Sriracha
intro
Bright, fiery, garlicky fermented hot sauce with balanced tang and sweet-savory heat, perfect for drizzling, dipping, and glazing grilled foods.
Ingredients
Steps
Wash 450g of ripe red jalapeño peppers, pat dry, trim off green stems, and cut each pepper in half lengthwise. Leave all seeds and membranes intact for medium-hot sriracha (2,500-8,000 SHU), remove half the seeds for mild heat, or remove all seeds for very mild sriracha. Peel 8 garlic cloves (30g total), add peppers and garlic to a high-speed blender with 60ml filtered water and 1 tbsp (18g) kosher salt, then blend on medium speed for 30 seconds until a coarse, chunky pulp forms with no large chunks remaining.
Transfer the coarse chili-garlic pulp to a clean, sterilized 500ml glass mason jar, pressing down firmly with a clean silicone spoon to eliminate trapped air pockets. Ensure all pulp is fully submerged under its own brine; top with a small glass fermentation weight if needed to keep solids under liquid. Loosely seal the jar lid (do not tighten fully, to allow fermentation gases to escape) and place it in a cool, dark spot (60-65°F / 15-18°C) for 3 days, checking daily to press any risen pulp back under the brine surface.
After 3 days, check the ferment: the pulp should be slightly paler, have tiny visible bubbles rising through the brine, and smell bright, tangy, and savory with no foul or rotten odors. Tighten the jar lid fully, shake gently to redistribute solids, and return it to the same cool dark spot for 2 additional days to deepen umami flavor, for a total of 5 days of cool-room-temperature fermentation.
After 5 days of fermentation, pour all of the fermented chili pulp and brine into a small 1L stainless steel saucepan. Add 3 tbsp (40g) light brown sugar and 120ml (½ cup) distilled white vinegar, stirring fully to combine. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat (stovetop setting 4 out of 10, no rolling boil), then cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking to the pan bottom, until the sharp raw vinegar aroma mellows and the sauce thickens slightly.
Remove the saucepan from heat and let the mixture cool for 15 minutes until it reaches room temperature (70°F / 21°C). Transfer the cooled mixture back to the clean, rinsed blender, then blend on high speed for 60 seconds until completely smooth, with no visible seed or skin flecks. For an extra-silky restaurant-style texture, pour the blended sauce through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing with a spatula to extract all liquid and discard any remaining fibrous seed and skin solids.
Funnel the finished smooth sriracha into sterilized, airtight 150ml glass hot sauce bottles or jars. Seal tightly and refrigerate for up to 6 months; the flavor will continue to mellow and deepen over the first 2 weeks of storage. For best balanced flavor, let the sauce rest for 24 hours in the refrigerator before first use, to allow all flavors to fully meld.
Tips
2.Discard the entire batch immediately if you see fuzzy white, green, or black mold growing on the ferment surface — this happens when equipment is unsterilized or pulp is exposed to air above the brine, and the sauce is unsafe to eat.
3.Adjust heat to your taste: swap jalapeños for serrano peppers for extra heat (10,000-23,000 SHU), or add 1-2 habanero peppers for a fiery version, and always taste the sauce before bottling to adjust sugar or salt levels as needed.
OMG this fermented sriracha is a total game changer! I’ve been buying store-bought for years and never realized how much brighter and deeper the flavor is when you make it yourself. I brought a jar to our neighborhood potluck last weekend and people were begging for the recipe before I even left. Only thing I messed up was not wearing gloves when I chopped the peppers — my hands were burning for HOURS, learn from my mistake y’all!
SO good! I whipped this up on Sunday to use for meal prep all week, and it’s perfect on eggs, rice bowls, even tossed in with my roasted veggies. My kids were wary at first because they thought it would be too spicy, but they’ve been drizzling it on literally everything now. Fermentation was way less intimidating than I thought it would be, too!
Okay I was super nervous to try fermentation because I thought I’d end up with moldy, gross sludge, but this recipe was so easy to follow! Mine just finished day 5 of fermenting and it smells exactly like the sriracha I get at my favorite Thai spot, can’t wait to blend it up and jar it tonight. Fingers crossed it tastes as good as it smells!
I make a new hot sauce every couple months to add to my shelf, and this one is easily top 3 for me. The fermented garlic adds such a nice mellow kick that you don’t get from the vinegar-heavy store brands. I added a tiny bit of smoked paprika to my batch for an extra layer and it’s chef’s kiss. Only note is that my kitchen was pretty cold when I set it out to ferment, so I ended up leaving it an extra 2 days to get that perfect tang.
Made this last night for our weekly taco night and wow, it paired so perfectly with our carnitas. My partner said it’s better than the fancy $12 bottle we bought at the specialty grocery store last month. 10/10, will be making this on repeat from now on.
Took me a minute to track down red jalapeños at my local grocery store, but it was so worth the extra stop. Prep only took me about 25 minutes, which was perfect because I only had a narrow window between getting home from work and taking my kid to soccer practice. Already planning to make a double batch next time so I don’t run out mid-week.
I grew a ton of red jalapeños in my backyard garden this summer and had no idea what to do with all of them, so this recipe was perfect! I canned half the batch to give away as holiday gifts for my coworkers, and kept the other half for myself. Tasted amazing right after blending, I can only imagine how much better it’ll get after sitting in the fridge for a week.
Wait, is it normal for the airlock to be bubbling like crazy on day 2? I got nervous I did something wrong because I’ve never fermented anything before, but it doesn’t smell bad, just super garlicky and peppery. Tasted a tiny bit of the brine and it’s nice and tangy already, so I guess it’s working?
Brought a bottle of this to our college football tailgate last weekend and people were putting it on brats, burgers, even chips and queso. Had three people ask me for the recipe before the first quarter even ended. Game day staple from now on, no cap.
So happy this is naturally vegan and gluten free without any weird additives! I’ve been trying to cut out processed foods with weird preservatives, and this fits perfectly into my diet. Tossed it with some tofu and broccoli for stir fry last night and it was *chef’s kiss*. Will be a permanent staple in my fridge from now on.
I’ll be honest, I thought homemade sriracha would never live up to the rooster bottle I’ve been buying my whole adult life, but I stand corrected. The flavor is so much fresher, and I can adjust the heat and garlic level exactly how I like it. My only complaint is that now I’m ruined for store-bought, lol. Worth it.
Made a double batch for my Fourth of July cookout a couple weeks ago and it was gone before the burgers were even done cooking. Everyone kept asking what brand it was, they couldn’t believe I made it from scratch. The fermentation step seemed scary at first but the instructions were so clear, even a beginner like me pulled it off no problem.