Hot Garlic Sauce Or Chili Garlic Sauce is a homemade chinese style hot & spicy garlic sauce sure to blast your tastebuds! If you take your spice levels seriously, you are in for a treat! This fiery, garlicky condiment can be used in our favorite asian style or indo chinese style cooking, for topping or as an accompainment to pep up any meal.
Learn how to easily make this vegan & gluten-free chilli garlic sauce recipe in this post.
What Is Hot Garlic Sauce?
Hot Garlic sauce, as the name suggests, is a sharp & garlicky sauce made with fresh peppers, chillies, garlic & vinegar. The prominent flavors of this sauce are a balance of heat, tang and spicy. If you love sriracha, imagine this as garlicky sriracha, even better, right?
I use it extensively to create my favorite dishes like vegetable or chicken in hot garlic sauce. I always felt that something was missing when I was trying to recreate these dishes using off the shelf condiments, however this recipe really brings about amazing flavors.
It is super easy to make this chilli garlic sauce at home. You need a few kinds of fresh peppers from the store, ton of garlic and about half and hour to spare. I use fresh peppers in my recipe however I have noted down substitution under the ingredient heading in case you are not able to find fresh fresno peppers or red thai bird chillies.
This condiment stays fresh for upto a month in the back of your fridge and can be used a variety of ways in your cooking. It is awesome to be used on its own, as a chutney or mixed while making dips etc.
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Ingredients You Will Need
- Fresh Red Bell Pepper - Adds a sweet peppery flavor.
- Fresno Chile - These peppers look like jalapeno and taste like one too. These peppers add a fruity heat to the sauce and can be easily found in stores in a shelf near to where they stock the serranos & jalapeno. They contribute beautifully to the color of the sauce as well. Make sure to buy the freshest you can find.
- Thai Bird Chillies - These chillies bring some real heat to the sauce. You can easily buy them fresh at any asian store.
- Garlic
- Corn Starch
- Vinegar
- Other Ingredients - Salt, Sugar & Oil
Substitutes If You are not able to find Fresh Peppers
- Red bell pepper is rather easy to find so I don't think you will need to substitute it.
- If you are not able to find fresno chile and red thai bird chilies, use whole dried red chillies (sabut lal mirch). Soak the dried chilies in hot water to rehydrate them and then use in this recipe by simply grinding them with bell pepper(See recipe card)
- Fresh red thai bird chillies add a LOT of heat to this sauce. If you can find them, that's the best however you can also adjust the heat levels using red chilli pepper flakes instead.
How to make Hot Garlic Sauce at home
Chop the Peppers
Chop the red bell pepper discarding the inner core and seeds. Also, chop the fresno peppers, I don't discard the seeds of fresno because those have a ton of flavor.
Pro Tip:- You can roast the red bell pepper if you wish for a smoky taste. Roast and peel the skins before using.
Grind Together In a blender jar, add the peppers, garlic and thai bird chillies. Add vinegar, sugar and salt. Grind to a chunky paste. Reserve ⅓rd of the chunky paste and grind the rest to smooth.
Cook the Sauce
Heat up oil in a pan and add the smooth & reserved coarse pepper- garlic paste. Cook for 6-8 minutes on medium heat till you see small bubbles on the surface of the sauce.
Pro Tip :- Cooking the sauce on low medium heat develops favors and preserves & intensifies the color, dont rush it.
Mix in the cornstarch slurry and cook for additional 3-4 minutes till the sauce appears thickish. Switch off the stove.Your hot garlic sauce is ready. Cool down completely and store in an air tight container refrigerated for 3 weeks.
How To Use Hot Garlic Sauce
- Use it your asian or indo chinese cooking. It pairs beautifully with soy sauce, palm sugar and sesame oil. You can also toss noodles or fried rice with it. See Paneer in Hot Garlic Sauce
- Add a spoonful to any creamy dips that you are making.
- You can add a spoonful on top of your ramen or soup bowl to add a nice kick.
- Add it to marinades for fish or chicken.
- You can also serve it as it is with pakoras or dumplings/wontons.
FAQ
Hot garlic sauce tastes hot! And garlicky. It is quite spicy thanks to the red thai bird chillies that go in. Think of the taste as fresh heat combined with a pronounced garlic flavor. However, if you wish, you can make it milder by using just a combination of red bell pepper and fresno peppers.
Yes you can. However keep in mind that using green peppers and chilli will not give you the same result colorwise. If you want to preserve the red color, opt for dried chillies and chilli flakes instead,
Hot Garlic Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 large (~180g) Red Bell Pepper
- 100 g garlic
- 5 (~80g) red fresno pepper
- 8 red thai bird chilli
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- ⅓ cup vinegar
- ½ tablespoon cornstarch make slurry with 2 tablespoon water
- 2 tablespoon oil
Instructions
Chop the Peppers
- Chop the red bell pepper discarding the inner core and seeds. Also, chop the fresno peppers, I don't discard the seeds of fresno because those have a ton of flavor. Pro Tip:- You can roast the red bell pepper if you wish for a smoky taste. Roast and peel the skins before using.
Grind Together
- In a blender jar, add the peppers, garlic and thai bird chillies. Add vinegar, salt and sugar. Grind to a chunky paste. Reserve ⅓rd of the chunky paste and grind the rest to smooth.
Cook the Sauce
- Heat up oil in a pan and add the smooth & reserved coarse pepper- garlic paste. Cook for 6-8 minutes on medium heat till you see small bubbles on the surface of the sauce. Pro Tip :- Cooking the sauce on low medium heat develops favors and preserves & intensifies the color, dont rush it.
- Mix in the cornstarch slurry and cook for additional 3-4 minutes till the sauce appears thickish. Switch off the stove.
- Hot garlic sauce is ready. Cool down completely and store in an air tight clean container refrigerated for 3 weeks.
Notes
- Use it your asian or indo chinese cooking. It pairs beautifully with soy sauce, palm sugar and sesame oil. You can also toss noodles or fried rice with it.
- Add a spoonful to any creamy dips that you are making.
- You can add a spoonful on top of your ramen or soup bowl to add a nice kick.
- Add it to marinades for fish or chicken.
- You can also serve it as it is with pakoras or dumplings/wontons.
Substitutes If You are not able to find Fresh Peppers
- If you are not able to find fresno chile and red thai bird chilies, use whole dried red chillies (sabut lal mirch). Use the same quantity as that of fresno peppers mentioned in the recipe. Soak the dried chilies in hot water to rehydrate them and then use in this recipe by simply grinding them with bell pepper and garlic.
- Fresh red thai bird chillies add a LOT of heat to this sauce. If you can find them, that's the best however you can also adjust the heat levels using red chilli pepper flakes instead. Use 1-2 tablespoon chilli flakes depending how your heat level preferences.
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