Easy Sweet Thai Chili Sauce
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Sweet Chili sauce is super easy to make from scratch. This vibrant and tasty Thai sauce can be used in so many dishes like these sweet chili mayo shrimp lettuce wraps AND it tastes so much better than store brands SUPER easy to make! It’s great on fried chicken too!
THAI SWEET CHILI SAUCE
I remember way way back, I had bought some Thai sweet chili sauce. My my my, It wasn’t good at all. I love garlic, but the garlic in it was SOOOOO overpowering and it wasn’t spicy enough. Nowhere near spicy. To be honest, it just tasted really strange. Lately, I’ve been using a popular brand that tastes pretty good and it inspired me make this recipe.
I figured out how to make it by reading the ingredients on the back of the sweet chili sauce jar. Making homemade sauces, allows you to experiment with all types of different ingredients. You control how much heat, garlic or whatever you want to add. YOU also know exactly what’s going in your sauce. This sauce is just perfect. It’s not too spicy, not too vinegary. It’s delicious and pretty adaptable. AND this EASY sauce ONLY TAKES 10 MINS to make!
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FYI, the longer you cook this sauce the thicker it will become. As you can see from the picture below, I love my sauce on the thicker side. To achieve the gorgeous bright vibrant red color, I like to use a pretty good amount of chili peppers and a bit of ketchup.
HOW TO MAKE THAI SWEET CHILI SAUCE
This is one of the most easiest sauce recipes ever. You’ll want to put it on everything. This sauce is delicious on chicken, shrimp, egg rolls, lumpia, chow mein and fried rice. I especially love it on salmon.
There’s no need to buy your sauce when you can easily make it in the comfort of your home. To make it, simply add all of the sweet chili sauce ingredients into a food processor and process until mix until the sauce no longer has big chunks of peppers.
Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp grated ginger
- 4 tsp garlic
- 1 1/2 cup dry Thai chili peppers
- 6 tsp ketchup
- Salt and pepper for taste
Slurry
- 1 tbsp water
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
TIPS TO MAKE SWEET CHILI SAUCE
- This sauce recipe makes a big batch. Feel free to half the recipe.
- FYI. As the chili sauce cools down it will thicken even more. If the sauce is too thick thin it out with a bit of water.
- The longer the sauce cooks the thicker it will become. To achieve the bright vibrant red color, I like to use a good amount of chili peppers and a bit of ketchup.
- You can store this in the fridge for about two weeks or in the freezer up to two-three months. Once you are ready to use the sweet chili sauce, reheat it in the microwave or on the stovetop, stirring frequently. Do not overheat the sauce or it will become watery.
Homemade Sweet Thai Chili Sauce
Ingredients
Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 1 1/2 cup dry Thai chili peppers
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp grated ginger optional
- 4 tsp garlic
- 6 tsp ketchup
- salt for taste
For the Slurry
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 2-3 tbsp water
Instructions
- To make the chili sauce, add the dried Thai chili peppers and the rest of the ingredients into a food processor and process until mix until the sauce no longer has big chunks of peppers.
- Pour the chili pepper mixture into a sauce pan over medium-high heat until it's boiling then simmer. Stir frequently to prevent the sauce from burning
- Pour the slurry into the pan with the chili sauce. Return the chili sauce to a boil for 2 minutes then simmer stirring occasionally for 10 minutes until you get your desired thickness. Let the sauce cool to room temperature then pour into a jar with an air tight lid. **see notes**
Notes
COOK TIPSÂ
This sauce recipe makes a big batch. Feel free to half the recipe. FYI. As the chili sauce cools down it will thicken even more. If the sauce is too thick thin it out with a bit of water. The longer the sauce cooks the thicker it will become. To achieve the bright vibrant red color, I like to use a good amount of chili peppers and a bit of ketchup. You can store this in the fridge for about two weeks or in the freezer up to two-three months. Once you are ready to use the sweet chili sauce, reheat it in the microwave or on the stovetop, stirring frequently.  Do not overheat the sauce or it will become watery. Recipe and post was updated on 4/09/2019     ÂIf you think this sweet chili sauce looks good, save it to your Pinterest Board or share it on Facebook. Don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest too.
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I really need to make this delicious sauce. I BUY it all the time. Now I need to MAKE it instead. Looks so good, and it would make a great food gift too.
Oh wow does this look glorious or what! I love sweet Thai chili sauce and it’s so versatile too. I will definitely try to make it myself very soon. Thank you for sharing!
There’s something very satisfying about making your own condiments, don’t you think? Your chili sauce looks fantastic!
Exactly! It’s so exciting! Thank you!
Oh my gosh, this sounds so much easier than I made it out to be in my head. I adore thai chili sauce, and am so glad to have found this recipe!
Yes it’s surprisingly simply. Thank you!
I love mixing sweet chili sauce with sour cream when eating potato wedges. Your sauce looks so good!
I’ll have to try mixing the two! It sounds delish! Thank you!
This sauce looks amazing. The pictures of this post are great, magazines like pictures! Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you so much Maman! 🙂
I love this sauce so much but I’ve never tried to make my own. This looks fantastic April! and those photos… holding back from licking my screen! Kudos to you!
Thank you so much Catherine 🙂
Oh wow! I love sweet chili sauce, but have never tried making my own. Your photos look wonderful. I just love that color.
It’s amazing. I love having it handy. Thank you!
That looks absolutely perfect, April. I am definitely a fan, and always give these away as gifts at Christmas. Your images show off your recipe so well, I can just imagine the sweetness and the piquancy as I look at them! Do you bottle them up as gifts?
Thank you Azlin! No I don’t bottle them up but I think I should this year!
OMG, I can’t WAIT to make this! Real talk, I put chili sauce on everything so this recipe is right up my alley! Great post 🙂
Haha me too! Thank you so much Christina! 🙂 Let me know how you like it!
This is sooo much better than the commercial thing. I never thought it would be so easy to make. Thanks for this great recipe!
You’re welcome Amelie 🙂
This looks fantastic! Chili sauce is one of my favourites, love to eat it with spring rolls! It is so much fun as well to make your own sauces and foods from scratch, I enjoy the process very much even though sometimes I fail!
I could drink this stuff lol. So good! Thank you so much!
I love the photography in this post! Looks yummy ? Is it super spicy?
Thank you! Nope it’s actually not that spicy.
I love making my own sauces! And my husband loves Asian foods! This is perfect for us. Thanks for the recipe!
I can see me dipping everything from shrimp to mini meatballs into this! Even on a hamburger or grilled chicken…. Major yum.
Mmmm this sounds delicious! Homemade sauces are always so much better than store bought.