Weeks ago we started a conversation about how to make Vietnamese chili garlic sauce without preservatives. Josh Levine began the whole thing by asking me if Huy Fong made a preservative-free version of their ubiquitous Rooster-brand sauces. Lili and Chuck ended up sharing their family recipes.
I mostly eat raw, unadulterated sliced chiles, so while I have those prepared condiments around, I use them only once in a while for certain applications, like when I mix up a little dip for corn and coconut fritters. Many people think the Rooster sauces are great but I find them a tad vinegary, too hot, and often overpowering. But something happened recently that changed my mind.
Two weeks ago I dined at a Vietnamese restaurant in San Jose, CA, and instead of chili garlic sauce on the table, there was a small container of fresh pureed chiles. I was delighted at the prospect of having actual fresh zip for my food since most times when I ask for fresh ot hiem (hot Southeast Asian type chiles), the response is: "Sorry, all we have are green jalapenos." Those don't do much for me and yep, I'm sorry too.
We threw a dollop of the pureed chiles into our dipping sauce but were woefully disappointed. It lacked punch. No heat. Just red color. Bland.
That lackluster experience inspired me to experiment with Lili and Chuck's recipes. I headed to the farmer's market and found an abundance of red hot peppers. Now is the season to grab the last of the harvest before the pepper plants die off for the year. I remembered from an article I read long ago that Huy Fong used red jalapenos so of course, I went through the pile to collect a bunch of red ones with cracks -- signs of maturity and heat. The market also offered smooth serranos and Portuguese hots which despite the farmer's assurance, were actually Italian sweets as I suspected; I sauteed the Italians in peanut oil and ate them with rice. In my home fridge were a few lingering red Fresnos so I threw them in too. Chuck's recipe called for habaneros but he said you could any variety you liked. Lili didn't specify any particular kind but noted that her aunt used whatever she grew in the yard.
From a pound of chiles, I came up with two bright, fresh, hot condiments that had a pleasant taste but didn't burn or take out all your taste buds. They're simple to make and the difference is that Lili's (on the right below) is cooked after being pureed while Chuck's stays raw. Hers is a tad sweeter, lighter in color and thicker than his. (If you've sampled Cholimex in Vietnam, hers is a superior version of that high-class sauce made in the Motherland.) On the other hand, Chuck's has a marvelous funky heady, almost floral quality. I took the two homemade chili garlic sauces to a Vietnamese Slow Food event that I did last Sunday and people ate the jars clean. I like them both.
Here they are for you to try. Let me know your thoughts . . .
Lili’s Cooked Chili Garlic Sauce
6 ounces hot chiles (e.g., cayenne, Fresnos, habanero, jalapeno, long, serrano, Thai, or a combination of them), stemmed and chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ tablespoons sugar
1 ½ tablespoons distilled white vinegar
Put all the ingredients in an electric mini-chopper or food processor. Process to a coarse texture. Take a whiff and it should make you sweat a bit. Taste and adjust the flavor with add extra salt or sugar. Transfer to a small saucepan, bring to a vigorous simmer over medium heat, lower the heat to gently simmer for about 5 minutes, or until it no longer smells raw. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Transfer to a jar and store in the refrigerator. Makes a scant ⅔ cup.
Chuck’s Raw Chili Garlic Sauce
6 ounces hot chiles (e.g., cayenne, Fresnos, habanero, jalapeno, long, serrano, Thai, or a combination of them), stemmed and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
1 ½ tablespoons distilled white vinegar
Put all the ingredients in an electric mini chopper or food processor. Process to a coarse texture. Take a whiff and it should make you sweat a bit. Taste and adjust the flavor with add extra salt or sugar. Transfer to a small jar and refrigerate. Let stand at least 30 minutes before using to allow the flavors to blend. Makes about ⅔ cup.
Note: Chuck says that if your concoction is too hot, add some bell pepper to tone it down. You can also mitigate the heat with sugar, salt and/or vinegar.
Related info:
HolyBasil says
Hi Andrea,
Thank you for posting these recipes. I've got all these pretty peppers that I bought at the farmer's market here. First, I thought I'd dry them, but I think I'll have to try these now. I'm always looking for a way to decrease the amount of preservatives in my food. Cám ơn rất nhiều!
Lili says
Hi, Andrea!
