How to Make Rooster (Sriracha) Sauce AKA Wild Stallion Hot Sauce

When I grocery shop, I have to buy him giant bags of habanero peppers.

And yes, I always get the “eyebrow” from the checker when they see it.

Who else would buy POUNDS of them at a time?

Yeah, he’s kinda crazy like that.

In addition to loving fresh chopped hot peppers on EVERYTHING, he also really loves Sriracha (Rooster) sauce.

So, me being the DIY person I am, thought I’d investigate how to make my own homemade sriracha.

What is Sriracha sauce, anyway?

I looked around and I found a couple things. Sriracha sauce is a fermented hot sauce made with garlic, hot red peppers, and white vinegar at its base. Other ingredients are sometimes added like fish extract, various types of vinegar & sea salt, etc.

The stuff we get at the store isn’t traditional Thai Sriracha, but my hubby loves it so I wanted to recreate or make the storebought stuff.  I ended up making mine based on the recipe here at Serious Eats.

I made a few mods, though.  Most notably, I didn’t strain out the seeds.  I figured, Mr. Hot Stuff (har har) likes them, so why bother making more work for myself?

I’m not lazy… just really, really efficient

It was really easy!  Really, it was just a matter of blending the ingredients together and setting them in a warm spot for a week while they fermented.

How to Make Homemade Sriracha, Bethany-Style

Ingredients: Garlic, grey sea salt, red jalapeno peppers, white sugar (I would have used brown sugar but I was out), and unpasteurized cider vinegar (not pictured).

This is what it looked like after blending it all together in my Ninja.

Fermented in a mason jar.  I put it nearby the woodstove for 7 days.

I was surprised (though I shouldn’t have been) at how similar this process was to saving tomato seeds for planting.  You ferment it much the same, all the seeds fall to the bottom.

After fermentation and reblending with the ACV.

When it was done he did a comparison of his regular brand and mine.

My Homemade Sriracha – the Tasting Verdict

Mine was better (thank you, Babe!).  A different flavor because I used raw cider vinegar instead of distilled white, and I didn’t use any fish sauce (the regular kind has it) but he’s been gobbling it up.

He even made me try some and while it is too spicy for me to enjoy food with it, I agreed that it had a great flavor.  He especially liked it with hard-boiled eggs.

Making the Siracha Sauce – Chef’s Verdict

This sauce was really easy to make!  And since I could theoretically ferment it in large amounts I will probably try making it again this summer when I have access to locally grown hot peppers by the box.  As it stands now, however, I don’t think I will make this on a weekly basis simply because of the cost.

Growing my own peppers… well, that would be lovely, wouldn’t it!  Except I don’t live in an area that is suitable.  I might get a couple tomatoes this year if I’m lucky   Someday when we live out on our property I’ll grow 100 different kinds of peppers, I swear.

Anyway… enjoy the recipe!  Please – make it and tell me what you think

This post was shared  at DIY Friday Linky, Simple Lives Thursday, Rural Thursday Blog Hop

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