Sriracha Sauce Recipe
This homemade sriracha sauce adds heat and flavor to just about any dish you want to kick up a notch. I love it on my smash burgers! In addition to a hamburger condiment, it makes a great flavoring for omelets and seafood.
My kids have “how much can you eat before you have to have milk” contests quite often, especially in a year our garden produces extra hot peppers.
I’d been making a homemade version of this sauce for years without even knowing that it was a “thing.” With an abundance of peppers from our backyard garden, blending them into a tasty sauce is just a reasonable thing to do. I naturally add a little vinegar and sugar to even out the heat and help preserve the sauce for longer.
Sriracha sauce is so easy to make, there’s no need to hit the grocery store for that green-capped bottle with the rooster on the label. Huy Fong Foods’ sriracha is great, but if you’ve got peppers and a blender or food processor, you can make your own chili garlic sauce.
How did sriracha become popular?
Sriracha sauce has a long history. It is named after the coastal town of Si Racha in Thailand. There in the 1940s, a cook named Thanom Chakkapak started making a hot sauce from red chili peppers, garlic, vinegar, sugar, and salt. She sold her homemade concoction in local markets. Her sriracha sauce recipe may have been based on an even older Cantonese one, as Cantonese people emigrated to Si Racha in the early 1900s and sold a traditional garlic and chili sauce.
Eventually, sriracha became a great American story, too. In 1980, the sauce reached American shores when a Vietnamese immigrant named David Tran started Huy Fong, naming his company after the boat on which he arrived in the U.S. Within 20 years, the company’s “secret sauce” expanded its reach from Asian markets to the shelves of Walmart. In recent years, foodies everywhere have embraced the taste and heat of sriracha sauce. You may see the name spelled siraracha and several other different ways online.
Recently, there was a sriracha shortage due to a bad spring chili harvest. No need to panic about an unexpected crop failure in California if you grown your own peppers, though! If you’re new to growing your own food, it’s easier than you may think. I have a post here on starting tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant from seed.
What is sriracha sauce made out of?
Sriracha recipes may vary. This one is simple with minimal ingredients. Unless you plan on canning your sriracha in jars for long-term storage, this sauce requires no cooking.
Hot Peppers: Of course, the main ingredients in a hot chili sauce are the chili peppers. I use a mixture of two kinds in my sriracha recipe: a pound of red jalapeño peppers and half a pound of red serrano peppers. There is no need to chop the peppers: just cut off the stems and then toss them into the blender. However, if you want a sriracha sauce with less heat, you can remove the seeds from the peppers.
Garlic: A generous amount of garlic is also essential for the flavor of sriracha sauce. I use four cloves. Again, no need to do any chopping. Just peel the garlic and put it in the blender with the hot peppers.
Vinegar and Salt: Like the original sriracha sauce recipe, this one includes vinegar for that well-known tangy kick. I use half a cup of distilled white vinegar. Both the vinegar and kosher or sea salt act as preservatives to keep the sauce from spoiling.
Brown Sugar: A few tablespoons of brown sugar add just enough sweetness to the sauce to balance out the spiciness of the peppers.
Last, you need one-third cup of water. That’s it!
Ways to Use Sriracha Sauce
How can you use sriracha sauce? Let me count the ways.
- Condiment Extraordinaire: You can drizzle this condiment on a wide range of dishes. It adds a spicy kick to everything from burgers and hot dogs to pizza and sushi.
- Marinades and Glazes: The sauce’s sweet and spicy profile makes it an excellent base for marinades and glazes. Use it for grilled meats, seafood, and vegetables.
- Dipping Sauce: Sriracha is a fantastic dipping sauce for everything from spring rolls and dumplings to french fries and chicken nuggets.
- Recipe Addition: Sriracha can be incorporated into recipes for soups, stir-fries, noodle dishes, and even salad dressings. It adds depth and complexity to these dishes.
- Breakfast Buddy: Believe it or not, sriracha is a fantastic addition to breakfast foods like scrambled eggs, omelets, and breakfast burritos.
Stacy Lyn’s Sriracha Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound red jalapeño peppers stems cut off
- ½ pound red serrano peppers stems cut off
- ⅓ cup water
- 4 cloves garlic peeled
- 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- ½ cup distilled white vinegar
Instructions
- Place jalapeño and serrano peppers into a blender with water, garlic, brown sugar, and salt. Pulse several times, then blend until smooth.
