Thai Peanut Sauce is a quick and easy sauce that is bursting with rich and spicy flavors. It is perfect on chicken or vegetables and adds amazing flavor and spice to any dish!
Peanut Sauce Recipe
I have recently become OBSESSED with this Thai Peanut Sauce. I have put on everything from a chopped salad, to flatbread pizzas and crock pot chicken. Use it to cook with some chicken and rice or for dipping these Thai Peanut Chicken Tenders or Baked Thai Peanut Egg Rolls. No matter what you use it with, I guarantee it will be a winner!
How to Make Peanut Sauce
Thai Peanut Sauce is such a versatile sauce that has so much depth of flavor with a kick of spice. You can adjust the flavors to your pallet as you’d like. Add a little more pepper for added spice, increase the honey for a sweeter sauce or add more vinegar for a tangier sauce. Follow the recipe exactly as it is for a great sauce, but don’t be afraid to make it your own!
While this easy sauce requires a few extra ingredients, it is as easy and tossing in your blender and hitting start. Within 5 minutes, you will have a jar of this amazing sauce ready for so many great dishes!
Can I freeze Peanut Sauce?
I like to make a batch of this peanut sauce and use half of it for a delicious meal. I usually freeze the remaining half of sauce in an old peanut butter jar or resealable bag.
It’s fantastic to grab out of the freezer or a quick last minute dinner over chicken and rice or with some stir fried veggies and pork.
Is Thai Peanut Sauce Vegan?
This Thai Peanut Sauce doesn’t use any dairy products, but it does include honey. While some vegans consume honey, others don’t. If you are wanting to remove the honey, simply substitute granulated sugar for the honey. Honey is sweeter than granulated sugar though, so you will want to increase the sugar by about 30%, or to taste.
Use this light and delicious Thai Peanut Sauce on veggies or this easy peanut tofu stir fry for an amazing vegan dinner.
Thai Peanut Recipes
I truly can’t get enough of this Thai Peanut Sauce and have used it in so many ways. From dinners to appetizers and salad, it is incredibly versatile. Here are some of our favorite Thai Peanut Recipes,
- Thai Peanut Crunch Salad – An incredibly filling and healthy bowl of veggies tossed with this rich nutty sauce is oh so good!
- Pressure Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken & Noodles – This meal is so easy, just toss everything in an Instant Pot!
- Thai Peanut Chicken Noodle Skillet – A classic combination of chicken breasts, veggies and rice noodles.
- Light Thai Peanut Chicken Flatbread – A crispy thin crust topped with chicken, veggies, cilantro and peanuts. Every crunchy bite is loaded with flavor!
- Wonton & Thai Peanut Chicken Saute – Savory chicken and stir fried vegetables in a rich peanut sauce are topped with crunchy wonton strips for an amazing meal.
- Thai Turkey Peanut Lettuce Cups – Another healthy dinner that doesn’t sacrifice any flavor.
Thai Peanut Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3/4 c. light coconut milk
- 1/2 c. peanut butter
- 2 Tbsp. sesame oil
- 1/4 c. fresh lime juice
- 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
- 3-4 Thai chili peppers seeded, deveined & chopped -OR- 1 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
- 1 Tbsp. honey
- 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients in a blender and puree for 60 seconds or until smooth. Store refrigerated for up to one week.
Kay says
We don’t like coconut can unsweetened almond milk be used instead
Danielle Green says
Any milk will work, but you will loose some of the flavor and it may be a bit thinner sauce.
Roger Coakley says
Is there anything you can add to it, which would extend it’s lifetime of 1 week?
Thanks a lot!
Roger
manda says
If you dont have a blender, can I use a mixer instead? It doesn’t seem to have anything that really needs to be broken up except maybe the peppers, but if Im using flakes, can I just mix it that way instead?
Danielle Green says
Yes, a mixer should work just fine if using flakes!
Jackie says
After reading the comments I decided I would double the sauce. The sauce recipe came out to 1 & 3/4 cups so I used that amount. I also used 7 ounces of rice noodles instead of 5 because I had a 14 ounce box. I thought the sauce tasted like straight up peanut butter. It may have helped if I’d added more broth to even out the peanut sauce – it didn’t occur to me when I was cooking! After it was all finished I added more lime juice to try and lighten the flavor a bit. That helped quite a bit. My husband loved it. Overall it’s a keeper and I’ll be trying it again!
Alli Burgess says
This recipe looks great! I was thinking that for a sprinkle topping to break up ramen noodles.
Kim says
Quick question – I could not do d light coconut milk, only regular in a can. Will that make much of a difference with this recipe?
Danielle Green says
It will still taste great, just have a bit more fat and calories.
