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Authentic and spicy peanut sauce with spices and rich taste. This homemade peanut sauce recipe goes well with chicken satay. This is the best peanut satay sauce you will find online!
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!
Ingredients
Ingredients For Peanut Sauce
- Vegetable oil
- Coriander powder
- Palm sugar or sugar
- Roasted peanuts
- Salt
- Sweet soy sauce
- Tamarind pulp
- Water
Ingredients For Spice Paste
- Dried red chilies
- Shallots
- Garlic
- Galangal
- Lemongrass
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
How To Make This Recipe
Step 1: Crush the peanuts with mortar and pestle or use a food processor to ground the peanuts. Set aside.
Step 2: 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.
Step 3: 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.
Step 4: In a sauce pan, heat the oil on medium heat and add the spice paste.
Step 5: Add the remaining two strips of lemongrass to the spice paste. Cook the spice paste until it becomes aromatic and smell spicy.
Step 6: Add the ground peanuts, water, tamarind juice, salt, sugar, coriander powder and sweet soy sauce. Stir to combine well.
Step 7: 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.
Step 8: Let cool at room temperature and serve the peanut sauce with satay.
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
For the best and authentic flavors, I don’t recommend peanut butter as a substitute.
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.
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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
- You may use Planters brand unsalted dry roasted peanuts.
- Cook the spice paste until it becomes aromatic and smell spicy.
- The oil and the peanut sauce should separate when it’s done.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
A perfect peanut sauce!!! Thank you! 3rd time making it. I think it’s so nice you can adjust the recipe and it still comes out great. I always have extra so I make some udon and add the sauce with some sweet peppers, spring onion and sesame seeds and olive oil to make a nice cold peanut noodles. Some cherry tomato’s are also a nice touch.
Awesome glad you like my peanut sauce.
thank you for the recipe I have not made yet but will for the holidays but I was wondering about subbing the galangal and what is tamarind can I sub that two ……Cant wait to make
Hi, I tried the peanut sauce today, and it came out really good. Thanks for this great recipe. My concern is that it became really thick-can I add some hot water to dilute it, hope it won’t spoil the sauce.
Please advice!
Sure you can add water to dilute it to your liking.
What can I substitute for the tamarind juice?
You can try using some lime juice to taste.
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.
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
Awesome thanks for trying my recipe!
For future reference, if you make an extra double batch omitting the chillies then add all three batches together to ‘dilute’ the spice. If that’s too much sauce to get through you can give some to good people you know or freeze.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You should be able to double.
What can I substitute for Galangal?
Ginger root, I ordered gangala on Amazon but ginger root is the same thing
Thank you Mary
Use Ginger with a teaspoon of lime juice, brings the taste closer I Galangal.
The 2 are not the same!
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.
I have peanut allergy. Can I substitute the roasted peanut with roasted macadamia or roasted hazelnut?
You can try, I think it should be fine.
Wow. This is really a flavorful take on a satay sauce. I love the use of tamarind here, and the adherence to traditional ingredients. Thank you for sharing!