Copycat Chili Garlic Sauce — Mine is spicier!

Welcome back to Sunday Scratchups, weekly recipes from scratch around what’s on sale at the grocery store… or what’s ripe in the garden. Today: Copycat Chili Garlic Sauce! So you know how the people near the Sriracha factory were suing to shut it down a while back because of its eye watering odor? Well, rair warning: The scent of this teeny tiny batch of chili garlic sauce will permeate your house for at least a day.

This is not Sriracha, however, but its spicier, thicker cousin: Chili Garlic Sauce. I’ll admit: I have an unholy love for chili garlic sauce, put it on a lot of things, and use it in a lot of things. So I was looking at the little jar of Huy Fong (yes, the Sriracha people…) chili garlic sauce in my fridge, and then I was looking at the cayenne peppers in my garden, and then I was thinking, you know, why not give it a try? I bet I could make this without the preservatives, because how hard could it be?

Mine. Is. Spicier. I mean, ow you might burn your tongue off spicier. If this scares you, you might try removing the seeds from half (or all) of your peppers to reduce the heat level before making yours.

Copycat Chili Garlic Sauce

Ingredients

7 cayenne peppers
4 large garlic cloves
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
2 tsp unseasoned rice vinegar

Directions

Peel garlic and chop finely in small food chopper, then halve peppers and add them. Add salt and rice vinegar, then blend until your chili garlic sauce is at your desired consistency, scraping down the sides as necessary.

Store tightly covered in your refrigerator. Note: I used seven peppers because that’s what was ripe in my garden at the time (5 fully red and 2 starting to turn red, which is why you see some of the darker flecks of green pepper in my version). You can instead make a bigger batch and just adjust the rest of the ingredients proportionally.

Homemade is chunkier and spicier

Mine turned out chunkier than the original, since this is about as smooth as my little food chopper makes things. It’s also (let me warn you one more time) definitely spicier!

So what do you use this for? You can use Chili Garlic Sauce as a condiment to jazz up things like these leftover lettuce wraps from PF Chang’s, to kick up your stir fries or fried rice, or as an ingredient in recipes. This was so easy to make and so awesomely fresh and spicy and delicious that I’ve already made a second batch — and am impatiently waiting for more peppers to ripen so I can continue filling up my little jar here. This is kind of a Sisyphean task as we keep eating it, but I’m up to the challenge!

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Copycat Chili Garlic Sauce -- Mine is spicier!

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So easy to make your own copycat chili garlic sauce, with no additives!

Course condiment

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Author Rachel Singer

Ingredients

• 7 cayenne peppers
• 4 large garlic cloves
• 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
• 2 tsp unseasoned rice vinegar

Instructions

• Peel garlic and chop finely in small food chopper, then halve peppers and add them.
• Add salt and rice vinegar, then blend until your chili garlic sauce is at your desired consistency, scraping down the sides as necessary.
• Store tightly covered in your refrigerator.