Amazing Thai Spicy Peanut Sauce

This is the satay sauce that makes you give up on bottled Thai peanut dressing forever. Real Thai peanut sauce is built on aromatics: minced shallot, garlic and a stalk of fresh lemongrass sweated in a pan until they release their oils. Then comes the punch of red curry paste, a tablespoon’s worth, cooked just long enough to bloom and fragrance the whole kitchen.

Only after that does the peanut butter, palm sugar, fish sauce and coconut milk go in. The 15-minute simmer is what reduces the sauce, lets the peanut emulsify with the coconut fat, and develops the deep, spicy-sweet-salty-savory profile that defines Thai cooking.

Crunchy peanut butter is the move. Smooth makes a uniform sauce; crunchy gives you little nuggets of peanut texture in every spoonful, the way a Bangkok street vendor would do it.

Pro Tips

• Use the white inner core of the lemongrass stalk only, finely chopped. The tough outer leaves and green tops are too fibrous and add nothing useful.
• Cook the curry paste for the full minute before adding liquids. Raw curry paste tastes flat and dusty; bloomed curry paste tastes like Thailand.
• The recipe’s coconut cream skim trick is a real Thai technique. Using just the thin part keeps the sauce from getting greasy and oily on the surface. Save the thick cream for another dish or stir it in at the end if you want richness.
• Watch the sauce in the last 5 minutes. As it thickens, the bottom can scorch in seconds and turn bitter.
• Use Thai fish sauce (Three Crabs, Squid Brand or Red Boat). Vietnamese fish sauce is fine; Filipino patis tastes different.

Variations

• Stir in 1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice and a handful of chopped cilantro at the end for a brighter finish.
• Add 1 chopped Thai bird chili along with the curry paste for proper Bangkok-level heat.
• Use as a dipping sauce for grilled chicken satay, tossed into noodles, drizzled over a Thai salad, or spread on lettuce wraps with grilled pork.