The Original Sriracha Chili Sauce
Nothing against the Huy Fong Sriracha sauce here. However when I first moved to America, I was wondering why the Sriracha sauce here didn’t taste exactly like the Sriracha sauce we have back in Thailand. The purpose of this blog post is to inform you about the original Sriracha sauce and of course showing you how you can make it at home. Just to give you another option and opportunity to find out what the original version of the Sriracha sauce tastes like. As for me and my husband, we might be bias to say that this original version is so much better than the popular one in the America! If you don’t want to make it yourself, you can easily buy the original Sriracha sauce from the link here.
Summary of the Origin of Sriracha Sauce
I have the “Thrillist” to thank for their research and writing about the Sriracha sauce history. Click on the link to read more https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/history-of-sriracha-origin. But in short, it was created by a Thai cook in 1949 in a small coastal town called “Sri Racha”, Choburi province, Thailand.
When Ms. Tran (The Huy Fong Sriracha sauce founder) migrated to America and later started to sell his hot sauce, he wanted to pay the tribute to the area where this hot sauce recipe was originated. For this reason, he named his hot sauce “Sriracha” that many of us love today.
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Tips for making this sauce.
Let’s note that the Huy Fong Sriracha sauce is currently expensive and have high shortage because of the shortage of red jalapeños peppers. In Thailand, it’s made of the combination of the spur and bird eye chilies. So here are the tricks for you to still be able to easily make this sauce. It turns out just like the original recipe!
- Use the combination of the meaty and spicy chilies. Honestly, I couldn’t find a single red jalapeño from super markets nearby and only 10 orange Serrano available. So I combined 2 giant sweet peppers, 10 Serrano, and 10 Thai chili peppers. After chopping, it becomes the 2: 1 ratio. So 2 cups meaty peppers, and 1 cup of spicy pepper. It turned out perfect! If you can find 3 cups of jalapeño or Serrano, go for it. That way it is less fuss.
- Make sure to cook the chilies and garlic in the white vinegar long until the garlic is mushy or fork tender so that there will be no raw garlic taste in your sauce.
- By cooking the chiles and garlic first, it helps you to be able to strain the seeds out easily.
- Start with 1 tablespoon of sugar or granulated monk fruit per cup of chilies first. Taste and see if you want to add more sweetener after that. Since I used 3 cups of peppers, I started out with 3 tablespoons of my granulated monk fruit. I tasted it and then add another tablespoon.
The Original Sriracha Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups chopped big sweet peppers Think red bell pepper, giant Marconi, or Thai spur chilies
- 1 cup chopped spicy chilies Think red or orange jalapeños, Serrana, Thai bird eye chilies
- 15 cloves garlic peeled
- 1 ¾ – 2 cup white wine vinegar
- 4 tbsp sugar or granulated monk fruit
- ½ tbsp salt
Instructions
Prepare the peppers and garlic.
- As I mentioned in the tips, you can just use all spicy and meaty peppers or the combination that I showed in the ingredients list. Chop the peppers and smash the garlic.
Cook, strain, blend, and strain again!
- Use medium – low heat to cook the peppers and garlic in the white vinegar until the garlic is fork tender (about 15 – 20 minutes). I did use 2 cups of vinegar, but when I strained it, I discarded about 1/4 cup of vinegar to make sure that my mixture end up being thick enough after blending.
- Scoop the chilies and garlic and transfer them to the blender. Then, pour the vinegar through the strainer so that you can take the seeds out easily.
- Blend the chilies, garlic, and vinegar as smooth and as fine as your blender allows.
- Strain the blended mixture one more time to get even smoother texture.
- Return the sauce to the sauce pan. Continue with medium heat. Season with salt and sugar or granulated monk fruit. Let the sauce boiled or simmer for another 1 – 2 minutes.
- Store the sauce in the jar and keep refrigerated up to 2 -3 months, but you'll probably finish it before that anyway :).
- Optionally, dry the pulp with lemon zest in the oven at 170 degree F until completely dry. Mix with some salt to get the Sriracha salt for your marinade and steaks in the future :).
- I'm so cheering you on trying the original version of this sauce. If you decide to not make it, you can still purchase from this link: https://amzn.to/3Lf2yaQ .