Quick Szechwan Sauce

  4.3 – 54 reviews  • Sauces

This sauce can be used as a marinade or as a cooking sauce in stir-fries with meats and vegetables. It is fast, spicy, and sweet.

Prep Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 10 mins
Servings: 6
Yield: 1 1/4 cups

Ingredients

  1. 3 tablespoons olive oil
  2. 3 red chile peppers, seeded and finely chopped
  3. 2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger
  4. 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  5. 5 tablespoons sugar
  6. 5 tablespoons ketchup
  7. 5 tablespoons vinegar

Instructions

  1. In a bowl, stir together olive oil, chile peppers, ginger, and garlic. Mix in sugar, ketchup, and vinegar.

Reviews

Kevin Barnett
I doubled the recipe but only put half the amount of sugar. Also I used ginger paste and red Chile paste. It turned out great!! This is a quick lower sodium stir fry sauce I will use again
Andrew Sanchez
I made this yummy sauce and it is so good, I doubt we’ll be going to our one Chinese restaurant in town much anymore! I used it with some veggies I had on hand, after sautéing them in sesame oil a bit, then added some chicken meat already cooked and ready. I used some Chinese noodles I boiled 5 minutes, threw it all together, and it was a HUGE hit all around. I will be making this one again and again!!
Carrie Gill
It’s good. I made a boo-boo and put white sugar instead of brown sugar. I also used cayenne and chili arbol. I think you need that much sugar to tone down the heat. Overall a tasty sauce that is easy to make.
Tammy Berg
I had to use jalapeños , turned out excellent!
James Buchanan
Tasted more like a sweet and sour sauce even though I added 1 T less sugar than the recipe called for.
Randy Howard
I used this as a marinade for some chicken I had cubed. I drained and saved the sauce, then I stir fried the chicken and some snow peas, carrots, onion, bell pepper, and frozen green peas. I added the sauce back in to the wok and simmered for a couple of minutes for food safety, and thickened with some corn starch. I enjoyed it very much. Not as spicy as I thought it would be. I used fresno peppers.
Tracy Williams
I have tried this recipe and I really like it. I used powdered red pepper and ginger in place of the dried and fresh stuff. I must tell you this recipe sure adds a kick! Whew!!! I also added some ingredients like dried parsley and diced tomato along with some diced green peppers, onions and garlic. Here’s my picture. I cooked chicken, beef and shrimp in the sauce over a bed of white rice and broccoli spears on the side. Hope you try this recipe, it’s really good!
Paul Riley
reduced the sugar by half and added a bit of soya sauce. Also used dried chilis but since they didnt make it spicy enough, I just added a tablspoon of Siracha.
Keith Rodriguez
Great sauce for sauteed veggies and any meat/mushrooms. I added 2 Tbsp of soy sauce which added the perfect blend of salt to sweet, as well as a heaping tbsp of corn starch so the sauce thickens as it boils. Since I didn’t have dried red chilies I used a tbsp of Rooster Sauce for a nice bit of heat. Just saute your meat and veggies, add some cooked rice noodles, and then add this sauce at the end and boil for a couple minutes and you’ve got a quick, healthy, delicious meal!
Dominic Hoffman
I love this sauce! We like it hot, but it’s good with mild peppers, too. And it’s still good if you leave out the ginger for not-liking-ginger friends.
Jose Chase
Although I didn’t have fresh of all ingredients, I did substitute dry and the taste was wonderful. This is a great recipe for those of us who can’t have soy. So happy I found it. A definite addition to my menu.
Savannah Rivera
I doubled this recipe and added to stir fried chicken, peppers, and cooked rice. I also only put in half of the sugar, and it was still very delicious!
Jack Benson
I loved this! So quick and easy but so delicious! the only change I made was using red pepper flakes instead of the red chile peppers as that’s what I had on hand. Mmmmm!
Hector Perez
I’m used to soy sauce-based sauces for stir frys but this was a nice change. I used peanut oil instead of olive oil and red pepper flakes instead of the chile peppers. I’ll use less sugar next time I make this.
Andrew Church
For a person that can’t really cook well, I found this extremely easy and it tasted very good.
Anthony Montgomery
I can’t vouch for the authenticity of the taste (I’m not too familiar with what Szechwan is supposed to taste like) but I really liked this! I did do a couple of things differently–I used apple cider vinegar, cut the sugar to 3 tbsp, and used 2 tsp of dried red pepper, 3 tsp of dried ginger and added 2 tbsp of soy sauce and a pinch of cayenne pepper. It was sweet and also had a bit of a kick to it at the same time. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Jeffrey Smith
This is awesome! I’ve been using it for over a year and this is the only sauce i’ll use when I make stir fry. I used to hate stir fry because I only used the store bought sauces but now I’m happy to make this because it’s sooo good
Victoria Huynh
We like this sauce as long as we have the ingredients and we can’t get to the store rigth away! Really helps with variety for your rice dish! Enjoy!
Kevin Williams
I liked the recipe for what it is… quick and easy 🙂 I liked the comments that suggested going easy on the sugar and adding soy sauce, that definitely helped.
Dr. Leslie Castillo
We have used this several times and each time are delighted w/ the outcome. We use dried red crushed peppers with good results It is a great guide to play from. Why buy bottled sauce when you can put this together so quickly? If we want it a little thicker, we simply use a little corn starch. This one is a keeper!
Daniel Stewart
This was tasty and very easy to make. I followed another reviewer’s advice and reduced the sugar to about 2-3 tbsp. I also used cayenne pepper powder in place of chile peppers. I decided to double the batch and use brown sugar, extra ginger, and extra garlic. This is a great, easy recipe to make to fit your tastes. Thank you!

 

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