Here is my interpretation of Nam Jim, a Thai-style sweet chili sauce. It resembles a cross between the fresh and cooked kinds. Use any other mixture of fresh, dried, and/or preserved chiles if you can’t get Thai bird’s eye chilies. Jalapeno, red Fresno, or Serrano chilies, as well as habanero, are excellent choices. Pork and chicken barbecued with this sauce are excellent.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 5 mins |
| Additional Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 20 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 1 cup sauce |
Ingredients
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup white distilled vinegar
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 2 teaspoons sambal chili sauce
- 1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch
- 6 cloves finely crushed garlic
- 2 tablespoons finely minced Thai chili peppers (bird’s eye peppers)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Instructions
- Place 1/2 cup cold fresh water and vinegar in a saucepan. Whisk in Asian fish sauce, brown sugar, ketchup, sambal chili sauce, and cornstarch. Whisk until cornstarch disappears. Place over medium-high heat and bring up to a simmer stirring occasionally. As it bubbles, it will start to thicken up. Remove pan from heat.
- Whisk garlic and chili into hot mixture. Add fresh lime juice; whisk again. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature before checking for seasonings.
- If not using immediately, transfer to a glass jar with a lid. Refrigerate.
Reviews
Great.!!!!
This is wonderful! It is very hot, and has a good flavor. I did not add the chili sauce.
This sauce is delicious. I made it to go with Crab Rangoon and it was excellent. I did go too aggressive with the bird’s eye chilis but the husband enjoyed it tremendously. Will definitely be making this often for putting on just about everything.
Overall this was fantastic! Used red jalapeno from the garden vs bird’s eye….I thought the vinegar was too overpowering but the hubs liked it!
Excellent taste. Perfect sweetness to heat balance. Makes a versatile sauce that can be used in many dishes.
I initially pictured using this on fried shrimp. The whole idea intriqued me, but I couldn’t locate Birdseye chili, so I had to substitute serannos, but I followed the recipe otherwise. It came out so good that I couldn’t wait to try it. It was great on chicken! I’ll be exploring other uses and remaking it often!
I made this to go with the spicy shrimp cakes, went together perfectly. I used jalapeño, because that’s what I had on hand, otherwise followed the recipe.
Absolutely brilliant. The best I’ve ever made. I was not very sure about the importance of the fish sauce in this recipe …now that i’ve made it, I am. Its amazing that an Indian learning to cook a Thai recipe from an American chef…Thats the beauty of food (& internet 🙂 ). Chef John, you rock…every time.
I substituted Sriracha for Sambal and just one dried arbol pepper instead of birds eye peppers (that’s what I had). I also cut back a little on the brown sugar. Tasted surprisingly good!
The best Sweet Chili Sauce! The others Ive tried come out either too starchy (which separates) or not the same fullness in flavour.
Made sauce it was awesome. Didn’t have fish sauce so subbed 1 anchovie smashed with soy sauce. Delicious!!
Really easy to make, and tasted so good!
Dang, this is now the go-to sauce in my house and others. I gave some to a friend of mine that is Vietnamese, and this is now her go to sauce. She supplies me with Vietnamese peppers and I make the sauce. My only question is how long can this be refrigerated before it spoils…????????
Wonderful. Nice to have fresh ingredients and no preservatives
This is my new go-to Asian sauce. Can’t wait to use the left-overs on some spring rolls. I used two habaneros and one serrano chili. This made it seriously hot, but we like it that way. It seemed like a ton of garlic, but the sauce was perfectly balanced between sweet, garlic, and heat. Thanks Chef John.