, my friends, so get your taste buds ready. I don’t think there is a whole lot I can tell you about sriracha sauce that you haven’t already heard. Sriracha has taken the nation by storm in the last several years, overflowing from grocery store shelves and finding its way into a myriad of mass-made products, from potato chips to beer.
It’s everywhere, isn’t it?
It’s so ubiquitous now here in the states, it’s practically become synonymous with the term “hot sauce”. This is not a bad thing! I should provide a bit of history, though.
What Is Sriracha?
Famous “Sriracha” sauce is named after the town of “Sri Racha” in Thailand where it originated, but this is not what we consume here in the United States. The stuff you get from the store is produced in California with red jalapeno peppers and has deviated quite a bit from the original Thai recipe.
The sriracha sauce we get here is thick, like ketchup, where the original has a thinner consistency.
My recipe will produce a Sriracha sauce closer to what was originally intended, though you can easily thicken it up with more peppers and less vinegar, or by adjusting your cooking times.
Best Peppers For Making Sriracha Sauce
Here in the United States, red jalapeno peppers are used to make sriracha sauce, though bright red Fresno chili peppers make a fine substitute. You can also use red Thai chili peppers to make your own sriracha hot sauce, which have more heat on the Scoville Scale.
Of course the heat level of your sriracha sauce can vary based on your pepper choice, but some peppers have thicker walls and are therefore meatier, and will produce a fuller sauce. I suggest going with red jalapeno peppers first, then experimenting from there.
For this particular batch, I used a combination of different hot red peppers grown in my garden, including red jalapeno peppers, and the results were out of this world. So delicious!
Sriracha Sauce Ingredients
- Chili Peppers. Use a mix of red chili peppers, Red jalapenos are preferred, though Fresnos or red Thai peppers are great.
- Garlic. I love the garlic flavor. Garlic powder can be used, but fresh garlic is best.
- Brown Sugar. For the characteristic sweetness.
- Granulated Sugar. Additional sweetness.
- Rice Wine Vinegar. Other distilled vinegar can be used.
- Water and Salt.
How To Make Sriracha Sauce – The Recipe Method
Chop the Peppers. Roughly chop the chili peppers and add them to a pot with the remaining ingredients – sugar, salt, vinegar, garlic, water.
Simmer the Ingredients. Bring to a quick boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Process the Sriracha Sauce. Cool, then add to a food processor. Process until smooth.
Strain and Bottle. Strain the solids out through a strainer and discard (or keep them for dehydrating – they make great seasonings). Pour into bottles and use as desired.
This is the simple fresh pepper version, though I suggest fermenting, which is more like the original Thai sriracha.
Fermenting the peppers breaks down the carbohydrates and converts them to acid, which mellows the peppers considerably, affecting the overall flavor. I suggest trying the recipe both ways, with and without fermenting, and see for yourself which version of sriracha you prefer.
I’ve include recipes below to make sriracha both ways.
Homemade Sriracha Vs. Store Bought Sriracha Sauce
There is an obvious difference between the sriracha you get from the store vs. your homemade version. The homemade sriracha has a thinner consistency and isn’t quite as sweet, though you can adjust sweetness easily by adding more or less sugar.
You can also adjust the thickness of your final sriracha sauce by adjusting the amount of peppers used in the recipe, by adjusting the amount of vinegar and water used, and also by adjusting your cooking time. Simmer the sauce longer to thicken it up if you’d like.
The choice is yours. Would I say homemade sriracha is BETTER than what you get in the store? Personally, I like my own homemade version better, but I wouldn’t throw away my bottle of Huy Fong Food’s rooster sauce! I mean, major KUDOS to David Tran for giving us a sauce that made Americans realize there is more to condiments than ketchup and mustard.
Bring on the sriracha, please!
Recipe Tips And Notes For Making Homemade Sriracha
Here are answers to some of the most common questions I get on other sauces:
How Long Will This Sauce Keep?
It should keep a few months easily in the fridge, or even longer. It’s all about the acidity. To be technical, target level ph for shelf stable foods is below 4.6 ph, but should probably be lower for home cooks, around 4.0 or so, to account for errors.
If you’re concerned, add more vinegar to lower the ph. Sauces made with fermented chili peppers will last even longer.
Can I process this hot sauce for longer storage? Absolutely. Just be sure to use proper canning/jarring safety procedures.
Sriracha-Style Asian Chili Sauce
Prep Time:
25 mins
Cook Time:
5 mins
Total Time:
30 mins
Servings:
84
Yield:
1 3/4 cups
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pound fresh hot red chile peppers, such as Fresno, Thai, jalapeño, and/or serrano, stemmed and coarsely chopped*
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 5 cloves garlic, smashed
- ½ cup rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce (optional)
Directions
- In a food processor or blender combine chile peppers, brown sugar, the water, salt, and garlic. Cover and process or blend about 3 minutes or until smooth.
