This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my privacy policy.
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.
Other 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
- 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.
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.