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Nam Prik Pao substitute

Best substitute

Chinese chilli crisp with palm sugar and tamarind

Use 1 tablespoon chilli crisp plus 1 teaspoon palm or brown sugar and ½ teaspoon tamarind paste for every tablespoon of nam prik pao

Best for tom yum soup

Taste and texture differ

Bottled crunchy chilli oil sweetened and soured into something much closer to Thai chilli jam.

Other nam prik pao substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Nam Prik Pao with ratios

  1. 2Sambal oelek warmed with sugar, tamarind and fish sauce

    Different taste

    Use 1 tablespoon sambal, 1 teaspoon oil, 1.5 teaspoons palm sugar, ½ teaspoon tamarind paste, ½ teaspoon fish sauce, for every tablespoon of nam prik pao

    Raw chilli paste transformed by two minutes in a hot pan with the sweet and sour elements it is missing.

    What changes
    Best for
    tom yum, stir-fries, dipping sauces, marinades

    The pan step is what makes this work, and skipping it is why so many people find sambal a disappointing swap. Sambal on its own is bright, sour and raw-tasting, all sharp edges, where nam prik pao is dark, sweet and rounded. Two minutes in oil with the sugar caramelising takes the raw edge off and gets you most of the way. What still differs: no fried shallot sweetness and no smoke, so it remains a simpler, brighter version. A quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika is a slightly inauthentic but effective fix.

  2. 3Homemade nam prik pao

    Close match

    Makes about ¾ cup, use 1:1

    Fry six dried red chillies, four sliced shallots and six garlic cloves in a quarter cup of oil over medium-low heat until deep brown, about ten minutes, then blend with a tablespoon of palm sugar, a tablespoon of tamarind paste, a teaspoon of fish sauce and a teaspoon of dried shrimp.

    What changes
    Best for
    tom yum, anything where the paste is the main flavour, keeping in the fridge for months, stir-fries

    This is the actual thing and it takes about twenty minutes, most of it unattended. The frying is the whole recipe: shallots and garlic taken to a deep nutty brown are what produce the smoky-sweet character that nothing else replicates. What can go wrong is burning them, which turns the whole batch acrid, so keep the heat medium-low and pull the pan the moment anything goes past dark brown. Keeps for months in the refrigerator under its oil.

  3. 4Gochujang with a little oil and tamarind

    Taste and texture differ

    Use 2 teaspoons gochujang, 1 teaspoon oil, ½ teaspoon tamarind paste, for every tablespoon of nam prik pao

    Korean fermented chilli paste, which shares the sweet, savoury, deeply fermented profile.

    What changes
    Best for
    stir-fries, marinades, noodle sauces, glazes

    A surprisingly good stand-in on the sweet-savoury axis, because both pastes are sweet, salty, fermented and only moderately hot. What changes: gochujang is stickier and more glutinous from the rice in it, considerably more soy-like and miso-like in flavour, and has no roasted or smoky note at all. A stir-fry made with it is excellent and tastes Korean rather than Thai. Because gochujang is already sweet and salty, do not add sugar or fish sauce until you have tasted, or it will tip over.

  4. 5Thai sweet chilli sauce with smoked paprika and fish sauce

    Taste and texture differ

    Use Use about two thirds as much, plus ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika and ½ teaspoon fish sauce for every tablespoon of nam prik pao

    The bottled sweet dipping sauce, adjusted to be less sweet and more savoury.

    What changes
    Best for
    stir-fries, glazes, dipping sauces, spring rolls

    Convenient, since almost everyone has a bottle, and it is the weakest option on flavour. What changes: sweet chilli sauce is roughly a sugar syrup with chilli in it, thin and gloopy with none of the roast, salt or umami of nam prik pao. Using two thirds of the amount keeps the sweetness in check, and the fish sauce and smoked paprika supply the savouriness and the pretence of smoke. This works reasonably in a stir-fry where sugar belongs, and it is genuinely too sweet for tom yum, where it will make the broth cloying.

  5. 6Sriracha or chilli garlic sauce plus brown sugar

    Taste and texture differ

    1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon brown sugar, warmed in a little oil

    The least-bad answer when there is nothing more suitable in the house.

