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A smooth chilli sauce of red jalapeños or similar, garlic, sugar, salt and vinegar. Named for Si Racha in Thailand, where the original Thai style — thinner, sweeter, more sour — was made; the thick garlicky version most people mean is Huy Fong's, developed in California in 1980 by David Tran, a Vietnamese refugee, and named after the freighter that carried him out.
The rooster bottle has never been trademarked as a sauce name, which is why every brand can call its product sriracha.
Thai versus Huy Fong
- Thai sriracha (Shark, Sriraja Panich) — thinner, sweeter, more vinegar, less garlic. A dipping sauce.
- Huy Fong — thicker, garlic-forward, hotter, less sweet. A condiment and a mixing ingredient.
They are not interchangeable in a recipe that specifies one.
In cold food
Sriracha's real use here is as a mixer, not a drizzle. The garlic and vinegar in it mean it seasons as well as heats:
- Sriracha mayo — 3 parts mayonnaise to 1 part sriracha. This is the standard finish for poke bowl and a good one for cold rice bowl.
- In a vinaigrette — a teaspoon adds heat plus the acid and sugar a dressing wants anyway.
- Where you want heat and crunch, use chili crisp instead; where you want heat and smoke, harissa.
Heat
Around 1,000–2,500 Scoville, which is at the mild end — comparable to a mild jalapeño and far below tabasco or a habanero sauce. Its reputation for heat comes from how much of it people use.
Keeping
Long shelf life; it is acidic and salty. Refrigerate after opening for colour — it darkens from bright red to brick over months at room temperature, which is oxidation, not spoilage.
Elsewhere on the site
Used in: poke bowl · cold rice bowl · hummus vegetable sandwich · rice noodle bowl
Related: chili crisp · harissa · sauces · Jalapeño