Shito (Ghanaian Pepper Sauce) substitute

Substitutes for Shito (Ghanaian Pepper Sauce) with ratios

1. 2Sambal Belacan or Sambal Oelek, Fried in Oil

   Different taste

   Use the same amount fried in 1 teaspoon of oil per tablespoon for 2 minutes

   A Southeast Asian chili paste, ideally the belacan version made with fermented shrimp paste.

   What changes

   Best for

   rice dishes, grilled meat and fish, fried plantain, beans and stews

   Sambal belacan is the right flavour direction because the shrimp paste supplies the marine funk shito relies on. What it lacks is the toasted darkness: sambal tastes of bright, raw, fresh chili where shito tastes of chili cooked for forty minutes. Frying the sambal in a spoon of oil for two minutes until it darkens and smells nutty fixes a surprising amount of that, and it also gives you the oily texture shito has.

2. 3Nigerian Ata Din Din or Fried Pepper Sauce

   Different taste

   Use the same amount

   The West African fried pepper base of blended chilies, tomato, onion and pepper cooked down in oil until the oil separates.

   What changes

   Best for

   jollof rice, rice and beans, fried plantain, grilled meat

   The same idea from a neighbouring cuisine: peppers fried in oil until deep and rich, served alongside rather than cooked in. It is red rather than black, sweeter because of the tomato, and it has no dried fish, so it reads fruity and bright where shito reads smoky and savoury. Add a tablespoon of ground dried crayfish or dried shrimp per half cup and you are much of the way to shito.

3. 4Harissa plus Fish Sauce

   Different taste

   Use 1 tablespoon harissa plus ½ teaspoon fish sauce for every tablespoon of shito

   A North African chili paste used as the heat and body, with fish sauce added to supply the savoury seafood note.

   What changes

   Best for

   grilled meat and fish, rice dishes, stews needing a hit of heat

   Works better than plain hot sauce because harissa is a thick oily paste, so it sits on food the way shito does. The giveaway is the caraway, cumin and coriander in most harissa blends, which makes the plate taste Tunisian rather than Ghanaian. The fish sauce adds the missing savoury depth. Choose the plainest harissa you can find and skip any rose harissa, which is floral and sweet.

4. 5Quick Homemade Shito Shortcut

   Close match

   makes about ½ cup

   Warm 1/4 cup of oil over low heat with 2 tablespoons ground dried chili, 1 tablespoon ground dried shrimp or crayfish, 1 tablespoon dried onion or onion powder, 2 teaspoons grated ginger and 1 teaspoon garlic powder, and cook gently for 10 to 15 minutes until dark and fragrant.

   What changes

   Best for

   any use of shito, waakye, jollof rice, fried plantain, grilled fish

   If you have ground dried shrimp or crayfish in the cupboard, this is by far the best answer on this page, because it is shito made quickly rather than something pretending to be shito. It will not have the forty-minute depth of the real thing and it will be a shade browner rather than black, but the flavour is right. Keep the heat low: the ground shrimp burns bitter fast.

5. 6Sriracha or Vinegar-Based Hot Sauce

   Taste and texture differ

   Use the same amount but expect a different thing

   Any thin bottled hot sauce, listed as the honest last resort.

   What changes

   Best for

   adding heat to rice or beans when nothing else is available

   This covers one of shito's three jobs and misses the other two. You get chili heat, but not the fried-seafood umami and not the rich oil that carries it, and most bottled hot sauces are built on vinegar, a sharp note shito does not have at all. On a plate of jollof it will do something rather than nothing. Do not expect anyone who knows shito to be fooled.