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This authentic, spicy, and rich homemade peanut sauce is perfect for chicken satay. It’s the best peanut satay sauce you’ll ever make! Check out my video guide to get it perfect every time.
Peanut Sauce Recipe
Peanut sauce is one of the most popular Asian dipping sauces, and it’s a must-have for Chicken Satay or Beef Satay.
My homemade peanut sauce is truly authentic, with just the right amount of spice. It’s made with aromatics, spices, and dry-roasted peanuts for a deep, rich flavor.
This is the best peanut sauce recipe you’ll find—bold, flavorful, and absolutely delicious!
Asian Peanut Sauce
This sauce is a staple in Southeast Asia—almost every country has its own version, from Thai and Vietnamese to Malaysian and Indonesian. But the best peanut sauce? That’s from Malaysia.
The recipe I’m sharing today is hands down the best. The flavors are rich, complex, and absolutely exquisite. Once you try it, you’ll never go back to peanut butter sauce or any recipe that relies on peanut butter as the main ingredient!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Ingredients For Peanut Sauce
- Vegetable oil – You could use peanut oil if you prefer, but in Malaysia, vegetable oil is more commonly used.
- Coriander powder
- Palm sugar or sugar
- Roasted peanuts
- Salt
- Sweet soy sauce
- Tamarind pulp – If you don’t have tamarind pulp, you can use 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon tamarind concentrate instead—just adjust to taste.
- Water
Ingredients For Spice Paste
- Dried red chilies – I used dried chile de arbol.
- Shallots – I used small Asian shallots.
- Garlic
- Galangal – If you can’t find galangal, you can just leave it out.
- Lemongrass
Check the recipe card at the bottom of this post for the full details on each ingredient.
Shopping Guide Planters unsalted dry roasted peanuts work great for this recipe. If you can’t find them, no worries—just roast raw peanuts yourself! Toast them in a dry pan or bake at 350°F (175°C) for 10–15 minutes, stirring now and then, until they’re golden and fragrant. Let them cool before grinding.
How To Make Peanut Sauce
First, crush the peanuts using a mortar and pestle, or just toss them in a food processor and grind them up. Set them aside for now.
Grab a small bowl and add the tamarind pulp with 1/4 cup of warm water. Let it sit for about 15 minutes. Then, use your fingers to squeeze out all the juice, toss out the pulp, and keep the tamarind juice.
Roughly chop up all the Spice Paste ingredients, then throw them into a food processor. Blend until super fine, adding a few tablespoons of water to help it along.
Heat up some oil in a saucepan over medium heat, then add in the spice paste.
Toss in the remaining two strips of lemongrass and let the spice paste cook until it smells amazing—spicy, fragrant, and full of flavor.
Add in the ground peanuts, water, tamarind juice, salt, sugar, coriander powder, and sweet soy sauce. Give everything a good stir until it’s all mixed together nicely.
Lower the heat to medium-low and keep stirring for about 5–10 minutes, until the peanut sauce thickens to the way you like it. You’ll know it’s ready when the oil starts to separate from the sauce.
Let the sauce cool down to room temperature, then it’s ready to serve with satay. Enjoy!
Secrets To The Best Peanut Satay Sauce
- The key to getting that rich red hue is using the right dried red chilies, like dried Thai chilies or chile de arbol. If your sauce looks more brown, it’s likely because of the type or amount of chilies you used. Older chilies lose their vibrancy, so go for fresh, bright ones. And if you use fewer chilies or skip them, the sauce will turn out more brown—that’s just how it is.
- If the oil isn’t separating, just give it more time—patience is key! Keep the heat at medium-low so everything breaks down and releases its natural oils. If there’s too much water, it’ll take longer, so let it simmer until it thickens up. And don’t skimp on the oil—it helps with separation.
- If your sauce is too thick, just add a bit of water and stir until it loosens up. And don’t over-blend the peanuts—grinding them too fine can make the sauce pasty.
