Sweet Chili Sauce

Sweet chili sauce is a sweet and hot dip sauce made from fresh red bell pepper, red chilies, onion, garlic, sugar, corn-starch slurry, salt and water. With the balance of sweet and spice, this thick and orange sweet chili sauce sauce can also make your dishes extra appetizing. Follow this yummy kitchen sweet chili sauce recipe to make this sauce in your home.

SWEET CHILI SAUCE RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 2 pieces medium red bell pepper (sliced)
• 2 pieces red chilies
• 1 piece small onion (chopped)
• 7 cloves of garlic
• 2 ½ cup water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ¾ cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch (dissolved in 3 tablespoons water)

Directions:

1. Wash and prepare the red bell peppers. Remove the seeds and the pith and then chop into smaller pieces. Transfer them to a blender or food processor. Add the chopped onions, cloves of garlic and red chili peppers (remove the stalk). Add 2 cups of water and then pulse (do not overblend).
2. Transfer the mixture to a large pot. Add ½ cup of water and stir a bit. Season with some salt and add the sugar and vinegar. Let this boil using medium heat. Stir gently to dissolve the sugar.
3. While waiting for the mixture to boil, make the slurry. Simply dissolve the cornstarch in equal parts of water. Stir well and make sure there are no lumps.
4. Once the mixture boils, pour the slurry gradually while continuously stirring. Stir and simmer until it thickens. Turn the heat off.
5. Let the sauce cool for at least an hour before transferring into jars.
6. Prepare your fried foods and enjoy them with our homemade sweet chili sauce. Yum!

LETS TALK ABOUT CHILIS

Once we hear chilies, we always think of spicyness. While most of them are really spicy, some of them are sweet and fresh.

The two chilies featured in this recipe are the siling labuyo and the red bell peppers. They share the same ancestors, but are different when it comes to spice levels. The level of spiciness of the chilies are measured using the SHU or the Scoville Heat Units. The higher the SHU, the spicier the chili. The chili variant with the highest SHU up to this date is the Caroline Reaper with a SHU of 2.2 million! Compared to this, the siling labuyo has a SHU of 100, 000 while the sweet red bell peppers has a SHU of ZERO.

HOMEMADE SWEET CHILI SAUCE

If you have surprise visitors, or your kid’s classmates are coming over, the most convenient foods to prepare are the fried finger foods. But have you ever made a bunch of fried finger foods and wonder what’s missing? To help you out, it’s the sauce! 

My niece once had a few friends who came over at our house for a group project. As the supportive tita, they must have some snacks to make them extra energetic in making their project. I offered an assortment of fried foods including fishballs, cheesesticks, fries, hotdogs and some homemade lumpia. While ketchup is always a good dipping sauce for these, combining salty cheesesticks with salty ketchup might cause some umay. I answered this dilemma by making some homemade sweet chili sauce which pairs any fried food in general.

I made a large batch of the sweet chili sauce so I packed some in jars and gave the kids for them to take home. I got a good feedback from their parents, requesting for more, telling me that they are willing to pay. One requested to heighten the spice level, while the other requested to make it  milder.

These requests gave me the idea on having a small sweet chili sauce business which I do during my free time. Aside from having an ultimate sauce for my fried foods, the sweet chili sauce also gave me another opportunity to earn my own income.

If you wanna know how to make homemade sweet chili sauce, read and follow the simple steps below.  

HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE SWEET CHILI SAUCE

You usually buy your sweet chili sauce from the grocery but you will surely be surprised after you tried making this recipe at home. In just minutes, all your fried foods will be extra lively, thanks to the sweet chili sauce!

For this recipe, we will be using a blender or a food processor. If you have a manual food chopper, that will also do the job but may take some extra time.

First, prepare the red bell peppers. The reason why the sweet chili sauce is not too spicy is that some of the red bits you see are bell peppers instead of red chilies. For the bell peppers, simply remove the unnecessary parts and then throw them in the blender. Add the rest of the recipes (except the cornstarch) into the blender and then pulse. Make sure to add water! The goal is finely chopped but not blended. Do not overblend as our mixture might become juice!

Transfer the mixture to a large pot, add some extra water and some sugar. We add just a little vinegar just to have a balanced taste and adjust the acidity of the sauce. The last thing to add is the cornstarch slurry. Add the slurry gradually to the mixture to thicken it out. Let it cook until you get the desired consistency. Remember that the mixture will thicken more as it cools down.

If you are making homemade sweet chili sauce for business, let it cool down first before transferring to jars or bottles. When storing, you can simple set them aside at a cool shelf, no need for refrigeration. Usually, this type of sauce last for months.

Whether with hotdogs, lumpia, fried egg, and literally any fried foods, having your stash of sweet chili sauce at home will keep your fried foods alive anytime anywhere. You can also add this sauce to any dish when you want such a sweet and spicy combination. Yum!

COOKING TIPS:

• If you are making this for business, you can try different levels of spicyness by adding more chilies.

Homemade Sweet Chili Sauce Recipe (TAGALOG)

Mga Sangkap:

• 2 pirasong red bell pepper (hiniwa)
• 2 pirasong siling labuyo
• 1 maliit na sibuyas (hiniwa)
• 7 butil ng bawang
• 2 ½ tasang tubig
• 2 kutsaritang asin
• ¾ tasang asukal
• 3 kutsarang cornstarch (tinunaw sa 3 kutsarang tubig)

Paano Lutuin:

1. Ihanda ang mga red bell pepper. Alisin ang mga buto at ang white pith sa loob nito. Hiwain ito bago ilipat sa blender o food processor. Sunod na ilagay ang hiniwang sibuyas, mga butil ng bawang at ang siling labuyo (alisin ang tangkay). Maglagay ng 2 tasa n tubig. I-pulse lamang ito, at wag masyadong iblend.
2. Ilipat ang mixture sa malaking pot. Magdagdag ng kalahating tasa ng tubig saka haluin. Timplahan ito ng asin saka ilagay ang asukal at suka. Hayaan itong kumulo gamit ang katamtamang apoy. Haluing mabuti para matunaw ang asukal.
3. Habang hinihintay itong kumulo, gumawa ng slurry. Tunawin ang cornstarch sa tubig at haluin. Siguraduhing wala itong lumps.
4. Kapag kumukulo na, ibuhos ng dahan dahan ang slurry habang hinahalo. Haluin at lutuin lang ang sauce hanggang sa lumapot. Patayin ang apoy.
5. Palamigin muna ang sauce ng mga 1 oras bago ilipat sa mga lalagyan.
6. Ihanda na ang mga pinrito at enjoyin ang mga ito kasama ng ating homemade sweet chili sauce. Yum!