What’s your favorite condiment? Normally, I’d say ranch dressing, but two years ago, I discovered Sweet Chili Sauce. I thought it was made with some fancy Asian ingredients, so it never occurred to me to make my own. Then one day during winter, I somehow stumbled upon a recipe. It uses jalapenos? Really? No fancy Thai chilies? No ingredients only found in Asian markets? It doesn’t even use rice vinegar. I filed the recipe in my never-ending things to try and forgot about it. Then my garden overflowed with red jalapenos. I’ve grown jalapenos these past two years and have never seen it this crazy before. As I struggled to keep up with the overabundance, I remembered the Sweet Chili Sauce recipe. At first I thought it would take time to cook on the stove to develop those flavors, much like you would with ketchup or tomato sauce. Nope – throw everything in a blender then cook for a few minutes on the stove until thickened. Um what? I can make the sauce AND eat it in the same hour?
The first time I tried Sweet Chili Sauce was for a giveaway I hosted. The company sent me a box of ingredients to go with their theme, and inside was a bottle of a brand name sauce. I didn’t know what to expect, so I was never intrigued on buying any at the store. Boy was I hooked!
I could practically drink this sauce (except for the throat burning part). What’s nice is you can add as little or as much heat as you want. However, just know that the longer the sauce sits, the more mellow the sauce becomes. This means it could be super spicy today, but next week the kick will have died down. You’ll have to make the judgement call, but I tend to go on the too spicy side since the sauce does last me a few weeks. The spice is all in the peppers’ seeds and membrane, so that’s where you would adjust the heat.. Don’t completely get rid of the seeds because you do want somewhat of a kick.
I use Sweet Chili Sauce mainly as a dipping sauce for fish sticks or chicken fingers, but I’ve also used it as a glaze for chicken wings. For a quick dinner idea, marinade chicken breast in the sauce and cook as desired (baking, frying, grilling, etc). I’ve even used it as a pasta sauce for shrimp and rice noodles, but uh that just might be me being weird.
I used to eat everything with ranch, but it’s slowly being replaced by Sweet Chili Sauce.
Sweet Chili Sauce
Yield: 1
Adjust the heat with the amount of jalapeno seeds you add.
Ingredients
- 2 large red jalapeno peppers, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1/4 cup vinegar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- 2 Tbsp water
Instructions
- Puree together the jalapenos, garlic, vinegar, sugar, 3/4 cup water, and salt in a blender until smooth as possible. Transfer to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 3 minutes or until the mixture slightly thickens.
- In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and 2 Tbsp water until smooth. Add to the pepper mixture and simmer for another few minutes or until the mixture is thickened slightly. It's still going to be a little bit runny. The cornstarch is added to help suspend the pepper and garlic bits rather than have them sink to the bottom.
- Let cool completely then store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.
Source: She Simmers
Jen @JuanitasCocina says
Making this. Tonight. :D
Brigitte says
Made it several time now. Wonderful recipe and good every time. Love it! love it! Thank you
Dorothy at ShockinglyDelicious says
Making it!
Lane @ Supper for a Steal says
Wow who knew it was this easy! I think I only have 1 red jalapeno right now, but once I get another, homemade sweet chili sauce!
Renee says
I’m with you on the loving sweet chili sauce. Something about the sweet-hot combination is so great. Thanks for sharing how easy it is to make it. Now I’ll be making it too.
Laura Hunter says
I use sweet chili sauce all the time but I never thought to make it myself! I love how simple this looks. As soon as I run out I am going to make a batch myself. Thanks for sharing!
Jen @ Jen's Favorite Cookies says
I seriously cannot wait to try this!! I LOVE this stuff, but I’ve never made it at home before. YUM! Thanks, Carla!
Miss @ Miss in the KItchen says
I love sweet chili sauce, I am going to try it!
Ashley says
I have a ton of jalapenos in the freezer right now and I am wishing I had left them on the plant until they turned red! I wonder if this would still be good with green jalapenos? I also wonder if you could use stevia instead of sugar. I think I am going to try it! I love love love sweet chili sauce too, thanks for sharing! :)
Alex says
I wonder if it works well with piri-piri peppers.. Nice.
Carla says
I have never heard of that, so I looked it up. There’s a piri-piri sauce, so they may work! The key is for the peppers to be sweet and spicy. Let me know if you try it!
Angie @ Big Bear's Wife says
I LOVE the color in this!
Ashley says
Ok, I just did what I said I was going to do in previous comment (used green jalapenos and stevia in the raw instead of sugar). Bad idea! It was wayyyy too sweet and the stevia made it foam up lol. I added another batch of ingredients except for the stevia. This time the sweetness was fine but the taste was almost like the taste you get when you throw up in your mouth a little. It was just nasty haha. I am sure it was TOTALLY my fault I just wanted to let people know… don’t do what I did lol. I will have to try this again but follow the recipe exactly, I am always trying to make things healthier and it doesn’t always work. Still even with the sugar this is better than the kind from the store that is probably loaded with preservatives.
Carla says
Oh no! I’m glad you had the ambition to try it! I know nothing about stevia, but since it’s used as a sweetener and not baking, I’m guessing you’ll have to adjust the amount (sounds like don’t add as much stevia?). As for the green jalapeños, the red ones are sweeter as well as spicier, so that’s probably why using green didn’t work out as well. I promise to my readers this tastes amazing! I already ate half the batch. Thanks Ashley for your comments and for reporting back! :)
Jean says
On my package of stevia- in-the -raw it says to only replace 1/2 of the sugar with stevia.