What Do You Eat With Peanut Sauce
My peanut sauce is super versatile and goes with just about anything! Of course, it’s perfect as a satay dip, but you can also drizzle it over salads, toss it with noodles, or serve it with spring rolls like Goi Cuon (Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls) and Summer Rolls. It’s great with chicken, tofu, rice cakes, and so many Asian dishes. You can even add it to stir-fries for an extra punch of flavor!
Frequently Asked Questions
For the best and authentic flavors, I don’t recommend peanut butter as a substitute.
Yes! You can use a tamarind block instead of tamarind pulp. Just cut about 1 tablespoon off the block and soak it in ¼ cup of warm water for 15 minutes. Then, mash it up, strain out the solids, and you’ve got your tamarind juice ready to use.
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.
This recipe is 199 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.
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please leave a comment and consider giving it a 5-star rating. For more easy and delicious recipes, explore my Recipe Index, and stay updated by subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.
Other Peanut Recipes You Might Like
Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry roasted peanuts, unsalted
- 1 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 for the Spice Paste
- 1/2 inch (1cm) 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.
Video
Notes
- The key to getting that rich red hue is using the right dried red chilies, like dried Thai chilies or chile de arbol. If your sauce looks more brown, it’s likely because of the type or amount of chilies you used. Older chilies lose their vibrancy, so go for fresh, bright ones. And if you use fewer chilies or skip them, the sauce will turn out more brown—that’s just how it is.
- If the oil isn’t separating, just give it more time—patience is key! Keep the heat at medium-low so everything breaks down and releases its natural oils. If there’s too much water, it’ll take longer, so let it simmer until it thickens up. And don’t skimp on the oil—it helps with separation.
- If your sauce is too thick, just add a bit of water and stir until it loosens up. And don’t over-blend the peanuts—grinding them too fine can make the sauce pasty.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
What kind of chilis do you use?
Dried chili arbol.
This IS the best peanut satay sauce you will find online!
thank you
:)
Hi Julianne, I agree!
What is best to substitute of galangal? Can I opt out? Any idea where I can buy this in California?
Opt out.
I’ve made this peanut sauce 3 times without chilli so the kids can have it and it tastes great.
However, the oil never separates in my sauce and I never get that nice red colour. Am I doing something wrong or is it because I don’t add chilli?
You need to cook the spice paste until the oil separates. Once separated the color would be nicer.
Hello,
What is a good substitute for peanuts in this recipe?
Cashew nuts, macadamia nuts?
Hello ,
I’m dying to try this but i am wondering about the dry roasted peanuts. I’m looking at a bottle of Planters dry roasted peanuts and its not simply peanuts. They’ve added sea salt, celery, dried onion, dried garlic, salt, paprika…… They can’t keep it simple. I realize these additional ingredients are probably minimal but I’m thinking it will change the taste we are striving for. Am I correct?
It’s fine I used Planters roasted peanuts and there was no issue. If you want, you can rinse them.
Perfect! Thank you! I will try : )
Thank you for the chicken satay & sauce recipes
Awesome thanks for trying.
My whole family loved this peanut sauce. It does take some effort to make though. Is it possible to freeze this peanut sauce, if I make a big batch?
Yes, you can. I freeze mine, too. :)
I am so glad I went to the trouble of preparing peanut sauce from scratch with this recipe. It’s just so good. I agree, never gonna go back to using peanut butter again!
Hi Bee,
Can Tamarind PASTE, rather than PULP be used and if so, how many grams of paste please?
Thanks!
Yes it’s fine. Just use per the recipe.
Hi
So I made the peanut sauce. Waited for the oil to separate. It was very tasty. But the consistency was more pasty than a sauce. Where do you think I went wrong?
P.s made the chicken satay. They were delicious
Just add more water.
Would that be 2 heaped tablespoons of tamarind paste in that case? Thankyou
Not really, just add it to taste. Try with 1 tablespoon first.
Hi Rasa,
Since this is a peanut sauce why can I not use peanut oil in place of vegetable oil?
Thank you.
Warm regards,
george
Yes, you can use peanut oil.