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This is one of my all time favourite green chilli sauces to make. I call it Green Mamba because it has a real bite to it, but you can dial the heat up or down depending on what chillies you use. It’s fresh, tangy, packed with coriander and ginger, and it comes together in about 20 minutes with a blender. No cooking, no fermenting, just pure green chilli flavour.
Whether you want a fiery hot sauce, a milder green chilli dipping sauce, or something punchy to use as a marinade, this recipe covers all of it. Let me walk you through it.
What Makes This Green Chilli Sauce So Good
Most green chilli sauces you find in the shops are cooked down and taste like they’ve been sitting on a shelf for months. This one is completely different. You’re blending fresh green chillies with ginger, garlic, onion, coriander, and apple cider vinegar, so you get this vibrant, punchy flavour that tastes alive. The lime juice at the end lifts the whole thing.
It works as a hot sauce straight from the bottle, but it’s also brilliant as a marinade for chicken, a drizzle over tacos, or stirred into a stir fry. I’ve even used it as a dipping sauce for spring rolls and it was fantastic.
Choose Your Heat Level
The beauty of this recipe is that you can make it as mild or as hot as you want just by swapping the chillies.
The recipe uses a base of Kashmiri Mirch (or green bell peppers if you can’t find them) for body and colour, plus a smaller amount of hotter chillies for the kick. That hot chilli portion is where you control the heat:
Mild: Use jalapeños for the hot chilli portion. You’ll get a gentle warmth with loads of fresh green flavour. This is a great option if you’re making it as a dipping sauce or for the family.
Medium: Use serrano peppers, or a mix of serranos and jalapeños. Serranos bring a sharper, more focused heat that sits nicely without blowing your head off.
Hot: Use Thai chillies or birds eye chillies. This is the Green Mamba version. It has a serious kick and it’s not for the faint hearted. If you’re watching my YouTube channel, you know this is where I live.
You can also mix and match. Half jalapeños, half serranos gives you a really nice medium heat with good complexity.
Green Chilli Sauce
Ingredients
- 175 g Jalapeno, Thai, Serrano, and/or Birds Eye (Green, unripe)
- 355 g Kashmiri Mirch (can substitute with green bell peppers) (Green, unripe)
- 2 Limes (juiced)
- 85 g Ginger
- 1 bulb Garlic
- 1 medium White Onion
- Coriander/Cilantro
- 1.5 tbsp Salt
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- 300 ml Apple Cider Vinegar
Instructions
Prepare the Chillies:
Prepare the Other Ingredients:
- Peel the ginger (using a spoon to avoid waste).
- Crush the garlic bulb lightly to remove the skins.
- Chop the onion.
Blending the Ingredients:
- Place all the ingredients (chillies, lime juice, ginger, garlic, onion, and coriander) into a blender.
- Blend until smooth.
Add Salt and Sugar:
- Taste the sauce and add salt (1.5 tbsp) and sugar (2 tbsp or equivalent) as necessary.
- Adjust the seasoning to taste.
Cook the Sauce:
- Pour the blended mixture into a saucepan.
- Bring to a simmer and cook for 5-10 minutes to reduce the water content and concentrate the flavours.
Add Vinegar:
- After simmering, allow the sauce to cool slightly.
- Stir in apple cider vinegar (300ml for 530g of chillies).
- The vinegar helps preserve the sauce and adds flavour.
Blend Again (Optional):
- Once the sauce has cooled, you can blend it again to achieve a smoother texture.
Sterilize Bottles:
- While the sauce cools, sterilize and sanitize the bottles using Star San (https://geni.us/starsan) or another sanitiser.
- Use a bottle rinser for easy sanitation. (https://geni.us/bottlerinse)
Bottle the Sauce:
- Pour the sauce into the sterilised bottles using a sterilised funnel.
- Seal the bottles tightly.
Check the pH (Optional but recommended):
- Use a calibrated pH meter to check the pH of the sauce. It should be below 4.0 for shelf stability. Aim for around 3.0 to 3.2. pH Meter I use: https://geni.us/Apera_ph
Label and Store:
- Once bottled, label the sauce.
- Store in a cool, dark place or refrigerate if you prefer.
Making a Milder Green Chilli Sauce
Not everyone wants their face melted, and that’s completely fine. If you’re after a milder green chilli sauce that works as a cooking sauce or a gentler table condiment, here are a few tweaks:
Use jalapeños for the hot chilli portion and remove the seeds and membrane. This drops the heat significantly while keeping all the green chilli flavour. You can also increase the coriander and bump up the Kashmiri Mirch ratio for a fuller bodied, gentler sauce. Some people add a small avocado to the blend for a creamier, milder sauce that’s brilliant on fish tacos.
The core recipe stays exactly the same. The vinegar and lime still do the heavy lifting on flavour. You’re just turning down the volume on the heat.
How to Use This Sauce
I put this on everything when I have a batch in the fridge. But here are some of my favourites:
- Hot sauce: straight from the bottle onto eggs, pizza, or anything that needs waking up.
- Taco drizzle: this was basically made for tacos. The lime and coriander sing with Mexican food.
- Marinade: coat chicken thighs or prawns and leave them for an hour before grilling. Incredible.
- Stir fry sauce: add a couple of tablespoons towards the end of cooking for instant flavour.
- Dipping sauce: serve alongside spring rolls, dumplings, or crispy chicken strips.
Storage
In the fridge, this sauce will keep for several weeks easily. The vinegar and low pH do a great job of preserving it. If you’ve checked the pH and it’s below 4.0, you can store sealed bottles at room temperature in a cool, dark place. Once opened, keep it in the fridge.
Label your bottles with the date you made them. Trust me, future you will thank present you for that.
Equipment I Use
- Blender: I use a Nutri Ninja. Any decent blender will do the job.
- pH Meter: I use an Apera pH meter. Essential if you’re bottling for shelf stability.
- Star San sanitiser: quick, reliable, no rinse required.
- Bottle rinser: makes sanitising bottles much easier.
For more chilli sauce recipes go to hot sauce recipes.