If you like some spice in your food, you probably have a bottle of hot sauce in your fridge or pantry right now. There are many types of hot sauce to choose from, but one of the most popular is sriracha hot sauce. What’s in it that makes it taste SO good?
The main ingredients that make sriracha so tasty are red jalapenos, sugar, salt, and garlic.
Yep, that’s it! How spicy is sriracha compared to other popular hot sauces? We’ll reveal the answers and explain more about the types of peppers used in some of the most popular types of hot sauce.
What is sriracha hot sauce?
There are several types of hot sauce out there. From mild to super spicy, some people put hot sauce on nearly everything, from wings to stir-fries and even pizza.
Sriracha is a type of hot sauce that any brand can manufacture, but the most popular brand is Huy Fong Foods – the bottle with the rooster on it if that helps jog your memory! Like many condiments and dressings, you can also find recipes for sriracha sauce to make at home. What is in sriracha hot sauce that makes it taste so good? We’ll review the most common ingredients next!
What makes sriracha hot sauce taste so good?
Chili peppers (red jalapenos)
The main ingredient in sriracha hot sauce is chili peppers. There are THOUSANDS of types of chili peppers worldwide, all from the Capsicum family. The heat in chili peppers varies greatly, from mild, sweet bell peppers to one of the more well-known spicy peppers – the jalapeno.
The types of chili peppers used in the most popular brand of sriracha (Huy Fong) are red jalapenos. Red jalapenos are considered “moderately hot” with a Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) score of 2,500-10,000 SHU. (SHU is a unit of measuring the heat of a variety of peppers. For reference, the more well-known green jalapenos usually have a SHU of around 2,000 to 8,000 SHU.)
Some recipes for sriracha include other peppers along with red jalapenos, like serrano peppers.
Sugar
Ahh, sugar. Sugar not only enhances the flavor of pretty much ANY food, but it can help offset the heat of spicy foods like hot peppers.
According to the Royal Society of Chemistry, sugar helps increase the solubility of capsaicin (the substance in spicy peppers that burns your mouth) in water, which helps offset the spiciness. Some people swear by sucking on a sugar cube to ease a pepper-scalded mouth, which supports this idea.
Adding sugar to spicy foods isn’t a new idea. Many other dishes rely on sweetness to offset spiciness, like adding pineapple to a dish with spicy sauce, Mexican hot chocolate (hot chocolate with spices like cinnamon, cayenne, and chili powder), and pepper jelly.
Salt
Like sugar, salt is one of the most widely used flavor enhancers. Have you ever noticed how salt brings out the flavors in other foods? Serving avocado with a pinch of salt, salted nuts, and salted caramel are all examples of how salt can improve the flavor of foods.
Many types of sauces and condiments have salt added for this very reason, as well as the fact that salt is a preservative. Salt helps reduce the available water in foods, which helps prevent the growth of bacteria and other pathogens that spoil food.
The most common type of salt used in processed foods is regular “table salt”, the finely ground type most people have in their pantries for cooking and baking. If you’re making sriracha sauce from a recipe, any type of salt will work (sea salt, Himalayan salt, etc.) since they’re all salt!
Garlic
The final main ingredient of sriracha is garlic. Garlic is a popular flavor around the world due to its unique flavor and aroma. Garlic has a sweet, buttery flavor that pairs well with all types of food, including Mexican, Mediterranean, Greek, Thai, and more.
Homemade sriracha often calls for whole garlic for the freshest flavor. You can also use minced garlic, which is real garlic chopped finely and stored in a jar. If you don’t have any of the former on hand, you can use garlic powder as well – just sub each clove of garlic with ⅛ teaspoon of garlic powder.
What’s the difference between sriracha and other hot sauces?
There are other popular hot sauces out there besides sriracha, like Tabasco, Frank’s RedHot, and Cholula, to name just a few. How do they compare? We’ll compare their ingredients side-by-side below!
| Sriracha (Hoy Fong) | Tabasco sauce | Frank’s RedHot | Cholula Original hot sauce | |
| Main Ingredients | Red jalapenos Sugar Salt Garlic | Red pepper (tabasco peppers) Distilled vinegar Salt | Aged Cayenne Red Peppers Distilled Vinegar Salt Garlic Powder | Peppers (Arbol & Piquin) Salt Spices Apple Cider Vinegar Garlic Powder |
| Scoville Heat Unit (according to CBS News) | 2,200 SHU | 5,000 SHU | 450 SHU | 1,000 SHU |
SHU scores source: https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/hot-sauces-ranked-by-heat/13/
As you can see, sriracha sauce is less spicy than Tabasco (tabasco peppers are hotter than red jalapenos), much spicier than Frank’s RedHot sauce, and slightly spicier than Cholula Original hot sauce.
FAQs:
Sriracha isn’t a major source of any important nutrients. One serving of sriracha (one teaspoon) doesn’t contribute any calories, fat, or protein, one gram of sugar, and 3% of the daily value for sodium. If you eat enough sriracha, sodium is the main nutrient that could start to add up.
A spicier alternative to sriracha is Tabasco sauce, while a more mild sauce is Frank’s RedHot sauce.
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