What Is Sriracha Sauce and Why Is It Hard to Find These Days?
Sriracha sauce is a popular Asian-style condiment known for its tangy, spicy, and slightly sweet flavor that also brings a bit of funkiness. Typically made from fermented chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt, the version best known throughout much of the world comes from Huy Fong in green-capped bottles. It’s widely used in various dishes, from pho and noodles to eggs, burgers, and even cocktails. But lately, bottles of the “Rooster Sauce” have been harder to find on the shelves, sending many people on a search for alternatives. Fortunately, there are quite a number of options out there that should suffice while stock of the Huy Fong sauce remains low, and I will get to some suggestions on that below.
Where Did Sriracha Sauce Come From?
The origins of Sriracha sauce go back to the Thailand coastal town of Si Racha in the 1930s. It was first created by a woman named Thanom Chakkapak, and she crafted the original recipe using local chili peppers, garlic, vinegar, and salt, possibly inspired by a Cantonese chili garlic sauce from China. Chakkapak intended her version as a dipping sauce for seafood, but it quickly gained popularity in the region with many uses and eventually spread beyond Si Racha after she started producing it commercially.
The original sauce, called Sriraja Panich, is still produced today in Thailand and sold all across the world. It is thinner than the Huy Fong sauce with more tang and less sweetness. Sriraja Panich is not as widely available in the United States, but you can find it in Asian and/or international food markets, and you can also purchase it online.
What Is Huy Fong Sriracha and Why Is It Hard to Find?
The version of Sriracha sauce that most people in the United States are familiar with today — the one with the green-capped bottle and rooster logo — was created by Vietnamese immigrant David Tran in the 1970s. When he arrived in this country as a refugee, he could not find a hot sauce like the ones he was familiar with from his homeland. So he created his own Sriracha using fermented red jalapeños and garlic, and started to sell it to local Asian restaurants. His sauce is thicker than the Thai original with a heavier punch of garlic and more sweetness. It also has that signature funk from the fermenting of the chilies. By the 1980s, Tran was producing the sauce commercially (along with Chili Garlic Sauce and Sambal) under the Huy Fong brand, and it has grown in popularity since then to the point that it is the name most often associated with Sriracha.
However, in 2022, the sauce suddenly started disappearing from shelves. This began as a financial dispute with California-based supplier Underwood Ranches, which had been growing chili peppers for Huy Fong for decades. That ended up in court as Huy Fong was charged with breach of contract, and the Sriracha producer switched to other suppliers in Mexico for its chilies. But a drought followed, cutting off supply, and there have since been other complications with getting a steady supply of peppers, causing multiple shortages of the sauce. Most recently, Huy Fong was not happy with the quality of peppers produced earlier this year, leading to the bottles disappearing from the shelves during the summer months.
I have noticed it returning to the stores just recently, and they did plan on ramping production back up for the fall months. But whether a steady supply will be available remains to be seen.
What Are Some Alternatives to Huy Fong Sriracha?
While Huy Fong is working its way through its chili pepper troubles, it may be losing market share because there are quite a few options from other companies out there. Here are five that I recommend, and you can find other Sriracha substitute recommendations over at SpicyFoodReviews.com.
Underwood Ranches Sriracha: The company that Huy Fong used to get its peppers from is certainly taking advantage of the current situation as they have now put out their own version of the sauce. This hits you right away with a very bright and tangy taste. There is also a fair amount of acidity, but the sauce brings a bit of sweetness to balance that out. The taste of the fermented chilies is also apparent, with a little bit of funkiness and a peppery kick. The garlic is not as prominent, but it is there in the background. Heat-wise, this one gets close to Medium on my scale, which is hotter than the Huy Fong version. (You can read my review of all the Underwood Ranches sauces here.)
Buldak Sriracha: Buldak is best known as a brand of Ramen noodles, and they have several very spicy versions available (more on that here). These noodles typically include a hot sauce packet, and those sauces are also sold in bottles. Just recently, they came up with their own Sriracha, and I stumbled upon it at World Market. This has a richness to it and a nice depth of flavor, making it a more complex Sriracha. It has a little bit of funkiness to it and a good sweetness along with hints of garlic. There is also a little bit of sourness, but that is not overpowering. As for the heat, this one really delivers! It goes beyond Medium on my scale and is approaching Hot. I really liked this one and will likely keep a bottle at the ready.
Sky Valley Sriracha: This was not a sauce I was familiar with until Instacart put together a list of the top hot sauces by state across the country, and Sky Valley got the top ranking in Oregon and Washington State. It is not one that I regularly find on the shelves at stores near me, but I recently stumbled upon it at Sprouts. This one has a little bit of tang followed by a notable punch of garlic and some nice sweetness. It has some of the funk you expect from a Sriracha, and I would say it is much like an Asian ketchup (in a good way). It also delivers some good heat, getting close to Medium on my scale. And this is another sauce that may join my regular lineup.
Sprouts Organic Sriracha: And speaking of Sprouts, they also have their own Sriracha and it is worth checking out. It delivers the expected tang along with a nice peppery kick, and it is pretty heavy on the sweet side. It has less of the vinegar pucker than Huy Fong and not so much of the garlic or funkiness. Still, this is a very pleasing substitute, and as a bonus, it kicks in some extra heat. They use habaneros in this sauce, and while you don’t get the distinct taste of that chili, it bumps this up to a little over Medium on my scale.
Tabasco Sriracha: This company has had its own version of the Asian-style sauce for years, and I didn’t get around to trying it until the Huy Fong shortage, but now I am hooked on it. The makers of the king of hot sauces know about fermenting peppers, and they definitely put that to use with this stuff. It has a stronger vinegar tang and not as much sweetness, but that expected Sriracha taste is definitely there with a very similar fermented pepper funk. Basically, imagine what you would get if you mixed regular Tabasco with the Rooster Sauce and maybe boosted the garlic a bit. The heat is also higher than the Huy Fong stuff, coming in close to Medium.
With All of These Options, Why Buy Huy Fong?
That is a good question considering that above I list only a small sampling of the Sriracha sauces out there. Huy Fong typically has been the price leader among these sauces, usually selling for three to four bucks a bottle (not counting the third-party sellers that were recently charging much higher prices during the shortage). But if the competition decides to lower their prices, I will certainly think twice about which brand I buy. And since I will always have at least a couple of the ones mentioned above in my pantry or fridge, I will be buying less of the Huy Fong Sriracha.
As for the Chili Garlic Sauce and Sambal, I have not been able to find good substitutes for those (though there are some options out there), so I will continue to buy the Huy Fong versions of those as long as they are available. But now that I have been checking out other Sriracha sauces, I have found some that I really like, and I will continue buying those going forward.
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