Thai Sweet Chili Sauce is a sweet, spicy accompaniment to Asian finger food and a riot in the mouth. This post is packed with tips and tricks to help you make this dipping sauce easily at home.
Thai Chilli Sauce is a must have in your pantry, especially if you love Asian food as much as me. Like most Asian dishes, it's made from the freshest ingredients and is a light, delicious sauce that's perfect for dipping everything - from spring rolls to French fries!
Even though it's easily available in stores and online, I prefer to make my Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce at home. I know that sounds like one extra thing to do - but hear me out. Making this Asian sauce at home is insanely easy. It requires minimal prep, most of the ingredients are pantry staples, and the cooking process is mostly hands free.
Quick Walk Through: Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
Homemade vs Store-bought
Apart from being really easy to make, here are some more reasons why I like to make this sauce at home
- Tastes cleaner, better than store-bought. No sticky mouth or weird after-taste
- You know exactly what’s going into the sauce - 9 ingredients. No chemicals, stabilizers, etc.
- Super customisable. You can adjust the spice levels, sweetness, make it more less garlick-y - make it exactly as you like it!
- You probably have all the ingredients already. The ingredient list is so simple that you might really not need a special trip to the grocery store.
- You can make a large batch and store it in the fridge so you don't have to make fresh batch each time.
Why Use Fresh Red Chillies
I would highly recommend using fresh Thai red chillies (the smaller variety) if you can find them. They deliver that flaming red color and leave behind that spicy tingle on the tongue, usually associated with Asian sweet chilli sauce. Thai red chillies are spicy though, so be careful.
Tip: If you’d like to reduce the heat, slit them open and remove the seeds because the seeds have the most heat in them. Mince the chillies or put them in the food processor. However, don’t make it a very fine paste. Keep it chunky for texture.
Frequently asked questions
If you can’t find fresh red chillies, just use the good old dried red chillies. Soak the dried chillies in warm water to rehydrate them and then grind them up. When your sauce is ready, you should see tiny pieces of chilli and minced garlic floating around. These little bits are the life of the sauce.
I use cornflour as a thickening agent in my sauce. The mixture may look watery at first, but after the cornflour slurry (equal parts cornflour and water) is added, it develops a thicker consistency. However, you can also use potato starch or tapioca starch if that’s what you have on hand.
My Homemade Sweet Chili Sauce lasts about 4 weeks when refrigerated. Make sure to store it in a clean and dry glass jar. If not stored correctly, the sauce might go bad really fast.
What to Eat With Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
This sauce is hot and sweet, making it a very versatile dipping sauce. You can serve it with finger foods or douse your crispy noodles in it. While it’s mainly used as a dipping sauce, I also use it in stir-fries to add that perfect sweet, salty, spicy flavour.
Some dishes that go well with Nam Chim Kai are:
- Vegetarian Nuggets
- Spring Rolls
- Korean Omelette Rolls
- Chicken nuggets
- Momos
- Chinese Potli Samosa Wontons
- KFC style popcorn chicken
This Thai sweet chilli sauce has a permanent spot in my fridge. Once you find out just how simple and delicious this sauce, it will be in yours too.
Watch Thai Sweet Chili Sauce Recipe Video
Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper or Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
- 3 tablespoon Garlic finely minced
- 1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
- 1 ½ teaspoons Salt
- ½ cup Vinegar (Rice or Apple Cider)
- 1 cup Water
- 3 tablespoon Chilli Paste (See Note 1 & 2 - or Sambal Oelek or Red Chili flakes)
- 1 tablespoon Corn Flour or Cornstarch (See Note 3)
- 2 tablespoon Water
Instructions
- Add sugar, cayenne, minced garlic, soy sauce, salt, vinegar, and water to a saucepan and let it simmer (about 3-4 minutes), stirring occasionally till the sugar dissolves completely and the mixture reduces slightly.
- Add the chilli paste and mix. Simmer again for 2-3 minutes.
- Mix together cornflour and water in a bowl till no lumps exist and stir in this cornflour slurry into the sauce. Mix continuously till the sauce comes to a boil. Then reduce the heat and simmer till for 3-4 minutes till the sauce is thick, translucent and shiny. Turn off the flame.
- Serve immediately or cool completely and then transfer to a clean jar. Refrigerate for up to 4 weeks.
Video
Notes
- Chilli Paste: You can make chilli paste by grinding fresh Thai red chillies in a food processor to a coarse paste. If using dried red chillies, hydrate them in hot water for 10 minutes and then grind. Sambal Oelek or chilli flakes can be substituted.
- Reducing heat: Take out the seeds off the red chillies to reduce the heat in the sauce
- Cornflour: Can be substituted with potato or tapioca starch
- The sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks
Laura says
Pretty good how I made it. I altered/switched out some of the ingredients. I reduced cayenne to half. Used 1-1/2 tsp jarred minced garlic. I used garlic chili paste only 1 Tbsp though. I used about 1/4 tsp pepper flakes.Very good on Asian Chicken wraps.I reduced spicy ingredients because my instinct told me to. Glad I did, had some spice not too much. Less garlic for husband he doesn't care for a lot.
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Aleksandar says
Good day, I would like to know, if you can tell me what is amount of one cup?
Richa says
Approx 250 ml
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John Doe says
Add some monosodium glutamate (MSG) for an extra boost of flavour. MSG makes it taste amazing.
Noni says
This was amazing!! Just the right amount of sweet and spice! The consistency was good too. I wanted mine a little thicker so I doubled the cornstarch slurry and it was perfect!
Shirish joshi says
Nice 👍
Mariam says
Tastes amazing
Mary says
I made this with Spenda and, WOW, delicious! This will be a constant in my fridge from now on.
Khansa says
Wow.that's amazing.
Gary says
Oh wow, what an awesome dipping sauce! Made the recipe as written and was amazed at the perfect balance of tangy, sweet and heat.
Richa Gupta says
Hey Gary! Yes, the sweet chilli sauce is all about the balance. We are glad you liked it!
Sruthi says
I am absolutely in love with this sauce. I skipped garlic, added only dried chilli flakes and, finally used both honey and white sugar to serve aside with my homemade momos. My family went nuts for this sauce.
*A friendly tip*: Use this sauce for recipes like noodles, boiled veggies, chicken and shrimp for a lazy, yet, very easy dinner.
Richa says
So happy you liked the recipe Sruthi. Thanks for leaving a comment!
Supriya says
Such an excellent dipping sauce and so easy to make! Try this and you are going to absolutely love the amalgamation of spicy, sweet and tangy
Rakhee says
Omg I just made it ! Absolutely delicious thank you for sharing Richa xx
Richa says
Thanks for leaving a comment! Soooo glad you liked it Rakhee
PrinceBenny says
So so so Delicious!!!Me and my family enjoyed having Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce.I will recommend all to try this one's at home.I am well confident that all of them will try this for multiple times.Thanks to My Food Story.Loved it really!!!!!!!😍😍😍😋😋
Richa says
Thanks for trying out this recipe Prince Benny and leaving a comment. Soooo glad you liked it.