Sarah says
Awesome! I even have all the stuff to make this baby too :-D
Ginny says
Wow, I cannot wait to make this!
Chung-Ah | Damn Delicious says
Who knew that making sweet chili sauce was this easy?! I think I’d add a couple of more jalapenos – I like my sauce super spicy!
מתכונים says
Recipe Genius. I’m running to make this sauce now!!
Soni says
Ooh never knew it was that easy!!I also love this sauce
and so glad you posted this recipe!!
Javelin Warrior says
Wow, I love how easy this recipe is, Carla. And I’m so impressed you grow your own jalapeños. My friend grows some every year, but I’ve never attempted. And I think my favorite condiment would still be Ranch, but since I still haven’t devised a method for replicating something close to Hidden Valley, I’d probably be better off eating this chili sauce :)
Averie @ Averie Cooks says
Ive made hot pepper jelly and this looks RIGHT up my alley! love it!
Eliana says
Hmmm – I can see myself putting this sauce on just about everything! Looks and sounds so delicious.
Michelle says
Do you think it would work if I canned this? Thanks!
Carla says
I’ve only ever canned jam. However, I know you can pretty much can anything if you follow the proper methods. You can can tomato sauce so I’m guessing you can with this sauce.
Pamela says
I’ve made this twice in the last week. I just now made it using about 1/2 of a habenero and a couple of sweet pimiento peppers. Its even better than with jalapenos. Nummers!
Julie says
I really want to try to can this recipe. Does anyone out there know if this would work for canning? Michelle, did you try it? My family would love this for Christmas!
Carla says
Hi Julie,
I asked a friend who cans a lot. She says it will not can well with the cornstarch and garlic. You can freeze it; however, cornstarch doesn’t maintain its thickening property when frozen. She recommends if you do freeze, don’t add the cornstarch. When it thaws, heat it back up and add cornstarch.
Cassandra says
I made this using two dried thai dragon peppers from my harvest this summer…. HOLY SMOKE! It was knock-your-socks-off good! I must say though – do NOT think you can answer the phone when this goes to a boil…. my kitchen will smell like pickled eggs for a bit ;) A new favorite recipe that will be used rather frequently! Thank you Carla!
Carla says
Glad you enjoyed it! I never heard of thai dragon peppers, but I’m guessing by the name that these were the perfect fit.
Jessie says
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I’ve tried it out today and it was a real success with some leftovers of yesterday’s BBQ. I’ve posted it on my blog and linked back to you.
Happy Holidays.
Amber says
This recipe looks amazing! Thanks for sharing. Where did you find the bottle?
Carla says
The thrift store! haha Thanks for stopping by, Amber.
Laurie says
This sounds amazing! Does anyone know how long it will keep in the fridge?
Carla says
FDA recommends up to 1 month in the refrigerator.
Laura says
Saw this today and went straight away to make it. I didn’t have jalepenos, but I had red Serrano chilies in the garden, so I used those. Turned out great! Delicious! Tank you so much for posting!
Rebecca says
I made this last week, quadrupled the entire recipe, left out the cornstarch so that I could can it. It is basically the same ingredients as a pepper jelly or a sweet jelly/jam so I used the water bath method and processed for 25 minutes (15 would probably work since I did 1/2 pints). Since I omitted the cornstarch and cooked it less on the stove, assuming the canning process would thicken it some, it is thin but it does taste awesome! Thanks for the recipe, it lead me to your site and I love it! My in-laws live in Greensburg and we are in Western WV so we are in the same region.
Chris says
l Live in the Midwest. Cant find red jalapeno peppers here. The grocery stores only carry green jalapenos. My question is this : My grocery store carries large red chili peppers. Can they be used in place of the jalapenos? Then add some Sriracha sauce,for heat.
Carla says
Hi Chris, First don’t use green jalapenos (in case you didn’t read the other comments, someone tried green and didn’t like it). I know several readers used other varieties of red chiles and had success. I would taste the sauce before you add Sriracha, just in case.
Sara says
I live in Russia and have to make most of my not-so-everyday condiments. Great recipe! Thanks!
Serena says
I love this recipe! I use it in my version of sweet/sour chicken. :)
On another note, where did you get that jar in the picture? It looks just like my spice jars and I need some more and can’t find them!
Thanks!
Carla Cardello says
Oh sweet and sour chicken sounds awesome with this sauce! And I got the jar at a thrift store but did see them at Hobby Lobby with other empty jars (not sure what the aisle is called).
Serena says
I have googled and searched everywhere for those jars! Of course they would be at hobby lobby. The only place I didn’t look. Thank you so much! Now I can get all my spices out of my cookie jar! :)
P.s. I love your blog! I wish I found it sooner!
Crystal says
Would I be able to can this?
Carla says
I answered this question in the comment thread above, but I’ll just copy and paste my answer so I don’t have to retype: “I asked a friend who cans a lot. She says it will not can well with the cornstarch and garlic. You can freeze it; however, cornstarch doesn’t maintain its thickening property when frozen. She recommends if you do freeze, don’t add the cornstarch. When it thaws, heat it back up and add cornstarch.”
Emily says
Hi.. I was wondering what kind of vinegar you used? My mom suggested either white vinegar or red wine vinegar but I wanted to be sure! Thanks!
Carla says
White distilled vinegar
Pamela S. says
I make big batches of this every year and freeze it in several jars so I can have some all year. So yummy! Thank you!
Carla says
Oh good! Glad you love the recipe.