Bottom Line: Ba Nam Cali Super Hot Chili Garlic in Oil is the best of three substitutes I tried for Huy Fong’s Chili Garlic Sauce and Sambal.
Huy Fong’s Sriracha Sauce is finally starting to show back up in the stores after a shortage of a couple of years due to a drought in the area where their chili peppers are grown and other factors. But still rather sparse are bottles of the Chili Garlic Sauce and Sambal, both of which are favorites of mine. Apparently, the company decided to prioritize production of the Sriracha since it is such a widely used sauce, but plenty of us are still looking for the other two as well.
The Chili Garlic Sauce is basically the same main ingredients as the Huy Fong Sriracha (chili, salt, garlic, distilled vinegar), but it has a courser grind and a little more heat. The Sambal is basically the same as the Chili Garlic Sauce, just without the garlic. Its taste and heat are similar, and I use the two pretty much interchangeably, though I do prefer the garlic punch of the first one.
I had stocked up on both when I heard the shortage was coming, then managed to replenish my inventory when Huy Fong briefly got their production up and running about a year ago. But as I started to use up those bottles, I figured that it was time to check for substitutes since I did not see any new stock hitting the store shelves. Following are three sauces I have found so far that have helped fill the gap, one of which will become a regular in my pantry.
Lee Kum Kee Chili Garlic Sauce: The main ingredients in this Chinese-made sauce are salted chili peppers, water, sugar, rice vinegar, and dehydrated garlic. It is very pungent and strong on the garlic as apparently the dehydrated version brings some intense flavor. After that first wave of garlic you will notice some tang and acidity, similar to the Huy Fong stuff. But then that salt kicks in and it is almost to the point of overpowering, definitely beyond what you get from Huy Fong. Helping to balance that out some is the nice taste of the fermented chilis, but the other flavors ultimately dominate. There is also not much sweetness (despite the use of sugar) and it lacks the robustness of Huy Fong Chili Garlic Sauce.
The heat level is maybe a little above Mild on my scale, which is lower than the Huy Fong sauce (that is closer to Medium) but still enough to deliver a bit of a kick. It will work as a substitute for the Chili Garlic in a pinch, but the saltiness may overwhelm, especially if you add it to a dish that is already well-salted. You can find it at Walmart for about four bucks, so price and availability makes this an easy substitute for the Chili Garlic Sauce, but I will go back to the Huy Fong stuff when available.
Ba Nam Cali Chili Sauce: The main ingredients for this Vietnamese-made sauce are chili, sugar, salt, and vinegar which makes it comparable to Sambal. It has a good, rich chili taste with a hint of the fermentation from the peppers. It has some sweetness, but not too much even though sugar is the second ingredient. The vinegar tang is definitely notable, but it blends well with the other ingredients to give the sauce almost a pickled taste. The salt is evident, but it does not overwhelm like the Lee Kum Kee stuff above. There is some funkiness there that is almost off-putting, but it is in the background. If you don’t use too much, it shouldn’t be a problem.
The heat for this one is somewhere between Mild and Medium on my scale and it lingers for a bit. That puts it in a similar heat range as Sambal and makes this a good substitute if you can tolerate that funkiness. I found this at an Asian market in Houston and liked it well enough that I would buy it again. But I would not necessarily go out of my way to look for it.
Ba Nam Cali Super Hot Chili Garlic in Oil: The main ingredients for this sauce are chili, garlic, salt, sugar, fish sauce, and soybean oil which makes it like the Chili Garlic Sauce but with a twist. That fish sauce is notable immediately, but not in a bad way. I am not a particular fan of that Asian condiment, but they used it judiciously here and it blends well with the other flavors. The peppery taste of the chilis comes through next, and there is a hint of garlic. There is also some sweetness and a good amount of richness. The salt is present, but it does not dominate and balances well with the other ingredients. And even though soybean oil is used (not an ingredient in the Huy Fong sauces), it is not too oily and the sauce seems to get some nuttiness from that.
At first, this sauce does not seem that hot, but it creeps up on you. After a few bites, you definitely feel some burn as it goes beyond Medium heat on my scale. Combined with the richness and variety of flavors, I really liked this one. It is like Chili Garlic Sauce Plus and it makes a good substitute, especially when you want a little extra kick from your chili sauce condiment. I also picked this one up in the Asian market and I believe it was around seven or eight bucks for a 16 oz jar. I definitely plan on keeping this as a regular in the fridge going forward.