Great looking chili sauce and it totally looks like what my aunt makes, though I think it should be called Andrea's Chili Sauce since I totally forgot the salt and the vinegar in my original post. And I think the peppers that my aunt used were red jalapenos. I prefer this sauce over the Red Rooster which I find a bit too sweet and lately, really hot. Can't wait to try your recipe. Thanks for working out the mechanics!
Chuck says
I'm glad you liked the chili garlic sauce recipe. I'll have to try Lili's cooked sauce the next time I make a batch. Your experience at the Vietnamese restaurant is the exact reason I bring my own chili peppers! I know my chilies will be hot and there's no wait for them. I won't bring them to a restaurant like Ad Hoc, but if I'm going to an ethnic place... a chili or two are coming along!
Andrea Nguyen says
Lili and Chuck, My pleasure. They're both terrific approaches and may inspire other versions. As for Ad Hoc (Thomas Keller's casual restaurant in Napa wine country), you never know how their food may sing with a little touch of tuong ot toi. Maybe you can do feature your sauce in one of your Sunday night suppers, Chuck? Let us know if you do.
Ashley says
Awesome. I'll never buy Sriracha chili sauce again because I can make my own using these recipes. The fact that Andrea had made and tweaked the recipes will encourage more people to try making them at home. Thanks.
lolobstersquad says
Hello Andrea
I´ve just been given a copy of your book Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by a very kind friend for Singapore. I´m completely blown away. I´m Spanish, and we don´t know anything about Viet food here, so it´s been like discovering a new world. Congratulations, it´s a lovely book.
Andrea Nguyen says
Lolobstersquad,
Thanks for the nice words. Someone told me a while ago that Roman fish sauce (liquamen) production facilities were discovered in Spain. Spain has wonderful seafood so I'm sure you'll be making lots of good Viet fare.
Btw, do you create the wonderfully adorable illustrations on your blog?
http://lobstersquad.blogspot.com/
holybasil says
Hi Andrea,
I ended up making both versions with cayenne pepper and found them both to be great. Thanks for posting these recipes as I think I won't need to use the store-bought stuff anymore. I have posted my adaptation on my own blog - hopefully it does justice to the original recipes!
Andrea Nguyen says
I know, they're both remarkably good and much fresher tasting than the Rooster brand. Not everyone has time to make their own, but you did get your hands on lots of fresh chiles. What a marvelous way of preserving the summer heat for the long, cold winter haul.
Thanks for alerting us to your tweakings posted at:
http://holybasil.wordpress.com/
As always, nice photography!
Lori K says
Hi,
I'm eager to try this with my last crop of hot peppers. A question, though: Two-thirds of a cup is a lot of hot chili sauce to use up quickly (for us at least). How long can this preservative-free sauce keep in the fridge? Can it be frozen?
Andrea Nguyen says
Hi Lori,
That is a lot but you can surely freeze it. It should keep in the fridge for a month or so. Freezing it in small batches will enable you to stretch out the bounty of your garden.
Daniel Z. says
Hi Andrea,
As usual, an excellent addition to my fridge. I always like to make my own sauces if I can. Thanks for those excellent recipes and explanations of how and why you arrived at them. I'm a bit of a theory nut!
Daniel in Canada
Steamy Kitchen says
Will be trying the cooked version tomorrow!
Anonymous says
omg this sauce is like so amazing i told ma friend like all aboutit and they tired it an they told me it was super good i could eat this sauce every day ,like totally.rock on ..jah rasta fariiiddd bless up 2 the people awesome sauce:)
gfh says
ghf
rhonda bobrick says
I grow a variety of hot peppers and always searching for different sauce recipes.While looking for a simple chili/garlic recipe I went to yours and was totally pleased after tasting Chucks sauce with a smoked pork butt hot out of the smoker,as were a couple of friends.Thanks a bunch.Look forward to trying other recipes from your site. jbeeo1
steve says
Viet chili paste vs chili sauce?
If a recipe (a southern style nuoc cham) calls for "ground chili paste" is it safe to assume we're talking tuong ot toi? I can follow your cookbook/directions but am having some trouble reconciling terms/ingeredients with other's recipes. A trip to the market further complicated things when I found various jars labeled chili paste (containing holly basil, sweet basil, and/or shrimp paste)... Is there a difference between paste and sauce in Viet cooking?
Thanks.
Andrea Nguyen says
Steve, your assumption is spot on! The thing is that we don't have a standard vocabulary for Asian food terms. I know, it's crazy. Then people who write cookbooks may not be fluent in all the common terms used in English.
