This authentic homemade Sriracha sauce recipe makes the real thing – the Thai hot sauce that tastes just like it does in its place of origin, the coastal city of Sri Racha, Thailand. This spicy sauce is far simpler to make than you might imagine and you can tailor it to suit your own taste!
With so few ingredients, it’s the quality of the chillies that make this authentic homemade Sriracha sauce recipe so special. Using Thai chillies from Thailand or a similar variety – but not the chillies in the world-famous American ‘rooster’ hot sauce – is your key to an authentic Thai Sriracha sauce.
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Now let me tell you about this authentic Sriracha sauce recipe.
Sriracha Sauce Recipe for the Best Homemade Thai Sriracha Sauce You’ll Ever Taste
The world-famous Huy Fong Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, made in the USA by David Tran, a Chinese immigrant from Vietnam, hit the market in 1980. It became instantly recognisable due to its red label with a prominent rooster and its green cap.
While there’s nothing essentially wrong with the American Sriracha sauce – apart from the appropriation of the name of the Thai seaside town, Sri Racha, where Sriracha sauce originated – compared to the Thai style Sriracha sauce, the Huy Fong ‘rooster’ sauce has an unpleasant bitter heat and an overpowering vinegar aftertaste.
While some Thai Sriracha sauces can be too sweet, and they also vary in heat levels, the type of chilli used keeps the flavour profile of the various brands of original Sriracha sauce quite consistent. This is where the main difference between Huy Fong Sriracha sauce and the Thai Sriracha sauce is so apparent.
Both Sriracha sauces use the same ingredients – chillies, garlic, salt, and vinegar – but it’s the type of chillies that is the first point of difference. Huy Fong Sriracha uses ripe red jalapeños while Thai Sriracha sauce uses Spur chillis – otherwise known as Prik Chi Fah (พริกชี้ฟ้า).
Most of us will come across green jalapeños, sliced or whole in a pickle jar, to bring some heat to a plate of nachos. Most jalapeños are picked when green, but the Huy Fong owner managed to convince a ranch in the USA to grow the chillies until bright red before harvesting.
Prik Chi Fah can be seen in markets in Thailand and across Southeast Asia as either green or red. It’s the red chillies that are used to make true Sriracha sauce in Thailand and the result is that the sauce doesn’t have the capsaicin levels (that bring the heat) as the American brand.
As we have amassed a number of Southeast Asian Sriracha-style hot sauces, we have a taste comparison post coming up soon on the site. Now let me tell you about this homemade Sriracha sauce recipe.
Making Homemade Sriracha Hot Sauce
One of the great aspects of making this fresh Sriracha sauce is that it’s made with only chilies, garlic, salt and vinegar. There’ll be no need to list potassium sorbate, sodium bisulfite and xanthan gum if you decide to make labels and gift some bottles!
Probably the most obvious question for those making this homemade Sriracha sauce recipe is what chillies to use if you are outside Southeast Asia and can’t source Prik Chi Fah. In the USA, the most common substitutes are Anaheim or Poblano chillis, but they must be mature (red). The heat levels of these chillies tend to be mild but some batches can be hotter than others. Australians should be able to source the Thai chillies locally.
Tips to Making this Homemade Thai Sriracha Sauce Recipe
Making this homemade Sriracha sauce recipe will be messy. It’s best made just after you’ve cleaned the kitchen and have no dishes to wash up in the sink. The reason? The damn seeds get into absolutely everything. Your blender, saucepans and strainers will need a very good clean after this!
Following on from that, it’s best to make a big batch of homemade Sriracha sauce in one hit. For instance, 300g of chillies (which is what we’re using in this recipe) will only yield a decent jar or bottle of sauce.
Most hot sauce recipes make tiny amounts and that’s because it’s a fresh sauce. There are only two of us, so this is plenty. But if we were back home in Australia, I’d be making bigger batches and gifting bottles of Sriracha sauce.
When it comes to the seeds, I like to take as many of them out as possible as they add bitterness and the more you have in your initial sauce, the harder you have to work to strain your sauce. This stage of the Sriracha sauce recipe can be very time consuming.
A quick note on distilled vinegar. The only vinegar to use for this recipe is a 5% distilled vinegar. We love using the Kewpie brand, famous for its mayonnaise, but it isn’t available worldwide. Other distilled vinegar brands, such as Heinz, may be more readily available. Note that under no circumstances use an apple cider or wine vinegar for this recipe.
One final tip: do not try to make this Sriracha sauce recipe with dried chillies that you reconstitute in water, as you would for a curry paste. They really don’t have that fresh ‘zing’ that we all love about Thai Sriracha sauce. That tip comes courtesy of David Thompson in his Thai Food cookbook, although don’t tell David, but we prefer this Thai Sriracha sauce recipe.
This Sriracha sauce is fantastic with these soft scrambled eggs. If you enjoy this recipe, you’ll probably like our homemade Thai sweet chilli sauce recipe too.
Thai Sriracha Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 300 g red Prik Chi Fah chillies deseeded and roughly chopped
- 20 cloves garlic peeled and slightly crushed
- 2 cups distilled vinegar 5%
- ½ cup granulated sugar more to taste
- 1-2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Deseed the chillies and roughly chop them. Peel and slightly crush the garlic cloves.
- Place the chopped chillies and smashed garlic in a tall saucepan and cover with the vinegar. Simmer uncovered on low heat until the chillies have noticeably softened and the garlic can be split with a spoon.
- After cooking the mixture a little, transfer to a blender and start off on a slow setting before turning it up once the larger pieces have broken down. Be patient, as the longer you let the sauce break down, the less time you'll spend trying to push the sauce through a sieve or tamis.
- When this is done, strain the sauce through a tamis or a fine mesh sieve into a tall pot using a bench scraper.
- When you have extracted as much sauce as possible place the sauce back on a low-medium heat and add half of the salt and sugar.
- Once this has been dissolved, carefully try the sauce and add salt and sugar to your taste. Make sure to mix these through thoroughly after adjusting the seasoning.
- Allow to cool before storing in an airtight container. This can be stored in the fridge for a couple of months.
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make this homemade Sriracha sauce recipe as we’d love to learn how it turns out for you. And if you enjoyed it, we’d also love a rating.
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