    What changes
    Best for
    stir-fries, soups, emergencies mid-recipe

    Being honest: this gets the heat, some sweetness and a bit of garlic, and it misses the roast, the tamarind sourness and the shrimp umami, which is most of what nam prik pao is for. Sriracha is also quite vinegary, so the dish will taste sharper and more one-dimensional. Warming it in a teaspoon of oil with the sugar for a minute or two helps more than any other single adjustment, because it starts to caramelise and stops tasting raw.

What is Nam Prik Pao?

Nam Prik Pao is Nam prik pao, sold in English as Thai chilli jam or roasted chilli paste, is a dark red Thai paste made by frying dried chillies, shallots and garlic until deeply browned and then pounding them with palm sugar, tamarind, salt and usually dried shrimp, stored under a layer of its own red oil.

Cooking tips

  • The red oil on top of the jar is not a separation fault, it is the best part. That is where the chilli and fried shallot aroma lives, and the orange slick floating on a bowl of tom yum comes from spooning it in. Do not pour it off, and when you use a substitute, add a teaspoon of oil alongside so the soup gets the same finish.
  • Add it near the end of a stir-fry rather than at the start. Nam prik pao contains a lot of palm sugar, which catches and turns bitter over high heat in a hot wok. Stir it in during the last thirty seconds with a splash of water or stock so it loosens and coats without scorching. The same applies to gochujang and sweet chilli sauce substitutes, which are sweeter still.
  • It is not a hot sauce, so do not use more of it to make a dish spicier. Add a fresh chilli, some chilli flakes or a little extra dried chilli instead. Piling in more nam prik pao mostly adds sugar and salt, which throws the balance of a tom yum well before it makes it noticeably hot.
  • Check the label if you cannot eat shellfish or are cooking vegetarian, because most commercial nam prik pao includes dried shrimp or shrimp paste. Vegetarian versions do exist and are usually labelled as such. If you are building your own substitute, replace the fish sauce and dried shrimp with a teaspoon of light soy sauce and a pinch of mushroom powder for a comparable savoury depth.
  • Taste for sweetness and sourness in that order once you have added your substitute. Nam prik pao is doing a balancing act, and the usual sign that a swap is off is a dish that tastes either raw and sharp, which wants sugar, or flat and heavy, which wants tamarind or a squeeze of lime. Adjusting those two is faster and more effective than adding more paste.

Frequently asked questions

Is nam prik pao the same as sambal oelek?

No, and treating them as interchangeable is the usual reason a substitution disappoints. Sambal oelek is raw ground fresh chilli with salt and vinegar, so it is bright, sharp and sour, and it is genuinely hot. Nam prik pao is made from dried chillies, shallots and garlic fried until dark, then sweetened with palm sugar and soured with tamarind, so it is smoky, sweet, savoury and only moderately hot. Sambal will work if you warm it in a pan with sugar and tamarind first, which is precisely the gap you are closing.

Is nam prik pao the same as Thai chilli paste?

Thai chilli paste is a broad label and nam prik pao is one specific kind of it, the roasted sweet one. Jars in Thai groceries labelled chilli paste or nam prik can be anything from a fiery raw relish to a shrimp-heavy dipping paste, so read the ingredients. If it lists dried chilli, shallot, garlic, sugar and tamarind, and it is dark red with oil on top, it is nam prik pao whatever the front of the jar says. Chilli jam and roasted chilli paste are both the same product under English names.

Can I leave it out of tom yum?

You can, and you will still have a sour, aromatic soup, but it will taste noticeably thin and one-sided because nam prik pao supplies most of the sweetness, the depth and the colour. The broth ends up sharply sour with nothing to balance it. If you have to skip it, add a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of chilli oil per two servings, which restores the sweetness and the red slick even if it cannot restore the roasted flavour.

Is nam prik pao spicy?

Less than most people expect from something this dark red. The dried chillies are there for flavour and colour more than heat, and the palm sugar and tamarind soften whatever heat is present, so a tablespoon in a pot of soup registers as warm and savoury rather than hot. Brands vary and some are considerably fiercer, so taste a small amount from a new jar before committing a whole spoonful.

Is it vegetarian, and how long does it keep?

Usually not, because most versions contain dried shrimp or shrimp paste, though vegetarian jars are made and labelled clearly. Once opened it keeps for months in the refrigerator as long as the paste stays submerged under its oil and you use a clean dry spoon each time. The oil layer is what protects it, so top it up with a little neutral oil if the surface becomes exposed.

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