Along with the Sriracha incidents that I recounted earlier this week was a neat new discovery. Last Thursday I found myself in a semi-downtrodden Indian market in Fremont, California, a Bay Area suburb with a sizeable Indian population. It was late afternoon and a storm was coming. The market occupied two shop spaces but its inventory filled only two-thirds of the area. The store’s sad state didn’t bother me much as I’ve been in plenty of strange Asian markets. I was chasing down an Indian ingredient and the cashier didn’t know what I was talking about.
It started to rain and get cold. The cashier grabbed his jacket but kept the doors wide open to make it easier for the handful of shoppers to push their carts out. I started feeling downtrodden since I was freezing and couldn’t find what I needed. Nonetheless, I walked every aisle because you never know what you may find.
Asian markets don’t have consistent floor plans so I didn’t expect to find Maggi Masala Chilli Sauce next to Maggi instant noodles (I'll write about these soon). You'd expect the former to be with condiments and the latter to be with dried noodles. Whatever. Here was the hot sauce looking at me in the eye.
My fascination with Maggi products stems from Maggi Seasoning Sauce, which I love on banh mi and rice. A subsidiary of Nestle, Maggi has country- and cuisine-specific food products all over the world.
I perused the Maggi Masala Chilli Sauce ingredient list, which included: water, sugar, chile puree, spices, salt, acetic acid, modified starch, xantham gum and sodium benzoate. Assuming that the ingredients are listed from largest to smallest amount used, the water and sugar being at the top pointed at the sauce being slightly sweet. The spices lent the South Asian imprint. I had to try it for about $4 a bottle.
Once home, I popped off the cap and tasted the red sauce with a chopstick. WHOA – it was sweet, hot, and pungent. The chile heat lasted on my tongue for several minutes. It was intense but I liked it because the Maggi Masala Chilli sauce wasn’t so spicy that steam was shooting out of my ears.
The sweetness came first, then the chile blast accompanied by a cuminlike edge. My husband tasted it too and agreed that the heat level bordered on being too much but never went overboard. The sauce was kind of funny because despite its heat, the sugar and spices made it really appealing. My husband deemed it suitable for barbecued meats. “It’s like Indian Sriracha,” he said.
A few days later, our computer consultant Manpreet S., a Punjabi native, came over to work on our home network. While I was happy to have him give us a tech tune up, I also wanted to query him about the Masala Chilli Sauce. (My food interview subjects are sometimes people who come to our house!)
Holding the bottle, I asked, “Manny, what do you know about this stuff?”
“Oh, that’s Indian hot sauce,” he said, smiling with surprise that I would have it around. “I use it all the time. Not that brand as much, but the other one.”
“There was another brand at the Indian market called Swad but I chose Maggi because it seemed to have faster turnover,” I responded. “How long has this sauce been around in India?”
“Since my teens and that was well over 20 years ago,” Manny answered. Maggi has been in South Asia for decades, according to their India site.
Googling the sauce, it seems like Maggi Masala Chilli Sauce is popular in Canada and the United Kingdom. You can order it from Amazon in the US but the bottle showing on the product page is not the right one. Here in the States, maybe it’s best to purchase the sauce at South Asian market.
Have you seen or tasted it? What are your thoughts and how do you use it? Do you liken Masala chilli sauce to being an Indian kind of Sriracha? Or is it a take on an Indian chile sauce?
I’d love to know more about this Indian hot chile sauce!
Related posts and links:
- Tackling Sriracha Myths, Truths and Confusion
- Has Sriracha become like Kleenex and Xerox?
- A Sauce to Crow About (NY Times article by John T. Edge covering chef use of Sriracha and the Huy Fong Foods company that produces it)
- 2011 CHOW 13 Awards of influential food people - entry on David Tran of the Rooster Brand of Sriracha
Jeff Brennan says
Well, I thought this evaluation was both verbose and way over-written. Additionally you gave two different reasons for choosing Maggi brand. Having said that, I did learn something.
Diane says
Well, I consider myself and Indian food wonk - I make it all the time, own "The Dictionary of Indian Food," and even have dried curd chiles in my house - but I have never heard of this. I think I need to look for it the next time I'm in the Indian markets. I loves me some chiles! You have the best tips...
lynn says
As part of a half Indian household and representing the non Indian half I have not seen this product mentioned in any of a myriad of recipes from diverse sources in learning to prepare diverse dishes from this glorious cusine.
Andrea Nguyen says
Jeff: Part of this post was about how despite the awkwardness of the circumstances, things can pay off. Additionally, sometimes unlikely people -- like Manpreet -- can be terrific resources. When it comes to food, it pays to be open minded.
Andrea Nguyen says
Diane and lynn: The Masala chilli sauce was definitely a head turner. I'm sure that once you start looking, you'll see it on South Asian market shelves.
