Today’s post is all about this super simple Indo Chinese condiment, spicy Szechuan sauce!! If you love spicy food, I’m sure you are well versed with this sauce too.
What is schezwan sauce?
Schezwan Sauce is a popular Indo-Chinese sauce made with chillies, garlic, ginger and other ingredients. As for the taste of Schezwan sauce, it is fiery hot and tangy with a subtle hint of sweetness. This sauce is so versatile, use it as a dip with chicken lollipops, momos, spring rolls, or incorporate it in a dish like schezwan fried rice, schezwan paneer, schezwan noodles, schezwan potatoes, schezwan chicken or schezwan vegetables, etc. You can add a delicious twist to your favorite stir-fry with a few tablespoons of this sauce. Well, it’s a never-ending list really! A little goes a long way, as it is flavor-packed.
Ingredients needed to make szechuan sauce at home
You will need the following ingredients to make you favorite Indo-Chinese sauce at home;
Dried chillies Lots of fresh garlic and ginger Soy sauce Vinegar Tomato ketchup And some sugar to balance out all the spicy elements. You can also add some chopped celery.
Traditionally sichuan peppers go into the making of this Chinese spicy sauce, but I generally make this with dry Kashmiri chilies, a common ingredient used in Indian food, which is always stocked up in my pantry. Kashmiri chillies not only impart a vibrant red color but has a reasonably bearable spice tolerance as well. You can leave the seeds in for a spicy sauce or deseed it for a mild sauce.
How do you prepare Szechuan sauce?
To make schezwan sauce recipe, you will start off by soaking the chillies in water. This helps them plump up facilitating in easier grinding to a smooth chilli paste. Then saute the ginger and garlic in oil, add the spicy red chilli paste and the other ingredients. Let it simmer for a few minutes. That’s it, your spicy szechuan sauce is ready! For a Jain Schezwan sauce, simply skip the onions, ginger, and garlic, and use finely chopped celery and capsicum instead. Today’s post is about an Indo-Chinese version of this popular sauce. It is quite different from Mcdonalds szechuan sauce recipe that uses ground Szechuan peppercorns, ginger, garlic, and other dry spices. Whereas the Indo-Chinese sauce uses a red chilli paste made with dried chillies as the base.
Is this sauce spicy?
If you buy the bottled sauce, chances are that it will be spicy. So there is an added advantage of making schezwan sauce at home, you can totally customize it! You can use a mix of hot and mild chilli peppers, depending upon your heat tolerance. So why buy the bottled sauce when you can easily make Chinese schezwan sauce at home with ingredients readily available in your pantry! No added color and artificial preservatives too.
Here are some of the dishes that I have made or served as a dipping sauce using my homemade schezwan sauce
Schezwan potatoes Chicken Lollipops Schezwan noodles
How to make schezwan sauce – Step by step instructions
Step 1: Deseed and soak the chillies
Deseed about 70% (or as per spice preference) of dried Kashmiri chillies (about 20-25). Also, discard the membrane of the chillies. Soak dried chillies in about 3 cups of hot water for about an hour.
Step 2: Make chilli paste
Strain the water, grind the red chilies to a smooth paste, add water little at a time if required.
Step 3: Saute aromatics
Heat 1/2 cup oil (I used sunflower oil) in a deep bottomed pan. Add 3/4 cup minced garlic & 3 tablespoons minced ginger. Sauté on medium-low heat until it turns golden brown and the raw smell is gone. Add 1/2 cups chopped onions, sauté until translucent.
Step 4: Saute red chili paste
Now add the red chilli paste, mix well. Keep stirring continuously on medium heat until the mixture leaves oil.
Step 5: Add ketchup, soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar
Now add 2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup, 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar & 1 tablespoon rice vinegar. Season with salt and pepper, Add 1/2 cup water. Mix everything well until it starts leaving oil. Taste for seasonings, adjust with more salt, sugar or vinegar. Storage: Let the sauce cool down completely, transfer it into a sterile glass container. Refrigerate it for 2-3 weeks. Use a clean, dry spoon each time you use the sauce.
Notes
Start with a tablespoon of vinegar, ketchup and 1 teaspoon of sugar. You can always add more as per your desired taste. If you find the sauce to be very hot, balance it by adding more vinegar, sugar or tomato ketchup. You can make this sauce with any dried chillies, use a mix of hot and mild dried chillies to suit your heat tolerance. For a really spicy sauce, make it entirely with fresh or dried Szechuan peppers or use a combination of Kashmiri and Byadagi dried chillies for a mildly spicy sauce. You can also add 2 tablespoons of finely chopped celery in step 3 along with chopped onions. Cook the red chilli paste well or else the sauce will taste raw. There should be a thin layer of oil over the sauce once you transfer to the jar, to preserve its shelf life. If you feel this quantity of oil is less, then heat a few tablespoons of oil, let it cool, then pour it over the sauce.
★ If you try this schezwan sauce recipe, I would love to hear from you! I’d appreciate it if you could rate and leave a review below in the comments. Your reviews help others know the recipe better too. Feel free to share your feedback and suggestions at [email protected]. Thanks so much 🙂 You can also follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram & Twitter
