Schezwan Sauce is a terrifically spicy, tangy, and salty condiment made with dry red chilies, garlic, shallots and lots of bright spices. This fusion Indo Chinese recipe, also referred to as Schezwan Chutney is a hot chili sauce that compliments any number of recipes and snacks. It is one of the most popular sauces from the fusion Indo-Chinese cuisine. Follow my step-by-step instructions with photos and a video for making a batch of this versatile sauce to enjoy with all of your favorite dishes!
About Schezwan Sauce
Spicy, tangy schezwan sauce also known as schezwan chutney is a versatile condiment that goes great with many delicious snacks.
It features a wonderfully pungent combination of hot red chillies, garlic, flavorful sichuan peppers, and salty soy sauce. This recipe can easily be customized to your preferred level of heat for a great dip or bold sauce.
The sauce comes from the Indo Chinese cuisine that originated in Kolkata. This fusion cuisine is a creation of the Chinese community that had immigrated to India and combines the classic Chinese methods of cooking with the Indian spices, herbs and often includes veggies.
Table of Contents
Schezwan sauce is a wonderful addition to your meals in a way they simply perk up any plain, bland or boring meal. Make it and refrigerate or freeze to bring more flavors and spice up your everyday meals.
Try dipping your savory snacks like Momos, Spring Rolls, Scallion Pancakes, French Fries or Potato Wedges in this spicy schezwan chutney, or bring plenty of bold flavors to your Fried Rice or Noodles with this sauce. Trust me, you will love this condiment if you like spicy food.
Use this basic schezwan sauce to make recipes like Schezwan Noodles, Schezwan Paneer and Schezwan Fried Rice.
How to make Schezwan Sauce
Prepare Peppers
1. Firstly, rinse and then soak the 20 dried red chilies in hot water for about 30 minutes. For a slightly less spicy taste it is recommended that you de-seed the chilies before soaking. You can also remove the stems if you prefer.
I added a mix of two Indian variety of dry red chillies – 15 Kashmiri red chillies and 5 Byadagi red chilies.
2. Next, drain all the water from the soaked red chilies and remove the stalks if not removed earlier. Break them into pieces and then add them to a chutney or spice grinder, food processor, or a blender.
3. Add a tablespoon of water at a time – up to 2.5 tablespoons total – and blend to make a smooth paste.
4. Use a mortar and pestle to crush 3 to 4 sichuan peppers coarsely. Set aside. You can choose to skip the sichuan if you like, for a less spicy schezwan sauce.
Make Schezwan Sauce
5. Next heat 4 tablespoons of toasted sesame oil, or any other vegetable oil, in a medium-sized pan over medium heat.
6. Lower the heat and add 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic and 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger.
Sauté for some seconds on low to medium-low heat until no longer raw. Be careful to not brown or burn, or you’ll wind up with a bitter taste.
7. Then add ¼ cup chopped shallots, and sauté until translucent stirring often on a low to medium-low heat.
8. Add the ground red chili paste to the pan.
9. Stir well to combine.
10. Then add the crushed sichuan pepper, if using. At this point you can add ½ tablespoon of finely chopped celery as shown in the video.
11. Saute the paste for 1 to 2 minutes on a low to medium-low heat, until the oil starts to seep from the chili paste. Add ½ cup of water and stir to loosen the paste into a sauce.
12. Simmer the sauce for about 2 minutes on a low to medium-low heat stirring often.
13. Now add all of the following ingredients. Stir and mix. Continue to cook the sauce for 5 to 6 minutes more on low to medium-low heat.
- 2 teaspoons of raw sugar
- salt as required
- ¼ to ½ a teaspoon of black pepper powder
- ½ a teaspoon of light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar (or white vinegar, or apple cider vinegar).
Tip: For a more sweeter sauce, opt to include 1 to 2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup at this step.
14. Turn the heat off. Once the schezwan sauce cools at room temperature, pour it into a small jar or bowl. Cover tightly with a lid and refrigerate.
If the sauce looks very thick, add a few tablespoons of hot water to thin it a bit.
15. Serve schezwan sauce as a spicy dipping condiment with your favorite snacks. You can also add it to recipes that require schezwan sauce, such as the schezwan fried rice, noodles, stir fried veggies or tofu.
You can also make schezwan dosa, schezwan idli, paneer schezwan etc with the sauce.
FAQs
I have used a mix of the mildly hot Indian variety of Kashmiri red chilies and byadagi chilies. They give a good color, flavor and taste good, too. Depending on your taste buds and spice tolerance, you can choose chilies with lower heat or medium heat, or add more chilies for greater spice.
Scratch-made schezwan sauce stays good in the refrigerator for about 2 to 3 weeks in an airtight container. For the best tasting and longest-lasting sauce, I recommend adding a bit of oil to the top of the sauce before sealing the jar.
You can also freeze this sauce to last longer.
A few snack suggestions to dip in spicy homemade schezwan sauce include potato wedges or veg cutlet, french fries, spring rolls, dumplings or momos. It also goes quite well with savory fried Indian snacks like cheese pakora or veggie pakora, or samosa.
