Chili Glaze
Sweet chili, oyster sauce, and vinegar, mixed cold and painted on whatever is over the fire.
- calories
- 477
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 53
- protein
- 4 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 5 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- No cook
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Sweet chili sauce | 2 dl (about 3/4 cup) | the bottled Thai kind |
|---|---|---|
| Tomato paste | 1 tbsp | tube, not a can, so leftovers reseal |
| Oyster sauce | 3 tbsp | |
| Rice vinegar | 3 tbsp | |
| Garlic | 2 cloves, minced | or 1 tsp dried garlic granules |
| Red chili | 1, minced | or 1/2 tsp chili flakes |
Method
- Squeeze the tomato paste into a screw-top jar or a heavy zip bag.
- Add the chili sauce, oyster sauce, and vinegar. Seal and shake until the paste is gone and the color is even.
- Stir in the garlic and chili. Taste. More of either if it reads flat.
- Brush it on meat during the last few minutes over the coals, once the outside has already browned.
- What is left is dip. Keep the brushing jar and the dipping jar separate if the meat was raw.
This is a sugar sauce, which is why it goes on late. Brushed on early it burns black before the inside of the chicken or pork is done. The tomato paste is doing structural work rather than flavor work: it thickens the sweet chili sauce enough to cling to a curved surface instead of running through the grate into the fire.
Nothing here needs heat or a fridge, so it mixes at home and rides in a jar. The vinegar and sugar keep it stable for a trip. Fresh garlic and chili are the only perishable part, and dried versions of both work well enough that they are the default for anything past a weekend.
Packing
Mix the whole thing at home and carry it in one small screw-top jar with a taped lid. Dried garlic and chili flakes replace the fresh aromatics for anything longer than a weekend, and they take the sauce from cooler-only to genuinely shelf-stable.
Variations
- Stir a spoon of it into instant noodles for a dinner that needs no meat.
- Thin with a splash of water and use it as a marinade in the bag on the drive in.
- Soy sauce in place of oyster sauce makes it vegan, at some cost in body.
https://www.matprat.no/oppskrifter/gjester/chiliglaze