- Transfer mixture to a 2-quart food-safe ceramic, glass, or plastic bowl or container. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Place in a dark, dry place at room temperature and let stand for 8 days to ferment, stirring once every day. After 2 to 3 days you should notice bubbling in the mixture, showing that fermentation is occurring.
- Return mixture to food processor or blender. Add vinegar. Cover and process or blend until very smooth. Strain mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a large saucepan; discard solids.
- Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 to 10 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring frequently (the sauce with thicken a bit more as it cools). Remove from heat. If desired, stir in fish sauce. Cool to room temperature.
- Transfer chili sauce to canning jars or airtight storage containers. Seal and store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
*Tip:
Because chile peppers contain volatile oils that can burn your skin and eyes, avoid direct contact with them as much as possible. When working with chile peppers, wear plastic or rubber gloves. If your bare hands do touch the peppers, wash your hands and nails well with soap and warm water.
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
| 7 | Calories |
| 1g | Carbs |
Thai Sweet Chili Sauce Recipe
Prep:8 mins
Cook:12 mins
Total:20 mins
Servings:6 servings
Yield:3/4 cup
| Nutrition Facts (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 103 | Calories |
| 0g | Fat |
| 24g | Carbs |
| 1g | Protein |
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
Thai sweet chili sauce is known as nam chim kai in Thailand. It is sold in bottles and available in Asian food markets, but it’s also easy to make at home. It only takes a few minutes to put together, and you can find everything you need in your pantry or at your local supermarket. And since you control the ingredients, you also control the amount of sweetness and heat.
Thai sweet chili sauce makes a superb condiment for many Thai dishes and is excellent with chicken and fish. It is also wonderful as a marinade for grilling or as a dip for finger foods. Try it with grilled fish, classic Thai fish cakes, Thai crab cakes, chicken wings, vegetarian egg rolls, and Thai spring rolls.
Click Play to See This Thai Sweet Chili Sauce Recipe Come Together
“This sauce is the perfect balance of sweet, sour, and spicy, and outshines the store-bought version. I used 3/4 tablespoon chili flakes and it was ideal for spice lovers without burning the palate. Very straightforward and the ingredients are standard in a pantry for anyone who cooks Asian cuisine regularly.”
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar (or white vinegar)
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons sherry (or cooking sherry)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 to 1 tablespoon dried crushed chile pepper (red pepper flakes)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3 to 4 tablespoons cool water
Steps to Make It
- Gather the ingredients.
- Add the vinegar, sugar, water, fish sauce, sherry, garlic, and pepper flakes to a saucepan or pot.
- Bring to a rolling boil.
- Reduce the heat to medium and let boil for 10 minutes, or until reduced by half. (Note that the vinegar will be quite pungent as it burns off; rice vinegar is less strong than regular white vinegar.)
- While the mixture is boiling, dissolve the cornstarch into the cool water in a small bowl.
- Reduce the heat to low and add the cornstarch-water mixture. Stir to incorporate and continue stirring and cooking until the sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Then remove from the heat and taste-test.
- Pour sauce into a small bowl or jar and serve as a condiment, dip, or marinade.
Tip
When you are taste-testing, you should taste sweet first, followed by sour, then spicy and salty notes. If the sauce isn’t sweet enough, add a little more sugar. If it’s not spicy enough, add more crushed chile.
Recipe Variations
If you don’t have every ingredient on hand, there are a few substitutions you can make:
- Try using white vinegar or apple cider vinegar instead of rice vinegar.
- Port, Madeira, and Marsala wines, as well as apple, pineapple, and orange juices all make good sherry substitutions.
- You can also use arrowroot instead of cornstarch.
How to Store
- Homemade Thai chili sauce should be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container where it will last up to a month.
- It can also be frozen for two to three months; it will congeal and needs to be gently warmed before using.
Is Sweet Chili Sauce the Same as Sriracha?
Sweet chili sauce, also known as Thai chili sauce, is made using dried chili flakes and is primarily a sweet condiment that also has sour and spicy notes. Sriracha is a spicy, bright red chili sauce made with peppers, vinegar, garlic, and a few other ingredients. The sauces have different flavor profiles and shouldn’t be used interchangeably in recipes unless you prefer the flavor difference.
What is a Vegan Substitute for Fish Sauce?
There are many vegan fish sauces on the market. Most are made with liquid aminos, soy sauce, and shiitake mushrooms.
If you can’t find a vegan fish sauce, coconut aminios may be used to replace it. Coconut aminios are gluten and soy free and are rich in umami flavor.