Homemade Schezwan Sauce(Szechuan)

Homemade Schezwan sauce (Szechuan) is ‘extremely spicy’ but ‘extremely tasty’ sauce that you should be making at home right away. Schezwan sauce is one of those sauces you should definitely have in your pantry.

The recipe was originally posted Nov 2015. Updated photos and added video in 2019. Recipe is the same. It’s just PERFECT! 

Older photo  ->

Szechuan sauce – DAMN TASTY SAUCE!

Word of Caution : Schezwan sauce will make you sweat and bluster. Use quantity depending on your palate and spice tolerance levels.

I love Indo-Chinese food. Indo-Chinese cuisine is not purely Chinese cuisine. It’s Indianized versions of Chinese dishes with a few totally new things thrown in. Because we love Chinese food so much that we customized it to our taste.

I read an article some time back about how Chinese food came to India. It said, In the 19^th century when Hakka origin Chinese emigrated to Kolkata region of India. The first ever Chinatown was formed then. Indians who visited the China town tasted their food. Gradually the popularity of the Chinese food caught on. And to satisfy Indian tastes buds, Chinese food was amped up with Indian spices.  Hence became the birth of Indo-Chinese food.  Also Manchurian is not a Chinese food; it was invented by a person called Nelsan Wang in Kolkata. In fact all the Indo-Chinese food is all created by the small community of Chinese people living in Chinatown, Kolkata. These dishes are made only in India.

Indians love spicy food with lot of flavors in it. I’m no exception. When it comes to noodles I love hakka noodles and Schezwan noodles. Nothing can beat the taste of noodles cooked in spicy schezwan sauce. It’s a sauce that can be made easily at home. If you like Schezwan noodles or fried rice, then you should make this easy Schezwan sauce at home.

Is it Szechuan sauce or Schezwan sauce the correct spelling?! I guess both are correct. Different countries have their own way of pronouncing and calling a dish. Call it however you want, this schezwan-style sauce should definitely be one of the sauces you should try in 2019!

Why?

Because this homemade schezwan sauce recipe is spicy, sour and slightly sweet and it’s that ONE SAUCE you need to perk up any of your meals. Yes, any meals, and we mean it. Add it to your fried rice or noodles for dinner, spoon it in over chicken stir fry (any meat stir fry), use drops of it over soup or simply use it for dipping.

Millions of trillions recipe can be found out there, but the legitimate Szechuan sauce features Chinese dried red chilies, Szechuan peppers, fresh ginger and garlic, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sugar all cooked in sesame seed oil.

Schezwan sauce recipe is nothing but chili garlic sauce. In India we call Schezwan sauce and it’s an fusion Indo-Chinese recipe. Ingredients include red peppers (dried red chilies) soaked in water besides loads of garlic and ginger, some shallots, Schezwan peppers, soy sauce, white vinegar, sugar and little bit of ketchup.

This spicy sauce is an ultra flavorful, extremely tasty dipping sauce that’s perfect on meat, chicken, stir fried veggies, with fried rice and Chinese noodles or even with soups! It’s best with chicken nuggets. Remember those super flavorful, spicy Mc Donald’s Szechuan sauce you get with chicken nuggets?! Clearly the best way to eat chicken nuggets was with Mc Donald’s Szechuan sauce.

This Szechuan sauce recipe not exactly what you get at Mc Donalds as dipping sauce. It is slightly different compared to Mc Donald’s Szechuan sauce in terms of consistency and ofcourse we have the added flavors here that makes it more on the savory spicy sauce than sweetish spicy sauce.

Like with everything else, homemade are always the best and that goes for homemade Schezwan sauce as well.

1. You have total control on how spicy you want to make.
2. You make just the quantity of sauce you like you’ll need.
3. You can add in more flavors or ignore any ingredient that does not fit your palate.
4. Make it once at home and it stays good in refrigerator for 2-3 weeks. That means 2 weeks of delicious stir-fries and meat marinade is ease as breeze.

What is Szechuan Sauce (Schezwan Sauce)

It’s is hot and spicy usually serves as chicken nuggets compliment in Mc Donalds. In India it’s this popular Indo-Chinese sauce that is used to make schezwan noodles, schezwan fried rice, schezwan stir fried chili chicken, also as a compliment with potato wedges, momos (dimsum), spring rolls.

