I am a big fan of Thai cuisine which is full of amazing flavours and dishes and two things that I am more than a little obsessed with are the spicy peanut sauce, typically used as a dipping sauce for satay, and sweet chili sauce. Having experimented with using them in many different ways I have noticed that very often where one works, the other also works! The other day I made my chicken satay salad with spicy peanut dressing and that reminded me that I had been wanting to try a Thai sweet chili sauce dressing and that it was finally time to make it! For the recipe I started with the sweet chili sauce which is a little thick for a salad dressing so I added some coconut milk which is a common Thai ingredient and it worked well in the spicy peanut dressing. Another thing that I like about Thai cuisine is that the recipes commonly try to balance the sweet, spicy, salty and sour flavour elements and so it only seemed natural to do so in the dressing so the next ingredients were fish sauce for saltiness and lime juice for sourness. The last aspect of the dressing, a bit of peanut butter, came from a sticky chicken wing recipe on how sweet it is and you can’t go wrong adding peanuts to a Thai inspired recipe. The final result is pretty amazing and I cannot wait to try it out on something!
Update April 18, 2018: Over the years this has become one of my all time favourite dressings and I make all the time! I sometimes like to omit the peanut butter or replace it with tahini or cashew butter and replacing the coconut milk with water is great when you don’t have a can of coconut milk on hand!
Thai Sweet Chili Dressing
A sweet chili sauce dressing with the perfect balance of spicy heat, sweetness, saltiness and sourness that is great on salads or as a marinade.
ingredients
- 1/2 cup sweet chili sauce
- 1/4 cup coconut milk (or water)
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce (or soy sauce for vegetarian)
- 2 tablespoons lime juice (~1 lime)
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter (or tahini)(optional)
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- 2 teaspoons ginger, grated
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
directions
- Simmer everything in a sauce pan over medium heat until the peanut butter has meted in and let cool
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I love everything Thai too and this dressing looks veeerrry good! I'm totally tempted to try it with your chicken satay salad. Thanks for another amazing recipe Kevin!
I don't make nearly enough Thai food at home; this dressing sounds fabulous!
I'm looking forward to making the sweet chili dressing, but I have a question. What kind of sweet chili sauce do I use for the base? Is it a particular Thai sweet chili sauce. Please give me a brand name.
Thanks!
Anonymous: I like the Mae Ploy brand but any will do and you can make your own: Sweet Chili Sauce Recipe
Enjoy!
Look at you! these flavors sound fabulous, it's tough to find people that experiment with different flavors flavors such as these. Thanks for sharing, I can hardly wait to try your works of art!
these are GREAT as a chicken satay dipping sauce! Thanks!
What can you use as a substitution for the coconut milk? There are allergy issues in the family??
Anonymous: Almond milk or cream would work and keep it creamy otherwise you could go for broth or just use water.
Thanks for sharing these recipes and making it easy to print them. Some websites share recipes, but do not allow non-members to print them.
hello! this looks delicious! Can this be stored? and if so, for how long? And refrigerated?
Anonymous: Store it in the fridge and I would recommend finishing it within a week.
This was so delicious! I loved the fresh herbs and they really gave the salad a fantastic flavor. I also marinated the chicken in a bit of the dressing and grilled it before chopping it into chunks which added a nice texture. Thanks for the great recipe!
Can I shmeer it over chicken breast and bake?
Happy New year.
Judy Goldin: Yes and that would be really tasty! Happy New Year!
Would this work without the peanut butter? Or would it throw off the whole thing?? I can't have ANY nuts (peanuts, almonds, etc.)
Anonymous: Yes, this will work without the peanut butter. How about sesame seeds? Tahini would also be nice.
Just made this and it is soooo good! Thank you for the recipe!
just to let you know that i am absolutely obsessed with this dressing at the moment, and have just made my third batch in a week!!! Many thanks!
Capers and juice also make a good sub for fish sauce. I use it in Caesar Salad dressing all the time
Oh my goodness, this sounds so good, I can't wait to try it!
Are you kidding. Sweet Thai dressing 8841 mg sodium!!!
That was a typo… And that is per cup rather than per serving.
I just made this dressing and I have to say that it is very “interesting”….and I mean that in all the best ways! The only change I made was to add an extra teaspoon of grated ginger because I really love it. Other than that, I followed the recipe precisely. We ate it over an iceberg, broccoli and cauliflower chopped salad topped with sautéed Patagonia scallops, and garnished with cilantro, all from my garden currently. I was afraid it was going to be too sweet, but it wasn’t. And yes, I used the peanut butter and coconut milk. Wonderful! Good job!