Sweet Chilli Sauce (น้ำจิ้มไก่)

I have been making my own sweet chilli sauce over the past couple of years as the store bought ones are a little bit too sweet for us. When I was little back in Thailand (yonks and yonks ago), we always had our grilled chickens (Thai style) with two or three kind of sauces and sweet chilli sauce was one of them. Sweet chilli sauce in those days was not very sweet. In my view, it was a kind of mild sauce yet still potent (the other sauce was much hotter).

I looked up on google but didn't find one perfect recipe - so I have thrown in several recipes together and the result does not turn out too badly - it's actually quite flavourful.

I often make the sauce in big batch (2 to 3 portions) as it keeps for quite a while when you have your jars/bottles sterilised properly and give some away to friends and neighbours. Bob and Barbara like this sauce but some other friends don't - they say it's not sweet enough! So I suggest you taste as you go before adding the corn flour. If the chillies you use are very hot please adjust the amount of chillies according to their heat and your preference. If you don't have fresh chillies, you can also use chilli mince which is readily available in jars in any good supermarket.Some Thais even use dried chilli flakes but the sauce will be quite dark. If you use chilli flakes, don't be too heavy handed -it can be very, very hot indeed.

2 large cloves of garlic (New Zealand grown one is more potent)

2 -3 red chillies (adjust the amount according to the heat of the chillies) or half a jar of store bought chilli mince (150 gr jar).

¾ cup white sugar
Edit: 1/2 cup white sugar*

¾ cup water

½ cup white vinegar

½  tsp salt

1 tsp Sri Racha/Tabasco/ Kaitaia Fire for colour and staying power

2 tsp corn flour

Chop or blitz chillies and garlic to medium fine (add a bit of water or vinegar if you use blender). Put water, sugar, vinegar and salt in the saucepan on low heat until sugar and salt dissolve. Bring to the boil before adding garlic and chilli mixture (otherwise garlic will turn blue if it is not hot enough). Reduce to simmer after 5 minutes and add Tabasco/Sri Racha/Kataia Fire. Simmer for 15-20 more minutes, stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens up a bit. Mix corn flour with a little bit of water and add the mixture to the sauce. Stir quickly and thoroughly to combine. Let it simmer a little bit longer until the flour is well cooked and the sauce thickens. Pack in sterilised jars.

(Note: Apologies for the inconvenience. The sugar should be only 1/2 cup unless you want the sauce quite sweet).