It’s a gluten-free vegan sauce that will tingle your palate with it’s spicy, sour and sweet flavors.

If you’re looking to perk up your meals, add Szechuan sauce to your favorite chili recipe, stir-fry or to your meat.

Ingredients for Schezwan Sauce

Simple basic pantry ingredients is what you need to make ultra delicious schezwan sauce.

Dried red chilies – we used mix of two varieties of dried red chilies. One for the heat and other to impart bright red color (byadagi chilies – the wrinkled ones). This combination gives a good balance of heat, flavor and color to the sauce. Choose chili variety depending on your spice tolerance level and taste buds.

Loads of garlic – finely chopped

Loads of ginger – finely chopped

Shallots – finely chopped

Soy sauce

White wine vinegar

Schezwan peppers (ground)

Salt

Ketchup

Sugar

How to Make Schezwan Sauce (Szechuan Sauce)

This spicy hot chili garlic sauce has lots of dried red chilies along with loads of garlic, ginger and some shallots. It’s not schezwan sauce if there is no schezwan peppers.

Chinese cooking requires minimal knife skills. If you can chop fresh ginger, fresh garlic and shallots fine, you sauce consistency turns out great.

If you can’t chop  ingredients fine, use food processor to do the fine chopping, but do not make a paste. I find the texture and even the taste of this schezwan sauce changes if you use paste of ginger, garlic shallots instead of finely chopped.

Dried red chilies are soaked in water for few hours and then ground to paste.

Saute lots of garlic, ginger and shallots in sesame seeds oil until raw smell vanishes. Then add in ground chili pasta. Cook until oil separates from the side of the pan.

Add in soy sauce, ketchup, white wine vinegar, salt, ground schezwan peppers, and sugar.

Simmer for 5 minutes and it’s done!

You can use this spicy schezwan sauce in stir fry noodles.

Here’s an old but very popular recipe on curry trail

Spicy Schezwan Noodles

Does it make you crave for some stir fry noodles now?! I’m hungry now! 😛

Other recipes where you can schezwan sauce are –

Teriyaki Sheet Pan Chicken

Sriracha Ramen Noodles Soup

Paneer Chili Dosa

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HOMEMADE SCHEZWAN SAUCE VIDEO RECIPE

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Homemade Schezwan Sauce (Szechuan)

Homemade Schezwan sauce (Szechuan) is ‘extremely spicy’ but ‘extremely tasty’ sauce that you should be making at home right away. Schezwan sauce is one of those sauces you should definitely have in your pantry.

5 from 14 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: sauce

Cuisine: Indo-Chinese

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

Calories: 1325kcal

Author: Jyothi Rajesh

Ingredients

• 20 number dried red chilies 10 spicy hot red chilies and 10 mildly spiced ones like kashmiri or byadagi , for color
• 15 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2 inch ginger finely chopped
• 4 tablespoon shallot finely chopped
• ½ cup sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground schezwan pepper corns
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon ketchup
• 4 tablespoon sugar brown sugar

Instructions

• Soak dried red chilies in warm water for about an hour. Then grind it into a smooth paste. If you want you can remove the seeds from the chilies
• Heat sesame oil in a pan. Add finely chopped ginger and garlic. Saute for a 40 seconds on low flame or until raw smell vanishes.
• Add finely chopped shallots and cook for about 3 minutes.
• Now add ground chili paste and cook until oil separates from the sides of the pan.
• Add salt, ground schezwan pepper corn , white wine vinegar, soy sauce, ketchup, sugar. Mix and let it simmer for another 5 minutes.
• Turnoff flame and let it cool completely. Store in air tight container refrigerated. This sauce stays good for few weeks(2-3 weeks) refrigerated.
• Use this Schezwan sauce in Schezwan noodles or fried rice recipe. Or serve it as dipping sauce with chicken nuggets.

Nutrition

Calories: 1325kcal | Carbohydrates: 87g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 110g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 2982mg | Potassium: 638mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 58g | Vitamin A: 800IU | Vitamin C: 18.5mg | Calcium: 141mg | Iron: 2.6mg

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