Thai sweet chili sauce is sticky, spicy, sweet and delicious on just about everything. And it’s dead easy to whip up. No sense buying it. Just make it when you need it.
I see little jars of Thai sweet chili sauce on the shelves for ridiculous money. And I don’t get it. Why pay a bunch for something that you can make for pennies? Whenever you need it.
I get that if you don’t cook a lot of Asian that you won’t necessarily have sambal oelek or rice vinegar on hand. So maybe it’s not the best deal for you. But if you do, this is a no brainer.
Thai sweet chili sauce is super versatile
You know it’s great with spring rolls. If you didn’t you wouldn’t be reading this. But you can use it all sorts of places. Like shrimp cocktail. I’m going to do that recipe soon. Shrimp poached in a tom yum based broth. With this dipping sauce. Killer.
It’s great on sandwiches too. A little mayo, some cilantro, Thai sweet chili sauce and a bit of roast pork. Really good. I do that all the time. Almost worth making a pork roast just for the sandwiches.
It works in cool noodle dishes. Some greens. A bit of grilled chicken. Rice vermicelli. A good drizzle of sauce. Simple. Easy. Delicious.
Try it with satay instead of peanut sauce. Don’t get me wrong. I love peanut sauce. But if you want to mix it up this stuff works too.
Why choose? Serve both. A creamy peanut bite. A spicy sweet bite. Seriously luxe.
Wings. Thai chili sauce chicken wings. Stop and think about that for a second. How can anyone not want that?
I’m an addict. I know. But wings with this stuff are stupid delicious.
Just toss some wings with a bit of fish sauce, black pepper and granulated garlic. Grill. Over charcoal is best. And serve them with some Thai sweet chili sauce as a dipping sauce. Guaranteed hit.
There’s so much you can do with this stuff. It’s a bit crazy really.
This could be the original BBQ sauce
Think about bbq sauce. It’s sweet. It’s sticky. Has some spice. Sound familiar? Thai sweet chili sauce makes a great finishing sauce. It’s not just a dipping sauce.
Instant spicy Thai flavour. Grill up some chicken. Or a pork chop. Slather on some sauce. Watch out though. It will burn. Just like bbq sauce.
Or grill up some shrimp. When you pull them from the grill toss them with some chili sauce. Easy. Fast. Sticky. Tasty. Try that at your next dinner party.
Thai sweet chili sauce is a snap to make
I’m almost embarrassed about this post. There is nothing to it. But it’s so good. I had to do it. And it is scratch cooking. So for that it belongs here. You could buy it. But why do that? When it’s this easy there’s no excuse.
Mix some stuff in a sauce pan. Heat. Done. Seriously. Probably takes longer to read this post than to knock this off.
Make this. Use this. It’s so good. And so easy. Be careful though. It will become a household staple.
thai sweet chili sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar unseasoned
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup water plus a couple tablespoons to make a cornstarch slurry
- 3 tbsp sambal oelek
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 4 tsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Combine the rice vinegar, sugar, 2/3 cup water, sambal oelek, minced garlic and salt in a small saucepan.
- Heat until the sugar mostly dissolves. It just needs to warm up a bit.
- Add the cornstarch to a small bowl. Add a couple tablespoons of water to the bowl and stir to create a slurry. Watch out for clumps. You don't want clumps. You will be chasing globs of cornstarch in your sauce if you aren't careful. I've made the mistake. It sucks.
- Add the cornstarch slurry to the other ingredients. Stir to combine. It will be an awful, pasty white mess at this point. Don't freak out. It will clear when it cooks through.
- Bring to a simmer and cook about 5 minutes. Doesn't look like an ugly mess anymore right?
- Let cool. You are good to go.
Nutrition
How long will this last in the fridge? Can it be frozen, maybe before adding the cornstarch slurry so the sauce doesn’t “break” when it is reheated?
I’m excited, I was finally able to score some corn starch for it! Corn starch is hard to find since the hording started.
Hoarding cornstarch. There are some words I was pretty sure I would never hear.
I’ve never tried freezing it but it keeps in the fridge a couple weeks before the flavours start to degrade noticeably.
Just made my own sambal oelek and wow it made this very hot..
If you have a recipe for that I would love to see it.
Regardless, the sweet chilli sauce is delicious.
I don’t have a recipe for sambal oelek from scratch but I will give it a thought.
Yummyyyyy soooo good. Just ate this over plain leftover rice, so delicious.
Glad you liked it! It’s addictive stuff for sure.
Romain how long will this last if refrigerated? If it lasts that long lol!
Works a treat with a grilled haloumi salad too!
Oh, I like that grilled halloumi salad idea!
It never lasts all that long around here. I would say a couple weeks. Watch the colour. When it starts to look less vibrant it’s probably time.
Where are the chili flakes?? Not listed in recipe. Sambal Oelek does not contain flakes, but chili garlic sauce does.
I stock both in the fridge and the packaging is quite similar. It’s entirely possible I grabbed the garlic chilli sauce the day I took the pictures. Sambal oelek is the correct recipe but it’s tasty either way.
Sounds great, forget the cups and spoons and stuff though,who uses that… use grams and milliliters.
Thank you for saying so.
On measurement systems my audience is split between the US and Europe. I am fine to use either system (in Canada) but I had to pick one when I started glebekitchen. Sorry it’s not the one you use…