Sambal Oelek aka Sambal Ulek. A delicious spicy chili sauce made with chilies, onion, shallots, garlic, tomatoes and oil. Ready in 20 minutes!
A flavorful hot sauce that is popularly used in Southeast Asia, like in stir fries.
What is a sambal oelek?
It's a chili garlic sauce that is often used in South-East Asian as one of their iconic spicy condiments. It originates from Indonesia and it's an Indonesian word.
The main ingredient is red chili peppers and green chilies. The other simple ingredients include tomatoes, shallots, onion, garlic, oil, and other seasoning ingredients.
This sambal oelek recipe is different from Sriracha sauce as it's not smooth and it's more thick and chunky in texture. The natural color comes from the tomatoes and red chilies.
What does sambal oelek taste like?
Authentic sambal oelek is a spicy Indonesian chili paste that is also a bit chunky thanks to the hot red chile peppers, green chile peppers, tomatoes, onions and shallots. The flavor of the ground fresh chili paste is elevated with chicken powder, sugar, salt and garlic.
How do you use sambal oelek?
My homemade sambal oelek is used in noodle dishes like Mee Goreng, Mee Bodoh, or curries, stir-fry dishes, nasi goreng or as a condiment to any dish you want to make spicy. It is sometimes used to marinate meat as well.
Easy to make!
This sambal oelek recipe is very easy to make. You simply need to char your prepared aromatics and chilies in some oil. Then you can blend the sambal oelek chili paste in a blender or food processor. The traditional way to ground the mixture in a stone mortar and pestle. Lastly, sauté it in a pot with the remaining seasoning ingredients for 10 minutes and now you have your own sambal oelek!
Ingredients
You will need the following ingredients for the best sambal oelek. Please scroll down to Recipe Card below for full measurements.
- Neutral oil: like avocado oil, sunflower oil, grapeseed oil, vegetable oil or canola oil - avoid using olive oil due to overpowering scent.
- Red chilies: for mild use whole red chilies (serrano peppers, cayenne peppers, or red jalapenos) that have been de-seeded. You can find this ingredient at your local grocery store. For extra spicy use bird's eye chilies.
- Green chilies: for mild use jalapeño peppers that have been de-seeded. For extra spicy use bird's eye chilies
- Tomatoes of any kind (I used cherry tomatoes for a sweeter flavour)
- Shallots
- Onion
- Garlic cloves
- Sugar
- Salt: or soy sauce
- Chicken powder
- Lime juice
How to make Sambal Oelek
In a hot wok or deep pan on high heat, add 2 tbsp avocado oil, followed by your red and green chilis, onion, shallots, tomatoes and garlic cloves. Char them until the edges are browned. Remove and transfer to a blender, food processor or mortar and pestle.
Blend on high or ground chili peppers and other ingredients until finely grounded.
Pour the ingredients back into the pan (I recommend doing this outdoors on a portable stovetop to prevent inhaling hot chili smoke which can lead to a coughing fest!)
Bring the paste to a boil and add ½ cup oil, sugar, salt, lime juice and chicken powder. Stir to mix. Allow this to simmer on low heat for 10 minutes uncovered. Taste and season with more sugar, salt or chicken powder if needed.
Allow this to cool and transfer to a mason jar. Serve & enjoy!
Notes: Store sambal sauce in fridge in an airtight container to last for at least a week. You can freeze your plastic jar of sambal and it will last 5-6 months.
FAQ
Can I use dried chilies?
I would not recommend it as a substitute as it's dried and not fresh.
How long will it last for?
It will usually last 5-6 days in a sealed container in the fridge. Or you can freeze it so it can last a long time, about 5-6 months.
Other recipes you may like!
Sambal Oelek (Indonesia Chili Paste)
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp avocado oil or any neutral oil
- 70 grams red chili peppers For mild version: use red chili peppers like serrano's, fresno, cayenne, or tobasco. For extra spicy: use bird's eye chillies
- 70 grams green chili peppers For mild version, use jalapeno peppers. For extra spicy: use bird's eye chillies
- 260 grams tomatoes I used cherry tomatoes for a sweeter flavour
- 2 shallots halved
- 1 small yellow onion sliced
- 1 bulb garlic peeled
- ½ cup avocado oil or any neutral oil
- 4 tbsp white granulated sugar
- ½ tbsp salt
- 3 tsp chicken bouillon powder omit if vegan (aka chicken stock powder)
- 1 tbsp lime juice
Instructions
- In a hot wok or deep pan on high heat, add 2 tbsp avocado oil, followed by your red and green chilis, onion, shallots, tomatoes and garlic cloves. Char them until the edges are browned. Remove and transfer to a blender, food processor or mortar and pestle.
- Blend on high or ground with pestle until finely grounded.
- Pour the ingredients back into the pan. Tip: I recommend doing this outdoors on a portable stovetop to prevent inhaling hot chili smoke which can lead to a coughing fest!
- Bring the paste to a boil and add ½ cup oil, sugar, salt, lime juice and chicken powder. Stir to mix. Allow this to simmer on low heat for 10 minutes uncovered. Taste and season with more sugar, salt or chicken powder if needed.
- Allow this to cool and transfer to a mason jar. Serve & enjoy!
Always had a jar of this hot sauce in the fridge! Love the addition of chicken powder to the sambal olek... gonna have to try this recipe!
My husband and I love hot sauce!! I definitely need to try this one, especially since I make our dishes less spicy for the girls; then my husband and I can make our as spicy as we want!
This is the little dish I always see on the table at ramen places right?! PS- I love your tip for cooking it outdoors to reduce indoor air pollution!!
Thanks Rosemary! At the ramen places, they probably serve a chili oil that is similar to this but Sambal Oelek contains tomatoes and chicken powder sometimes 🙂
That was a great tip for using jalapenos without the seeds to help tone down the heat so I can serve this to my whole family!
Hi Christie! I am making this recipe and I have noticed that in the list of ingredients you ask for 1 bulb od garlic! Is that 1 clove or the whole bulb? If so that is a lot of garlic! Can you please verify this for me. Much thanks!
Hi Sharron! It's the whole bulb so that would be about 8 cloves of garlic. The garlic gives the sambal that delicious garlickly flavour so lots is needed 🙂
Thanks for sharing this more authentic Sambal Olek recipe Christine. Everyone in the internet food universe is using food processors, but so many skip the cooking part, which is closer to how it's made in Indonesia. I'll be putting this one in my recipe book, because like you, I can't live without Sambal Olek. I love making Nasi Goreng but it's become either to expensive, or harder to find good Sambal Olek's to buy.
You're very welcome Anja! I'm so glad I could share this authentic way of making this delicious condiment! Thanks for your kind comment and have a lovely day!