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Schezwan Sauce Recipe (Spicy Schezwan Chutney)
Ingredients
For Soaking Chillies and Making Paste
- 20 dry red chilies – less hot or medium hot. I added a mix of 15 kashmiri and 5 byadagi dry red chilies
- hot water – as needed to cover the chillies
- 2 to 2.5 tablespoons water or as needed, for blending the red chilies
Other Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons toasted sesame oil or any vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic or 15 small to medium-sized garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger or 1 inch ginger
- ¼ cup finely chopped shallots or 1 small onion – finely chopped
- 3 to 4 sichuan peppers – crushed, optional (skip if you don' have)
- ½ tablespoon finely chopped celery – optional (skip if you don't have)
- ½ cup water – to be added later
- 2 teaspoons raw sugar or organic unrefined cane sugar or brown sugar – please add as required. For a more sweeter taste, you can even add up to 3 teaspoon sugar.
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon black pepper powder or as required
- ½ teaspoon light soy sauce or as required
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar or white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- salt as required
Instructions
Preparation
- Rinse and then soak the chilies in hot water for 30 minutes.
- You can also de-seed the chilies and remove their stems before you soak them.
- Drain all the water. Remove the stems and then break the chilies. Add them to a chutney grinder or blender. Add water and make a smooth paste of the red chilies.
- Crush the sichuan peppers coarsely in a mortar-pestle.
Making schezwan sauce
- Heat toasted sesame oil or any other vegetable oil in a frying pan.
- Lower the heat. Add the garlic and ginger first and sauté for some seconds till their raw aroma goes away. Don't brown them.
- Add the chopped shallots and then saute them stirring often till translucent on low to medium-low heat.
- Add the ground red chili paste and combine thoroughly.
- Then add the crushed sichuan pepper and finely chopped celery (if using). Sauté for 1 to 2 minutes more till you see oil releasing from the sides of the sauce.
- Add ½ cup of water and mix well. Simmer for 2 minutes stirring often on a low to medium-low heat.
- Add salt, sugar, pepper, soy sauce and vinegar.
- Stir and continue to cook further for 5 to 6 minutes more on low to medium-low heat.
- Switch off the heat and set the pan aside. Check the taste and add more salt, sugar or pepper as required.
- Once the sauce cools at room temperature, transfer it in a small jar or bowl. Cover tightly with a lid and refrigerate.
- Serve schezwan sauce as a condiment with snacks or you can also add in recipes like schezwan fried rice or noodles, vegetable schezwan or veg balls in hot garlic sauce or schezwan dosa.
- It stays good for about 2 to 3 weeks in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This schezwan sauce recipe from the archives was first published in June 2014. It has been updated on November 2024.
Can i use it to eat mc donald chicken nugget
you can.
How long does this last in the fridge?
its stays good for a few weeks. if you want to keep it longer then just cover the sauce with a layer of sesame oil.
i forgot to add sugar is it ok?or can i add now its already as become cold.?
you can powder the sugar and then add. or just warm it up and then add sugar, so that the sugar dissolves. or mix the sugar in a bit of warm water very well. then add this sugar solution to the schezwan sauce.
This recipe is so much like the traditional Rajasthani chilly and garlic chutney.
Thanks a lot for the receipe. I tried this and it tasted just like restaurant food.
thanks kamal.
Thank you so much for all the wonderful sauces recipes. They are great and comes handy. Your site is just awesome. So many yummy recipes. Thank you ?
welcome rhea. glad to know that you liked the recipes and the website.
i have tryed today but it becum to much very much spice cant tell so much spice it was wanna try it again…
schezwan sauce is spicy. add a puree of 1 large tomato and cook it with the sauce. add some sugar also just to make the sauce lightly sweet and it will balance the tang of the tomatoes also.
I made this sauce today. Turned out very good. My food processor did not do a good job of grinding the red chilies. Next time I’ll use my vitamix because I’m definitely going to make it again.
Thanks Madhav for sharing positive feedback on Schezwan sauce recipe.
I have made this sauce three times till date and everytime i made it, my wife loved it. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe. I skipped celery since my wife doesn’t like it but still this is so yumm… Thanks once again and GOD bless!!
Welcome Kunal. Glad to know that you both like the schezwan sauce recipe. Thanks for your positive feedback and best wishes.
What can we use instead of vineager?
just skip it.
Super tasty.. loved by everyone at home 🙂 Thanx a lot
welcome and thankyou zehra 🙂
This is really helpfull for me first of all check than i will do how to make
Can I use fresh red chilies instead? If so, how many?
you can use fresh red chilies. add about 10 to 12, depending on the heat intensity. if less hot, then add about 12. if medium then add 10.
How long is the shelf life?
nick if you place them in the freezer it could last for up yo 2-3 months also. hope this help’s you.
Your recipe is very easy &delicious . I love it.
thankyou so much alka 🙂