While sriracha has only been accessible in the United States since the early 1980s, it has quickly become our favorite spicy sauce. Sriracha is a simple sauce that adds spice and flavor to a variety of meals, including our burgers and wraps.
Sriracha, like many other condiments and sauces, provides a distinct taste to a meal, but if you run out, there are numerous replacements accessible, many of which you most likely already have in your kitchen.
In this article, we’ll look at several sriracha replacements as well as learn more about sriracha and some of the numerous ways you can use it to spice up daily foods.
Contents
Sriracha’s History
Sriracha is supposed to have been invented roughly eighty years ago in Si Racha, a tiny Thai beach village. This Sriraja Panich sauce soon gained popularity, and in the mid-1970s, a Vietnamese guy named David Tran began making his own chili sauce, which he bottled in baby food jars left behind by US troops in Vietnam.
Tran began selling his sauce to restaurants and businesses, and by the late 1970s, he and his family had saved enough money to leave Vietnam for America.
After settling in Southern California, Tran began producing his sauce using locally cultivated red jalapeño chili peppers, and Huy Fong Foods Sriracha Sauce was introduced in 1980. The bottle was painted with the Trans Chinese Zodiac sign, indicating he was ethnically Chinese although being born in Vietnam. Huy Fong Foods took its name from the ship that delivered the Tran family from Asia to America.
Because to the rooster picture on Huy Fong sriracha sauce, sriracha is also known as rooster sauce. Sriracha, sometimes called as ketchup-killer, seems to have no precise pronunciation, with sir-ah-cha and see-rach-ah being only two versions utilized by sriracha manufacturers!
Since the sriracha name was never registered, there are now a plethora of sriracha sauces available, however the original rooster sauce continues to sell around ten million bottles each year.
Sriracha sauce is created from red jalapeño peppers cultivated in Ventura County, California. Sriracha also includes sugar, garlic, salt, and vinegar, as well as two preservatives, potassium sorbate and sodium bisulfite, and the binding and thickening agent xanthan gum.
While sriracha is prepared from red jalapenos, the jalapenos are less fiery than raw red jalapenos since they have been processed. With red jalapenos ranging from 2,000 to 8,000 on the Scoville heat scale, the measure of chili pepper heat in sriracha is only approximately 2,200, which is around the same as Anaheim and Fresno peppers.
Making Use of Sriracha
While the taste varies significantly depending on the maker, sriracha is often hot and tangy-sweet with garlic undertones. It might have a viscosity comparable to ketchup or be a bit thinner. Commonly referred to as sriracha sauce, sriracha has the potential to overpower if used as a sauce and should be utilized with caution.
In Thailand, sriracha is more often used as a sauce, and it is frequently added to pad Thai, seafood meals, and omelets. In the United States, it is most often used as a burger condiment. Sriracha may be used as a solo and table condiment, as well as blended with ketchup or mayo for burgers, wraps, and other dishes.
Sriracha’s versatility as a spicy sauce is almost limitless. In addition to pad Thai, try it in ramen or rice dishes, or just sprinkle some over winter veggies for a comforting taste.
It may be used in meat marinades, meatloaf, meatballs, chicken wings, and other meat dishes, as well as hot or cold soups like gazpacho. It may be used as a dipping sauce or mixed with sour cream, cream cheese, or mayonnaise dips since it mixes well with creamier items like mac & cheese and egg dishes.
Sriracha adds heat to Bloody Marys and other tomato-based beverages.
Sriracha substitutes
While sriracha is widely accessible at most grocery shops, in case you or the store run out, or if you want to experiment with new tastes or ingredients, here are some replacements for sriracha that you may use in a variety of dishes.
1. Sambal Oelek and Garlic Powder
Sambal oelek, like sriracha, is now a pantry staple in many homes. They have a comparable heat level, while sambal oelek has a little taste. Nevertheless, since sambal oelek does not include garlic, if you wish to replace sriracha for sambal oelek, add a little garlic powder to the sambal oelek to make it taste more like sriracha. You may also want to add a little sugar to get some of the sriracha’s underlying sweetness.
Since sambal oelek has a thicker consistency than sriracha, thin it with a little water to get a ketchup-like consistency. Use the equal quantity of sambal oelek and sriracha.
2. Homemade Sriracha Sauce
If you have some red jalapenos on hand, you can prepare a quick DIY sriracha sauce. There are several recipes accessible online. However bear in mind that it will not last as long as store-bought sriracha and will need to be kept in the refrigerator unless you can it.
3. Tapatio Hot Sauce
Tapatio Hot Sauce may be available where you live, depending on how simple it is to get. Tapatio has been created in California since the early 1970s and contains red pepper, garlic, salt, acetic acid, spices, and preservatives.
Tapatio may be a viable substitution for sriracha depending on the recipe, but be warned that the heat level for Tapatio Hot Sauce is roughly 3,000 on the Scoville heat scale, which is higher than sriracha. This implies you should only need half to one-third the quantity of Tapatio you would need for sriracha.
4. Peri Peri Hot Sauce
While coming from Portugal, peri peri or piri piri spicy sauce is produced using an African birds eye pepper.
Peri peri sauce has a distinct taste than sriracha since it includes herbs like basil and oregano as well as garlic, salt, and acetic acid, but if sriracha is desired for a seafood meal, peri peri sauce might be a good substitution.
5. El Yucateco Sauce
El Yucateco sauces in red and green are created using habanero peppers, which give the sauce a nice heat. Salt, acetic acid, onion, and spices are also included in these heavier sauces. If you use El Yucateco instead of sriracha, keep in mind that even though the habanero peppers are processed, the red El Yucateco sauce still has roughly 5,790 Scoville Hot Units.
If you use El Yucateco sauce, you may want to add some garlic powder and maybe reduce the quantity of onion in the recipe to compensate for the onion powder in the sauce.
Use half the quantity of El Yucateco sauce as you would sriracha at first, then add more as needed.
6. Tabasco Sauce
With most of us having a bottle of Tabasco on hand, it might be tempting to substitute another red sauce with a dab of Tabasco sauce.
Tabasco is a Cajun-style spicy sauce that has neither garlic or sugar and, although being produced with stronger tabasco peppers, is only slightly hotter than sriracha. This is because Tabasco, like other Louisiana-style hot sauces, has more vinegar than sriracha, which helps to soften the intensity of the tabasco peppers.
While Tabasco complements the meal and may be a suitable substitution in Southern foods, egg preparations, and Bloody Mary drinks, use it as a sriracha substitute with care since the vinegar tang may dominate milder flavored items.
7. Other Options for Substituting Sriracha
Sweet chili sauce is another possible component you might use to get a sriracha-like flavor. It has some culinary similarities to sriracha with its sweet garlic flavor, but it has a lot less heat, so you may add some more heat from another chili source, ideally jalapeño, but powdered cayenne pepper or crushed red pepper flakes will provide heat to the mix.
Cayenne pepper, on the other hand, has fruitier flavors than jalapenos and should not be used in excess. Just add a little sugar to a sriracha replacement if it needs to be sweetened.
Last Remarks on Sriracha Substitution
Sriracha is more than simply a condiment; it adds flavor and spice to a variety of foods. Sambal oelek with a little garlic powder is probably the closest taste match, or if you have some red jalapeño peppers on hand, you could create homemade sriracha.
While it is a spicy sauce, sriracha has a particular taste, thus not all hot sauces may be substituted. You must carefully examine how additional components, such as spices, will alter the overall taste of the meal. Since some hot sauces are spicier than sriracha, start by using half the quantity of hot sauce as you would sriracha. You may then add additional if necessary.