NOTE: This recipe was updated on 4/3/2024 to include new information and video. It was originally published on 5/6/2020.
What is Szechuan Sauce?
Szechuan sauce (or Sichuan sauce, after the Sichuan province in China), is a flavorful and complex condiment from the Sichuan province of southwest China, known for its sweet and spicy combination. It is a foundation of Szechuan cuisine, which is filled with bold flavors, lot of spices, particularly Szechuan peppercorns and chili peppers, making it perfect for spicy food lovers. Szechuan sauce itself isn’t overly spicy, though you can easily spice things up with hotter chili flakes and powders to your liking. Homemade is so much better than anything you’ll get at the store or in tiny sauce packets. Let’s talk about how to make szechuan sauce, shall we? Bring the pot to a boil, then simmer a few minutes to meld the ingredients. You can thicken the Szechuan sauce with cornstarch, if desired, then use as you’d like! Boom! Done! Your sweet and spicy Szechuan sauce is ready to serve! Easy recipe, isn’t it? I love easy. So simple to whip this sauce together last minute for quick and easy meals. So good. McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce. A bit of history to this, and a funny story worth mentioning - McDonald’s introduced their version of this iconic sauce to promote the movie Mulan in 1998, then promptly dropped it from its menu, despite being a huge hit. People clamored for the stuff. It was brought back briefly after being mentioned on the series “Rick and Morty” in 2017, though in limited quantities, prompting offers of thousands of dollars for a single sauce packet. I guess people love their Szechuan sauce!
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That’s it, my friends. I hope you enjoy my Szechuan sauce recipe. So many great ways to enjoy it! Let me know if you make it. I’d love to hear how it turned out for you. Keep it spicy! Szechuan sauce is gluten free, by the way.
