No need to buy Asian style sweet sauce when it's so easy to make at home.
"*" See Kitchen Notes for more information or links to special ingredients.
- ½ cup water (+1/8 cup for slurry with cornstarch)
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 large garlic clove, smashed, minced
- 1 ½ - 2 teaspoon red chile flakes*
- 1 ½ - 2 teaspoon cornstarch*
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Combine 1/2 cup water, the rice vinegar, sugar, garlic and chile flakes in a small sauce pan. Heat over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
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Bring to a simmer and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
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In a cup or small bowl, make a slurry of the cornstarch and 1/8 cup water.
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After simmering the sauce for 5 minutes, slowly pour in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the sauce to a boil and boil gently for 1 minute, stirring constantly. If the sauce isn't as thick as you want, boil for another minute.
This Asian sweet chile sauce keeps in the refrigerator for a couple of months; however, it will start to separate. Therefore, just like the store bought variety, shake before reusing.
Red chile flakes – As I talked about earlier in this post, you can use any type of red chile flake - New Mexican, Korean, Urfa, chipotle, chile pequin for examples. Each type or type of chile combination will yield a different flavor. I use one 8 – 9 inch hot NM red chile pod plus 1 chile de arbol pod. This makes about 1 ½ teaspoons of flakes and yields a flavorful sauce with a spice level around 7 on a 1 – 10 scale. To make it even hotter, add 1 teaspoon flakes and use hotter chile. If you have the pods, you can make your own chile flakes.
Cornstarch – We like our chile sauce thinner than what you buy, so I use 1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch. For a thicker sauce use 2 teaspoons.