Trail Sweet Chili Sauce
Honey, vinegar, and pepper flakes cooked down in the pot you already have out. Turns bland camp food into something with a hook.
- calories
- 190
- weight
- 2.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 86
- protein
- 0 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 5 min
- total time
- 7 min
- water
- 60 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Campfire coals
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Honey | 1 cup | squeeze bottle, not a jar |
|---|---|---|
| Rice vinegar | 1/4 cup | decant into a small leakproof bottle |
| Garlic | 3 cloves worth | dried minced garlic, 1 tbsp, rehydrates in the pot |
| Red pepper flakes | 1 tbsp | |
| Cornstarch | 1 tbsp | |
| Water | 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp | separate the 2 tbsp, it matters |
Method
- Put the honey, vinegar, pepper flakes, dried garlic, and 3/4 cup of water in the pot. Stir until the honey stops sitting on the bottom.
- Bring it to a boil over a low flame and hold it there a minute, stirring the whole time. Honey scorches fast on a stove with no simmer control.
- Off the heat, stir the cornstarch into the 2 tbsp of cold water in a mug or a cup lid. Lumps here become lumps in the sauce.
- Pour the slurry in, put the pot back on, and stir until it coats the spoon. That takes under a minute.
- Pull it off and let it sit. It thickens more as it cools.
Sweet chili sauce is a home-kitchen condiment that survives the trail better than most. It is sugar, acid, and heat, and all three keep on their own, so nothing here needs a fridge until it is made. The fresh garlic became dried minced garlic, which rehydrates in the boil and tastes close enough once the pepper flakes are in.
The cornstarch slurry is the only step with a way to go wrong. Dumped in dry it clumps, and clumps do not dissolve once the pot is hot. Mix it into cold water first, off the heat, then return the pot. Made in camp it keeps a day or two in a bottle; made at home it holds for months in the fridge and rides out for one trip.
Packing
Pre-measure the pepper flakes, dried garlic, and cornstarch into one small bag at home, and keep the cornstarch's tablespoon in its own corner or a second bag so you can pull it out for the slurry. Honey and vinegar ride in bottles.
Variations
- Cut the honey to 3/4 cup and add 1 tbsp brown sugar if your honey is thin.
- A splash of soy sauce or a bouillon cube adds salt, which the original leans on the dipped food to supply.
- Skip the cornstarch entirely and boil it two minutes longer for a thinner glaze that pours over rice.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/homemade-sweet-chili-sauce