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Anyone who knows me knows I love chiles. Last March, I snuck back 12 kilos of dried peppers from Mexico (and a few tacos too). So even when I'm trying to develop simple, user-friendly recipes with approachable ingredient lists, going mild is just not an option. (Have you seen my Lucha Libre apron collection???) That's why I lean on prepared hot sauces and spicy condiments so often—they allow me to add both heat and flavor without having to buy fresh chiles all the time. And since there are so many products out there to choose from, I made it my mission to taste through a whole range of them to find the tastiest and versatile of the bunch.
Not too long ago, I rounded up every bottle and jar of hot sauce, paste, powder, and pepper we have in the Test Kitchen, about 25 total. Armed with a cup of black coffee at 9 a.m., I tasted them all. Some were sweet, most were vinegary, all were hot, but not a lot of them actually tasted like chile. For me, that’s the most important factor.
I chose sambal oelek, an Indonesian chile paste, because it's so flavorful and so simple—crushed raw red chiles, a little vinegar, and salt. It’s good as a condiment and is also good as an ingredient in cooked foods, and, even better, it will taste like you are cooking with fresh chiles. Sambal oelek is available in most grocery stores in the Asian food section, right next to the sriracha. One tablespoon is roughly the equivalent of a chopped, small jalapeño.
If you can't find it or just want to use what you have in your fridge when it come to hot sauces, I recommend using about half the amount given in the recipe to start, stir that in, and give it a taste. Then add more if you think it needs it. Just go easy on hot sauces with a lot of vinegar like Tabasco and Frank’s. Your food might get sour before it gets spicy.
You can also use dried red pepper flakes or cayenne; start with about ¼ teaspoon for every teaspoon of sambal. Red pepper flakes and cayenne are a lot hotter than sambal so start small—unless you like it really hot.
But if it's at your grocery store, or if you're making an Amazon Prime order soon, you should give sambal a try. It lasts forever, it's great stirred into mayo or ketchup, it gives salad dressings a kick, and it's a cheap and easy substitute for fresh or dried chiles in your cooking.