
Peanut Sauce Recipe
Peanut sauce is one of the most popular Asian dipping sauces. The sauce goes perfectly with chicken satay or beef satay.
My peanut sauce recipe is 100% homemade and authentic. It’s mildly spicy, made of aromatics, spices and dry roasted peanuts.
The amazing rich taste of this recipe is unmatched. It is the best recipe you’ll find online!


How to Make Peanut Sauce?
This recipe is easy to make from scratch. It calls for the following ingredients:
- Roasted peanuts
- Palm sugar or sugar
- Tamarind
- Dried red chilies
- Garlic
- Shallots
- Galangal
- Lemongrass
The method is a three-step process. First, ground the roasted peanuts. You can use store-bought Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts.
Next, prepare and blend the spice paste.
To make the spicy peanut satay sauce, heat oil and fry the spice paste, then add the ground peanuts and water.
Add tamarind juice, sugar, sweet soy sauce and salt to season the sauce.
The dipping sauce is ready when the oil and the sauce separates.

Asian Peanut Sauce
This sauce is very popular in Southeast Asia; almost every country has its peanut dipping sauce recipe.
There is Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian versions and so on but the BEST peanut sauce is found in Malaysia.
The recipe I am sharing today is the best of all. The taste is exquisite, rich and complex!
Once you try it, you will never go back to peanut butter sauce or any recipes using peanut butter as the main ingredient.

What Do You Eat with Peanut Sauce?
Peanut sauce is versatile and goes well with a variety of dishes.
Other than satay dipping sauce, you can use it as a salad dressing.
It tastes great on noodles and spring rolls, for examples: Goi Cuon Vietnamese fresh spring rolls and summer rolls.
It’s equally delicious on chicken, tofu, rice cakes and a variety of Asian dishes.
You can also use it in stir fry dishes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Use Peanut Butter Instead of Ground Peanuts
For the best and authentic flavors, I don’t recommend peanut butter as a substitute.
How Do I Store Peanut Sauce?
You can store it in the refrigerator for up to a week. Make sure you store the sauce in a container or in a bowl tightly covered with plastic wraps.
To serve, just reheat the sauce in a microwave for 1 minute.
You can also freeze the sauce in the freezer. To serve, thaw the sauce to room temperature and reheat in a microwave.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is 231 calories per serving.
What to Serve with This Recipe?
This dipping sauce is best served with chicken satay. You can also use the sauce for the following recipes.
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Peanut Sauce

Authentic and spicy peanut sauce with amazing rich taste. This homemade peanut sauce recipe goes well with chicken satay. This is the best peanut satay sauce you will find online!
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry roasted peanuts, unsalted
- 1 heaping tablespoon tamarind pulps
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar, palm sugar preferred
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce (Kecap Manis)
Spice Paste:
- 8 dried red chilies, seeded and soaked in warm water
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled
- 4 cloves small shallots or pearl onions, peeled
- 1 stalk lemongrass, cut into 3 strips, use only 1 strip at the bottom
- 1/2 inch galangal, peeled
Instructions
- Crush the peanuts with mortar and pestle or use a food processor to ground the peanuts. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, add the tamarind pulps plus 1/4 cup warm water. Set aside for 15 mins. Squeeze and extract the juice from the tamarind pulps and discard. Keep the tamarind juice.
- Chop the Spice Paste ingredients coarsely, transfer to a food processor and blend until very fine. Add a few tablespoons of water to help blending.
- In a sauce pan, heat the oil on medium heat and add the spice paste.
- Add the remaining two strips of lemongrass to the spice paste. Cook the spice paste until it becomes aromatic and smell spicy.
- Add the ground peanuts, water, tamarind juice, salt, sugar, coriander powder and sweet soy sauce. Stir to combine well.
- Turn the heat to medium-low heat, stir continuously for about 5-10 minutes or until the peanut sauce thickens to your desired consistency. The oil and the peanut sauce should separate when it's done.
- Let cool at room temperature and serve the peanut sauce with satay.
Notes
You may use Planters brand unsalted dry roasted peanuts.
Nutrition Information
Yield
8Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 231Total Fat 16gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 13gCholesterol 0mgSodium 299mgCarbohydrates 19gFiber 3gSugar 11gProtein 6g
smeat
What can I substitute for the tamarind juice?
Rasa Malaysia
You can try using some lime juice to taste.
Beth
I made this sauce yesterday, it was delicious, i will say that i will in future use a few less chilies since mine are of the inferno variety, and my sauce was sooooo hot, not to worry, i survived…. just.
Thank you for an excellent recipe, it’ s now my go to for Satay sauce.
Mia
My husband and I lived in Malaysia KL for 9 years and loved all street food but especially chicken Satay with Peanut sauce. I have tried for years to duplicate the taste and have failed until now!!!! Thank you for a great recipe.
Mia
Rasa Malaysia
Awesome thanks for trying my recipe!
Adam
I am making this sauce today, it looks amazing. I was curious though, the recipe says 1 cup of water but in the video there is no water added, could u please confirm whether to add water or not. Thanks.
Alison
I added a cup of coconut milk instead of water, at the same time I added the peanut powder. You have to add a liquid or it won’t be a sauce.
Beelin
Great peanut sauce. I think I must have made a little error as my sauce (a) isn’t red enough, and (b) may have not enough oil. Will try again.
tracy ambrose
Can I just double everything to make double peanut sauce or will I need to add less chilies ?
Thanks so much , amazing recipe , made this last year along with the chicken satay. Also planning to try the green papa salad this weekend.
Rasa Malaysia
You should be able to double.
Chris
What can I substitute for Galangal?
Mary
Ginger root, I ordered gangala on Amazon but ginger root is the same thing
Chris
Thank you Mary
Chris Wicks
I made this recently and
couldn’t stop eating it, really delicious. I am a chef and have travelled all through Asia and this takes me back there. Thanks for a great recipe.