Kim P. says
Good taste but I put the dressing recipe in my food app and YIKES!!!! This dressing is extremely high in calories. So much so that to use it on my diet I couldn’t eat more than 1-2 couple tlbs at a time. Do you happen to have a lighter version? Thanks!
Danielle Green says
Hi Kim, My Fitness Pal shows that a 2 Tbsp. serving has 75 calories. About 85% of those calories are coming from the peanut butter, which is definitely a necessary ingredient.
Amy says
You could try substituting powdered peanut butter for regular peanut butter. That would give you the peanut flavor and save you a lot of calories.
Leigh-Anne Soules says
Yes I’m sure it would bring down the points o WW.
Rebecca Sexton says
Made this sauce and the eggrolls. I wisely doubled the recipe for the peanut sauce, knowing we would love it, which we did! I plan to add the peanut sauce to broccoli slaw and shredded chicken for my lunches this week. Thanks so much!
Danielle Green says
That sounds delicious!
Josie Lee says
Could I use lemon juice instead of lime? Could I use almond butter rather than peanut butter?
Danielle Green says
I think both substitutions should work fine!
Kymber Headington Mccutcheon says
hi, made the sauce tonight and the only thing that i changed was the red pepper flakes, my husband is not a fan if real hot food. it was good and almost great, do you think that the ground red pepper could have made that big of a difference? I would love to try it again if I can get a touch more favor. is there something else I could add?
Carly says
Hi, so I made the recipe according to directions, except I added a cup and a half of broth and then a cup and a half of sauce. The sauce was good, however, I totally agree with the other reviews: I had to cook it for an additional 10 minutes, and I probably could have cooked it another 5 more, because some parts of the chicken were a little tough. I have an Instant Pot by the way.
Ultimately, I ended up whipping together my own sauce (which is basically a combo of peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, and sriracha) and it tasted more like a peanut satay sauce. To be honest I preferred it. I hate to say it but I wont be making either of these recipes (for the chicken or the sauce) again.
Carly says
Oops sorry I meant to post this for the chicken recipe
Carly says
Hi, so I made the recipe according to directions, except I added a cup and a half of broth and then a cup and a half of sauce. The sauce was good, however, I totally agree with the other reviews: I had to cook it for an additional 10 minutes, and I probably could have cooked it another 5 more, because some parts of the chicken were a little tough. I have an Instant Pot by the way.
Ultimately, I ended up whipping together my own sauce (which is basically a combo of peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, and sriracha) and it tasted more like a peanut satay sauce. To be honest I preferred it. I hate to say it but I wont be making either of these recipes (for the chicken or the sauce) again.
mary says
I think its RICE VINEGAR not RED RICE VINEGAR or maybe RED WINE VINEGAR.
I used RICE vinegar.
super yummy.
mary says
I think its RICE VINEGAR not RED RICE VINEGAR or maybe RED WINE VINEGAR.
I used RICE vinegar.
super yummy.
Emily says
We aren’t a spicey food loving family, would this still be yummy without any chillies or peppers?
Danielle Green says
YES! It has lots of layers of flavor, so leaving out the heat would be just fine.
Michelle says
Is the light coconut milk sweetened or unsweetened?
Danielle Green says
It is the canned version, which I believe is sweetened.
Jennell says
You can buy both sweetened and unsweetened at the grocery store. They are both in a can and side by side. It is probably up to the person and how sweet they want it to be. This recipe only has a tablespoon of honey so if you use unsweetened coconut milk it wouldn’t be very sweet but you could add more honey to taste.
lrry says
can you buy it in a store
Danielle Green says
You can always buy it, but it won’t be as fresh and flavorfull as the homemade version.
Grammy says
You can but homemade is always 100% better than store bought. Plus you control what goes in it.
Amber says
How long does this sauce last in the refrigerator? Is it possible to use it in freezer recipes, or would freezing it not be a good idea? It looks delicious, I’m just not sure I would use two cups of it all at once with just two people in my household.
Danielle Green says
I have actually used this sauce with freezer recipes myself and it works great. You could freeze the sauce alone or with a meal and it should last well. I keep mine refrigerated for up to a week.
Olya says
What a great sauce! I could not believe how good it was when I tasted. Saving in the recipe book!
Danielle Green says
I’m thrilled to hear you loved it!
Kymber Headington Mccutcheon says
hi, made the sauce tonight and the only thing that i changed was the red pepper flakes, my husband is not a fan if real hot food. it was good and almost great, do you think that the ground red pepper could have made that big of a difference? I would love to try it again if I can get a touch more favor. is there something else I could add?
Danielle Green says
The pepper flakes are really only adding spice. If you are looking for more flavor, a dash of fish sauce might do the trick!
Olya says
What a great sauce! I could not believe how good it was when I tasted. Saving in the recipe book!