Jeanne Gauthier says
I have a bottle in my refrigerator and I love it. I found it in an Indian grocery store in the Houston Mahatma Gandhi district, The Patel Brothers, on Hillcroft. It is delicious on hamburgers, grilled fish, french fries etc... A few years ago I took a cooking class and an Indian grocery store tour from Suneeta Vaswani. She suggested we give the Maggi Chilli sauces a try, and mentioned you can't go wrong with Swad products either. I agree with Andrea about food and an open mind!
Hugh Samuel says
I like Maggi products but I haven't tried the Maggi Masala Chilli Sauce. I'll visit the grocery store to look for this. Thanks.
Oanh says
Andrea - Thanks for the post! I'm definitely going to check out some Maggi Masala. My South Indian fiance loves Sriracha, and I imagine he'd love Maggi Masala as well. I've never seen it in his family's household, so I don't think they ever use it...
By the way, did you have any luck finding your mystery Indian ingredient?
Diane says
Looked for this today and so far no luck. Only could find Maggi masala Ketchup and masala sweet chile sauce.
Dick Stein says
Jeff, just wanted you to know that I'm submitting your comment that Andrea's post was "both verbose and way over-written" to the Department of Redundancy Department.
Cheryl says
Andrea... I've become quite the silent fan of yours; but when I saw these ingredients, I just had to make you aware of something. Sodium benzoate a the bottom of the list, by itself, shouldn't be a problem; but when mixed with ascorbic acid it forms a known carcinogen. It's been scientifically proven and recognized by the FDA. Please read labels carefully when it comes to this particualr preservative. Potassium sorbate is a safer alternative if there's fruit or ascorbic acid in a probuct.
Linh says
Dick, while I appreciate you were trying to be funny, technically "verbose" and "over-written" are quite different in their meanings. Please research these terms prior to mocking others as you've only ended up discrediting yourself. While Jeff's criticism was unkind, at least it was accurate.
Andrea Nguyen says
Cheryl: I didn't know that about the combination of sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid. Just looked it up and indeed, the two in combination forms benzene, a known carcinogen. The question is how much is in the condiment and whether or not that is at a dangerous level. Nevertheless, thanks for the heads up on the preservatives!
Suzanne says
Note that the ingredient is acetic acid and NOT ascorbic acid in this product.
Sara says
This sauce can be found in Indian grocery stores.
Air Max Cheap says
Dick, while I appreciate you were trying to be funny, technically "verbose" and "over-written" are quite different in their meanings
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Nickle says
perfect sauce for my dinner tonight 🙂 yum2!
Dean James says
I'm eating it now (on a wrap with cucumber, lettuce and thin steak strips) as I write this. I love spicy food and have struggled to find a nice tasting hot sauce here in England (the missus likes Frank's RedHot; too vinegary and not hot enough for me) for ages. The heat does rise towards the top side, initially, and gives me crazy hiccups, but it tastes delicious on, well pretty much anything. Although I've yet to use it as a marinade.
Rumèla says
You may want to check out the another variant with tamarind. https://www.maggi.co.uk/products/world-foods/tamarind-sauce/
Andrea Nguyen says
Thanks for the tip!
Debbie says
Maggi is as Indian as a Volkswagen. It was founded by Julius Maggi in Switzerland in 1886 and became a household name in Germany with its low cost MSG soup cubes during WW I and WWII. The company also got to fame by collaborating with the Nazis. It was taken over by Nestle in 1947 and entered the Indian market only around 2000. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggi
Andrea Nguyen says
Yes it sure is a global thing! This is a great story by Khusbu Shah, at the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2019/03/15/what-do-so-many-global-cuisines-have-in-common-a-bright-yellow-package-of-maggi-magic/?utm_term=.2cc2ac512859
Sach says
Maggie has been in India with Indian flavored stuff since the 80’s at least. They introduced local flavor instant noodles back then, experimented new flavors with fervor for a decade, toffee was the worst (guess they tried it as taffy was a popular and brands were launching several varieties of it then, with minimal play in flavor just shape and branding)
Nonetheless they found some staple winners after decades and don’t experiment as much as they used to initially.
The masala chili sauce is a masterpiece.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ9QwGlBOLo
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8oPDDtdCh9c&t=69s
Andrea Nguyen says
Thanks for sharing the intel, Sach!
Andy says
This is an awesome sauce to use as an accompaniment with bacon or (my home-made) sausages, but my favoured use is for making the recipe posted by another blogger. I don’t know how widespread chilli chicken is around the world, but it is quite popular in the UK and one of my favourites.
https://glebekitchen.com/masala-chilli-chicken-restaurant-style/
Andrea Nguyen says
Thanks for the link, Andy!