Why Sweet Chili Sauce Is the Game-Changer for Brussels Sprouts

Thanksgiving has become a favorite holiday in my extended family, but this wasn’t always the case. Growing up with immigrant parents, my sisters and cousins longed for gluttonous feasts filled with roasted turkey, cheesy casseroles, other starch-filled sides, and pie. However, the Thai elders weren’t the least bit interested in even figuring out how to turn on the oven. 

We finally took matters into our own hands as young adults, dragging our parents and grandparents kicking and screaming along the way. They ultimately loved that it was another excuse to gather, chatter for hours, and play cards. But they bemoaned the food. God forbid there isn’t Asian food at every meal they eat!

In an attempt to appease everyone, I reimagined some classic Thanksgiving dishes with flavorings that would entice the Thai aunties and uncles while not completely offending the American Thanksgiving traditionalists among us. One crowd favorite is this dish of roasted Brussels sprouts with sweet chili sauce. It starts like just about any other recipe for roasted Brussels sprouts but is finished off with a sweet, funky, ever so slightly spicy sauce.

Why I Love Sweet Chili Sauce

Sweet chili sauce, known familiarly in Thai as nam jim gai—or chicken dipping sauce—is an undisputed unifier. The sticky, more-sweet-than-spicy sauce is served alongside Thai grilled chicken and sticky rice (hence the name) but it’s also great with fried spring rolls, crispy wontons, fried chicken…the list goes on and indeed includes roasted turkey. 

You can make your own sweet chili sauce but most people I know just stock their fridges with giant bottles of Mae Ploy brand sauce from their local Asian market. You’ll find plenty of creative uses for it from marinades to doctoring up other sauces, including ketchup and aioli. 

Similar to Sriracha’s skyrocketing fame in America, sweet Thai sweet chili sauce has made the leap to trendy restaurant menus, often paired with roasted vegetables, like I do here. But more often than not, these restaurant dishes are too sweet for my taste, so to balance the bottled condiment’s sweetness here I’ve mixed it with fish sauce, sriracha, and a little butter to emulsify it into something that looks a bit like buffalo hot sauce that’ll coat the sprouts. It’s sweet, with a kick of heat and a savory backbone, and pairs perfectly with the earthy sprouts.

Tips for Cooking the Brussels Sprouts

Like many great Brussels sprouts recipes, this dish starts with searing them in a scorching hot oven before they can develop the sulfurous compounds that emerge when sprouts are cooked too long. The result is charred and caramelized sprouts with crispy, brown exterior leaves. This can be accomplished just as easily in a wok or large skillet in smaller portions, but you’d be searing batches all day to yield enough to feed a crowd, which is why I choose to stick with the oven for this recipe.

In addition to starting the Brussels sprouts in a hot oven, I employ a few other techniques for making them extra crispy and caramelized, including cutting the sprouts in half to speed up cooking, tossing them with rendered pancetta fat (you'll set aside the crispy bits to add to the sprouts later), and placing them cut side down on a preheated sheet pan. This surface area contact and immediate sizzle will deliver a nice brown color all over and a wonderful roasted, nutty flavor. (For a vegetarian option, you can simply toss the sprouts in neutral cooking oil instead of fat.)

The final flourish is a squeeze of lime juice to give the sprouts that balanced sweet-salty-sour flavor Thai food is known for. The recipe comes together in well under an hour, and most of that time it's just in the oven so you can do other things while the Brussels cook. The end result is a dish that's perfect for Thanksgiving or really any night of the week—no need to wait for a holiday!