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Sriracha Substitute: 4 Alternatives to Sriracha

Name: Sriracha Substitute: 4 Alternatives to Sriracha
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: About 2 cups
Ingredients: 1 ½ pounds of a mix of red jalapeño peppers and red serrano peppers; 1 small habanero pepper (optional, for extra spice); 6 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed; ¼ cup light brown sugar; 2 teaspoons kosher salt (or 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt); 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes; ½ cup distilled white vinegar; *__Note__: The total time of this recipe does not include the 5–7 days of fermentation time.*

Written by MasterClass

Last updated: Mar 1, 2023 • 3 min read

Sriracha is a chili garlic sauce that you can use in various dishes. If you can’t find the paste, you can opt for a sriracha substitute or make your own at home.

Learn From the Best

What Is Sriracha?

Sriracha hot sauce is a paste of chili peppers (most commonly red jalapeño peppers), distilled white vinegar, sugar, and salt. It is a thick, gluten-free sauce that is more of a chili paste than a liquid hot sauce.

Like other hot sauces at the grocery store, sriracha sauce pairs well with various cuisines—such as Thai, Korean, Indonesian, Indian, and Mexican cuisines. Sriracha has a Scoville rating of 1,000–2,500 units. While traditionally made with red jalapeño peppers, you can use other chiles like Fresno chiles or red Thai chilies in your homemade version.

3 Uses for Sriracha

As a chili garlic sauce, sriracha adds a spicy flavor profile to many dishes. Here are three ways home cooks use sriracha hot sauce:

1. Condiment: Combine sriracha with ketchup to make a spicy ketchup, or make a sriracha mayo by mixing sriracha with mayonnaise. Use either as a dipping sauce for vegetables or sweet potato fries, or a spread on sandwiches and burgers.
2. Marinade: Add sriracha to soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, lime or lemon juice, and a sweetener like brown sugar to make a marinade for fish, beef, or tofu. It adds a spicy flavor profile without an overpowering heat level.
3. Sauce: Use sriracha in a stir fry sauce, sweet chili sauce, enchilada sauce, or topping sauce for dishes like tacos. Mix with other seasonings like cayenne pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, and apple cider vinegar for various flavors for different cuisines.

4 Sriracha Substitutes

The best sriracha substitutes deliver robust flavor with added spice. If you’re out of the hot sauce or don’t have the ingredients to make homemade sriracha sauce, here are a few of the best substitutes:

1. Harissa: Sriracha uses red jalapeños, while harissa uses roasted red peppers and other pepper varieties—such as Tunisian baklouti peppers or serrano peppers. Harissa has varying levels of heat, and some are spicier than others, depending on the peppers.
2. Gochujang: Another fermented hot sauce, gochujang is a Korean chili paste made from red pepper flakes (gochugaru), fermented soybean powder, barley malt powder, glutinous rice powder, rice syrup, and salt. While the fermentation process for gochujang is similar to sriracha, gochujang is much thicker and a little stickier.
3. Piri-piri sauce: Also known as peri-peri sauce, this sauce is a purée of African piri-piri peppers, which are 225,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU)—much higher on the Scoville scale than red jalapeño peppers (10,000 SHU) or red serrano peppers (23,000 SHU). Popular in Portuguese cuisine, this sauce is a great substitute for sriracha, but it is spicier.
4. Sambal oelek: Use this traditional Indonesian chili sauce as a one-for-one substitute for sriracha. This hot sauce includes shrimp paste, ginger, scallion, and palm sugar and adds hot pepper flavor to soups, stews, sauces, and more.

Homemade Sriracha Recipe

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4 Ratings | Rate Now

makes

About 2 cups

prep time

5 min

total time

5 min

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds of a mix of red jalapeño peppers and red serrano peppers
1 small habanero pepper (optional, for extra spice)
6 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
¼ cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt (or 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt)
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ cup distilled white vinegar

Note: The total time of this recipe does not include the 5–7 days of fermentation time.

1
In the bowl of a food processor, chop the peppers and garlic until finely chopped.
2
Add the sugar, salt, and pepper flakes and mix until combined.
3
Pour the mixture into a large glass jar with a loosely fitting lid. Let this sit in a dark, room temperature place to start the fermentation process.
4
Check and stir the pepper mixture daily. After 3 days, there should be some bubbles and excess liquid at the bottom of the jar.
5
Continue to check and stir the mixture for an additional 2–4 days.
6
In a food processor or blender, combine the fermented pepper mixture and vinegar and blend until the mixture is smooth.
7
Using a fine mesh strainer, run the hot sauce through the sieve to remove the seeds from the peppers.
8
Store the sriracha in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.

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