Talk about a sauce that hits all of your taste buds. Spicy sweet and sour sauce packs in so much flavor in such little space. It’s a perfect dipping sauce for egg rolls or for use as a topper for sweet and sour chicken.
Cayenne pepper brings the blaze in this recipe – a half teaspoon adds a noticeable simmer, but feel free to experiment with a little more if you prefer a fierier sauce. Or, if you’re concerned about going overboard, feel free to cut back on the amount used. You could always add more to taste.
This recipe calls for garlic, ginger, and scallions to add a little texture (and extra flavor) to the sauce. But if you prefer to leave any (or all) of these ingredients out, the sauce still works perfectly well.
Like this recipe? You’ll love these too:
- Maple Sriracha Sauce: An excellent dipper – earthy, sweet, and fiery.
- Spicy Yum Yum Sauce: A homemade version of the popular steak condiment.
- Homemade Hoisin Sauce: Perfect with duck, but don’t overlook it for BBQ.
Spicy Sweet And Sour Sauce
Delicious with egg rolls and sweet and sour chicken – a great dipper
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup pineapple juice
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic minced, optional
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger minced, optional
- 1 teaspoon scallions white portion, sliced thin, optional
- 3 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper powder
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the cornstarch and water and mix well. Place to the side.
- OPTIONAL: In a saucepan over medium heat, sauté in olive oil the garlic, green onion, and ginger until fragrant (1 to 2 minutes). If you decide to skip this step, simply begin with step 3 in the saucepan over medium heat.
- Add the pineapple juice, brown sugar, vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, water, and cayenne pepper powder. Stir often while bringing the sauce to a boil.
- Add the cornstarch/water mix and stir to combine. Continue boiling the sauce until you nearly reach your desired thickness, then remove the sauce from the heat.
- Allow the sauce to cool to room temperature (it will continue to thicken while cooling), then serve immediately.
Nutrition
Calories: 40kcalCarbohydrates: 10gProtein: 0.3gFat: 0.04gSaturated Fat: 0.01gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.02gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.01gSodium: 120mgPotassium: 44mgFiber: 0.1gSugar: 8gVitamin A: 56IUVitamin C: 2mgCalcium: 9mgIron: 0.2mg
Did you make this?Mention @PepperScale or tag #PepperScale so we can see what you made!
Just made this. I was in a hurry, so my method was off. Missed the line about saute the garlic(there is no oil in the ingredient list) . Used a frozen pineapple spear insted of juice. Totally forgot the sugar – not missing it. Too much ketchup for me, I’ll cut back next time. Cayenne okay. I’d like more but the family wouldn’t like it.
Just made this. Had to use a small yellow onion (no scallions) and 1/4t cayenne. Everything else as written.
After adding the cornstarch/water, cooked it down for about 5 minutes.
Result: it is really good. I would say that you can taste all the other flavours which is good but the ketchup flavour kind of takes over.
Next time I’d cut the ketchup back to 2 1/2T and see how that goes.
Really good.