Homemade Szechuan Sauce recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is Szechuan Sauce made of? ›

Schezwan sauce is a popular Indo-Chinese condiment made with red chilies, garlic, soya sauce, vinegar and Sichuan peppers. Also known as Schezwan Chutney, it gets the name from the use of Sichuan peppers in the preparation of this sauce.

You can also substitute it with tamari sauce, which is gluten-free and has a similar flavor. Chinkiang Vinegar: This vinegar is made from glutinous rice and has a sweet and sour flavor.

Szechuan is the phonetic spelling which was used in the West before the romanization of Chinese (called pinyin) was adopted in the 1980s. In pinyin, it is spelt Sichuan.

Szechuan Pepper has a warm, peppery aroma with citrus notes. Its flavour is similarly pepper-like with a very slight numbing, fizzy sensation on the tongue.

General Tso's is an American Chinese restaurant invention. Generally speaking Szechuan chicken is usually spicier than General Tso's chicken. Although the sauces are similar, General Tso's does not call for Szechuan peppercorns either though I see no reason why you couldn't add them anyway.

A: While both types of cuisine are known for their spice, the chilis used in Hunan dishes are generally spicier than the Sichuan peppercorns used in Szechuan cooking.

Distinguishing the Unique Szechuan and Hunan Flavors

Szechuan cuisine utilizes the Sichuan peppercorn, which creates a numbing sensation in the mouth and requires the use of heavy amounts of oil. Hunan dishes, on the other hand, feature a dry spice that comes from various types of chili peppers.

McDonald's Szechuan sauce actually tastes more like Japan's Teriyaki sauce, a mix of sweetness with the saltiness of soy sauce. What is Chinese people's go-to chili sauce then? It has to be Lao Gan Ma, or “Old God Mother,” whose 70-year-old founder is dubbed “the hottest woman in China.”

The Szechuan sauce is fundamental to the Szechuan cuisine and goes in most Chinese dishes. With its spicy, tangy, slightly sweet and vinegary taste, it's a burst of flavors in the mouth.

Some people might prefer the numbing spiciness of Szechuan cuisine, while others might enjoy the bold, garlicky flavor of Hunan cuisine. Both styles offer a range of dishes with different flavors and spice levels, so there's something for everyone.

What does Ma La mean? ›

'Ma la' comes from two Chinese characters meaning, respectively, 'numbing' 麻 and 'spicy (hot)' 辣 and describes the sensation in the mouth the dish creates.

Szechuan chicken has a unique spicy-savory-sweet flavor that distinguishes it from other types of spicy dishes, such as Hunan chicken or kung pao chicken. One of the best things about this dish is how much you can customize it to fit your tastes: make it super spicy, or tone down the spice and up the sweetness.

According to McDonald's, "Szechuan Sauce has a savory and slightly sweet taste profile with hints of soy, garlic, ginger and mild vinegar notes to round out your dipping sauce experience." Less appetizingly, food critic Robert Sietsema found it "jaw achingly sweet."

While these two dishes may share a few similarities, they are not the same. To begin, Szechuan chicken contains Sichuan peppercorns and is spicier. Whereas, General Tso's chicken is sweeter but is also typically deep-fried instead of pan-fried.

A rich savoury sauce with a hint of sweetness, blended with soybean paste, Chinese plums and sesame. This is a ready-to-use, rich tasting, brown sauce mix great for oriental wraps, meat stews; as a dressing for aromatic crispy duck, dips for spring rolls and other fusion food.

Szechuan sauce (or Sichuan sauce, after the Sichuan province in China), is a flavorful and complex condiment from the Sichuan province of southwest China, known for its sweet and spicy combination.

Sichuan pepper is an important spice in Chinese, Nepali, Kashmiri, north east Indian, Tibetan, and Bhutanese cookery of the Himalayas. Sichuan pepper has a citrus-like flavor and induces a tingling numbness in the mouth, akin to a 50-hertz vibration, due to the presence of hydroxy-alpha sanshool.