The soul sauce made with roasted green pepper and garlic. It is one of the most popular sauces in Sichuan, used as a dipping sauce for chicken, beef, tofu, and vegetables. Let’s learn how to make this 10-minute super-easy summer dip at home.

Summer is a time that drains away my appetite. As the days get hotter, I always want some refreshing cold dishes or simple boiled vegetables with dipping sauces.

There are lots of widely loved dipping sauces on my blog, from the oyster sauce-based dipping sauce published in our steamed chicken recipe to the Cantonese classic – scallion and ginger sauce paired mainly with white cut chicken. In this recipe, I will introduce a hidden star from Sichuan cuisine.

The method of making this dipping sauce is similar to ginger and scallion sauce, but instead of pouring hot oil over scallion and ginger, this time we will try smoky roasted chili sauce- known as Shao Jiao Jiang in Chinese.

The Best Partner – Douhua

If you ever visit Sichuan or Chongqing, you may find lots of Douhua Fan restaurants. They are selling based on douhua- a unique way of enjoying tofu pudding in the Sichuan area, usually plus summer salad and some simple Sichuan-style stir-fry.

In a traditional Sichuan Douhua shop, you will always be offered three options: red chili oil dipping sauce, roasted pepper dipping sauce, and soy sauce for children. So in my bok choy and tofu recipe, I matched this one as the dipping sauce.

When I was a little girl, we were living in the country yard. At that time, our favorite way of making this sauce was to place the chilies on a flat iron plate or thread the peppers tightly onto long skewers and roast straight over an open fire. So you can also use an outdoor BBQ grill.

Luosi Jiao (螺丝椒)

I use two types of chili pepper in my sauce. One is regular long chili pepper, and the other one is Luosi Jiao.

Luosi Jiao (literally translated as “Screw Pepper” or “Spiral Chili”) is a premium, heirloom-style green chili pepper highly prized in the cuisines of Sichuan and Hunan. It gets its name from its unique, heavily twisted, and wrinkled appearance.

It is significantly spicier than a Jalapeño, roughly approaching the heat of a milder Serrano pepper. You can use serrano pepper, hot long pepper, or shishito pepper as a replacement. By the way, mixing 2 or 3 types of pepper together is also a smart choice.

Pro-Tip on Chilies: For the authentic texture and balanced flavor of this dish, I use a combination of two chili types in a roughly 1:1 ratio by weight.

1. 50% Wrinkly Long Green Chilies (Luosi Jiao): very fragrant and providing more skins.
2. 50% Slender Smooth Long Green Chilies (Xian Jiao): These have a slightly thicker flesh and deliver a cleaner, more intense, and lasting heat.

Step by Step

Wash and clean the peppers. Drain well.

In a pan, place the peppers in, without adding oil. Take your spatula and press them down firmly and continuously against the hot metal. Until the deep tiger skin is formed.

During pan-frying, some peppers will cook faster than others—especially the smaller ones. Once they develop that nice charred tiger skin, remove them from the pan first. This clears space for the remaining peppers to cook evenly until all the peppers have the perfect tiger-skin look.

Blend garlic with roasted chili pepper. Pulse the blender a few times—stop, then pulse again—to chop the peppers into a coarse texture. This keeps a nice crunch. Don’t overblend them into a super fine paste.

Heat around 1 cup of hot oil aside. Pour half of the hot oil in, mix well. Then pour in the remaining half of the oil.

Add salt, oyster sauce, and sugar. Mix well.

It can be a lovely dipping sauce for white-cut chicken or a topping for steamed dishes like our steamed eggplants or any of the summer salads.

Storage

Store the sauce in an airtight container for up to 1 week.