I think people often confuse paste with sauce. I tend to think of a paste as being on the dry side. A sauce is more wet and has liquid. A paste mounds on a spoon.
However, if someone's pounding something into a paste -- like chiles, garlic, sugar and salt and using that to flav
Jeff says
Andrea I'm intrigued by the chilli sauces, but without preservatives just how long will they keep.
Andrea Nguyen says
Jeff, I kept mine in the fridge for about 9 months. The flavor diminishes just slightly but it never failed to brighten up foods.
Lauren Harrington says
I love homemade sauces and you have provided many great recipes and I look forward to trying them all. Can you buy fresh chilis online during the winter? I thought someone might know a good source.
Zulema says
Hi Andrea,
I was confused on the part about which chili to use. If i use a green jalapeno the sauce would be green correct? Also do i use fresh or dry chilies?
Thanks
Andrea Nguyen says
Zulema, use fresh (not dried) red chiles. Yes, a green jalapeno will yield a green sauce. But if that's all you have, then make a green sauce. Try some serranos in the mix too for extra heat.
Tony says
I have tried these a couple of times and love them,so simple to make,question..if i add some red peppers to it will it be ok?
Noah says
Since these have no preservatives (which is wonderful), how long will they stay fresh in the refrigerator? I can buy bucketloads of fresh chilies here (Kansas City) in the summer. Thanks! These recipes look really good and I'm eager to try them!
Truong Gia Tri says
It's good,I want to know more about Vietnamese food.thank you.
Mark says
While these two recipes sound great, I have to ask a question.
In all the photos, you show a brilliant Red sauce. The peppers you mention (Habeneros being the exception) are dark Green. Where is the distinct Red coming from?
Andrea Nguyen says
Mark, the peppers that I use are red ones. See the photo in the middle of the post. Also, I discuss waiting for the right time in the season for the peppers to turn red. Fresnos are red -- often times mislabeled as "red jalapenos." Peppers are picked green for many markets but if you search around a bit, and wait, you'll obtain red peppers.
Hang says
Where did I go wrong? Followed the directions and ingredients to a tee but I ended up with alot of chopped up chili peppers without any sauce or liquid to it??? Any advise?
Andrea Nguyen says
Hang, how about putting your chile sauce back into the food processor or mini chopper and whirring it up a little more? Also add some water.
Were your chiles dried? There is always liquid with the fresh chiles. Let me know how you fare!
J. Doran says
THANK YOU!!!
I'm a "Rooster" addict with a great garden in NE Ohio, but didn't know what to do with the "overflow". This solves it.
Andrea Nguyen says
Fantastic, J. Love that you've got the bounty of your garden to play with!
Beef Stroganoff Recipe says
I use so much of the Vietnamese Garlic Chili Paste in dishes where I work but had never thought of making my own before. We use a large amount of it on a daily basis to spice up most of our dishes or when people order a normal dish extra spicy.
I love the stuff, and its so cheap in chinatown that I never thought to make my own. But with a few ideas percolating from your post I think I might be able to improve on the store bought flavor.
At least in dishes at home anyway.
Kathy says
Delicious! I've made Lili's recipe, keeping the garlic raw, I've made half raw and half roasted, keeping the garlic raw, and I've made mostly raw with (sadly) no garlic. They all taste different, but delicious! Thank you for posting these.
Paree says
How long dose it last for
R Becklund says
This is such a great looking recipe. I'll have to try it, maybe even with Hatch chiles. Thanks!
fx15 says
I love cayenne pepper
John K says
Salt is an excellent preservative, and vinegar and garlic are not bad either. Also, have you ever noticed that most hot peppers can sit around forever (i.e. years) on the kitchen counter without spoiling? My guess is that these sauces would last pretty much indefinitely in the refrigerator.
bathmate says
Thank you for posting.
it is really useful for us.
Bathmate
Diana (girlfeedsboy) says
I was wondering what to do with the handful of peppers I have. Making chili sauce never even occurred occurred to me but I can't wait to try our both recipes!
John Adams says
I tried the cooked recipe. The flavor was great before cooking, but the garlic acquired a strange flavor as I cooked it. I like the thickness and color that was achieved by the cooking, but next time I will puree the garlic after the chilis and everything else have cooked and cooled. I would also like to experiment with fermenting the chilis for a couple weeks before using them.
Jason G says
I found some Uni-Eagle sriracha sauce which only contains potassium sorbate as a preservative. This should be less of a concern than the benzoate or bisulphite types.
Not the same flavor as the rooster sriracha, but still good.
Asset Management says
This is what I wanna. Fresh chill...homemade chili source. I am saving this post to my recipe notebook!! This is what I am looking for. Lovely.
Sylvia says
I make my own sauce because we can only get fresh chiles here sporadically. I made Lili’s Cooked Chili Garlic Sauce (I used a little bit of water and more vinegar and then just a touch of cornstarch at the end to thicken it) and everyone loved it. Hurray!
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Aaron says
Has anybody tried to can this to preserve it? I'm sure the cooked one wouldn't lose much from being pressure canned.
Alexander says
Made "Chucks" recipe today and there is no way near enough liquid in this recipe to make for a proper chili sauce. Followed the recipe exactly and mine is quite dry. 1 1/2 TBLS of vinegar isn't anything to 6oz of fresh chili. Looking at your photos there is tons of liquid. Did you cover the rest in vinegar?
Andrea Nguyen says
Aaron: This stuff should can well. However, I've kept in the fridge for months -- maybe 6 months at a time.
Alexander: I didn't add extra vinegar. What you see is the recipe, which others have tried. Did you puree the chiles? There's liquid in the chiles. Then when you cook it, more liquid exudes.
flowers montreal says
It must be really hot but really delicous also. Great recipe!
Joe and Christi says
I would love to have some asian recipes on my website. If you want to release sharing rights, please let me know or submit it to home-made-recipes.net Thanks!
pinky aronda says
mhm...i love to try your amazing recipe,,hope i couls find those kind of chilis u mentioned here in the phils,,please keep on posting some new discovery of yours,,,,thank you very much,,,more power,,,
Jim Mock says
I am thinking abour making a batch of Tuong Ot Toi using ground DRIED chillies since that's all I can find right now. (I've planted dozens of plants for next year though)!
Any thoughts on this, other than I know I'll need to liquify it more?
By the way, I tried using Rice Vinegar instead of white vinegar in my last fresh batch and I liked it better. There should be a warning though that this stuff is ADDICTIVE!
Sandra says
combine Thai chili's and jalapeno. A nice hot kick!
ted says
Ok, I've got lili's cooked recipe on the stove now cooling.
i substituted agave nectar for sugar, being in a sugar-reduced household.
i'll report back with the results.
thanks!
Sana says
Wow! This looks so spicy, I love jamaican hot sauce. Your recipe is good, i will try it at home.
jordan 11 says
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jordan 11 says
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ugg.com says
I loved to read that. Thank you so much for sharing the post with all.You are bookmarked in my favourites.
Tiffany says
Hi there I just wanted to say how excited I am to try this recipe I eat nearly a whole jar of the store brand in 2 weeks, also I would like to let you know that I shared this page on stumble so that others can come across and try it also.
David says
any problem with using a water-bath canning option for small jars? or would heat/ pressure canning change the consistency/flavor of the sauce? (just a thought) Wonderful article/resource.. Most Chili sauces/pastes have MSG (not on the label, but my headache within 10 min tells me so) so I've kind of given up til I saw this.
Thank you!
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Juliana says
Lime juice also works in place of vineagar- if you happen to be out, as I am right now!
Mr. Cooking Grill says
I can't wait to try this one.
marlon says
I love homemade sauces and you have provided many great recipes and I look forward to trying them all.
Helena says
Simply wonderful! With just four fresh red chilies, which sprung up at the market now that it is summer, I made Lili’s Cooked Chili Garlic Sauce. Such fresh zinginess you can never squeeze out of a bottle of industrial chili sauce. It was so good, both in my roast beef sandwich and asian-style stir-fried noodles with chicken. Two things: I adjusted all other ingredients to the mere 122gm of chilies I had, and I pounded instead of blitzing. Terrible fun! Thank you for sharing, Andrea.
david says
would you have any idea about using unfiltered apple cider vinegar instead of white?
thanks
dan says
just made some chilli garlic sauce hot hot beutifull thank you...........
Jennifer Stone says
Hello Andrea!
I absolutely love Vietnamese foods, in the area that I live, I have to drive 2 hours to go to the nearest Vietnamese restaurant. With your blog and recipes I can now enjoy Vietnamese foods ANYTIME in my own kitchen!!!
Thank you so very much for your recipes!
Andrea Nguyen says
Wow, you're so dedicated. Thanks for cooking and taking time to write!!!