Easy Sweet Chili Jam (30 Minutes)

This easy sweet chili jam recipe is one you NEED in your repertoire. It takes just 30 minutes, is sweet, spicy, and so versatile. Watch it spice up salads, sandwiches, and cheese boards, or use it as a dipping sauce. Plus, it keeps for months and makes a wonderful gift.

Jam can feel intimidating. Often it needs to cook down for hours, then cool, then be properly stored and sealed in jars. The whole process can take a literal day, and I don’t know about you, but I just don’t have time for that!

But this insanely delicious and easy sweet chili jam recipe solves that problem. It takes 30 minutes at most to make, from start to finish. It’s as simple as throwing chili, ginger, and garlic in a food processor and then cooking that with all the other ingredients for about 25 minutes. No long boiling time here.

And I can’t even explain how often I use this chili jam. It’s seriously DELICIOUS and an unbeatable way to jazz up any dish:

• I use it in salad dressings (like in this lovely crunchy Asian-style salad, crispy ramen noodle salad, Korean grilled chicken crispy rice salad, or this fresh, juicy peach and halloumi salad).
• Drizzle it over grilled miso chicken or miso chicken poke bowls,
• It adds gorgeous depth to my go-to five-minute peanut satay sauce, one-pot satay chicken noodles, one-pot satay meatballs, and baked satay dumplings.
• It makes a brilliant dipping sauce for chicken and mushroom potstickers, juicy pork dumplings, or cheesy gochujang pizza dumplings.
• Throw it in sandwiches (or two-ingredient dough Greek yogurt bagels or high-protein cottage cheese bagels) with cheese for the most unreal grilled cheese you’ve ever had!

Why You’ll Love this Sweet Chili Jam

• Ready in just 30 minutes. No long simmering and no fuss. Blitz, cook, and jar in the time it takes you to heat your oven and sterilize your jars.
• Perfect sweet and spicy balance. Not too spicy, not too sweet – with complexity from the garlic, ginger, lime, and fish sauce.
• Endlessly versatile. It’s the ultimate way to elevate any dish – from salad dressings and sandwiches, to cheese boards, dumplings, and pizza.
• Fabulous for gifting. It keeps for months, and is super easy to scale up (I always make a big batch for the holidays!)

Ingredients You’ll Need

• Long red chilies. Try to use longer chilies in this recipe (they tend to be milder than the smaller ones). If in doubt, give the chili a little taste before you use it. I do de-seed the chilies in this recipe, but for ease, you could keep them in. Just be aware that it will make the jam spicier. You can also use frozen, chopped chilies for ease.
• Fish sauce. I ADORE the savory depth fish sauce brings to literally anything, so I use quite a bit here. It smells a little scary, but I promise it doesn’t taste fishy at all in the jam. You just get a wonderful salty, deep flavor that you can’t replicate with salt alone. You can use a vegan alternative if you want to keep it vegan, or use 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce (or tamari) and 1 tablespoon of lime juice instead.
• Rice vinegar. This recipe uses Asian-style flavors, which is why I love using rice vinegar. It works perfectly here, but you could use white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar if you don’t have any.

There are also two pieces of essential equipment you’ll need for this recipe:

• Food processor. This is to blitz the chilies, garlic, and ginger into a paste. It just makes it a lot easier (and quicker) to do it this way, but if you don’t have one, you can chop everything finely with a knife.
• Sterilized glass jars. These are essential if you’re looking to store your chili jam for a long period. You can use a plastic container if you don’t have anything, but you’ll need to store this in the fridge straight away. I’ll show you how to do this a little further down the page if you’re unsure! I also have a full post all about how to sterilize jars if you’d like more information.

How to Make Sweet Chili Jam

This is a step-by-step photo overview of how to make the chili jam. The full instructions with the ingredients list and quantities are at the bottom of the page for you.

1. Start by de-seeding and roughly chopping your chilies (you can leave the seeds in if you like, for a spicier jam).

2. Peel your garlic and roughly chop your ginger.

3. Add the chilies, ginger, and garlic to the bowl of a food processor or chopper.

4. Blitz the ingredients into a thick paste.

5. Add the paste to a pot along with all the other ingredients. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

6. Reduce the heat and let the jam simmer, stirring occasionally.

7. It will be bubbling, sticky, and look deeply red. Once thickened, remove from the heat.

8. Spoon into sterilized glass jars and seal.

Sweet Chili Jam FAQs

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If you make this recipe, I’d love to hear from you! You can leave a recipe rating and a comment below. And remember to tag @DishedByKate on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok if you’ve made one of my recipes. Seeing your recreations really makes my day 😊.

Easy Sweet Chili Jam (30 Minutes)

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5 from 3 reviews

• Author: Kate Phillips
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 2 cups 1x
• Diet: Low Fat

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Description

This easy sweet chili jam recipe is one you NEED in your repertoire. It takes just 30 minutes, is sweet, spicy, and so versatile. Watch it spice up salads, sandwiches, and cheese boards, or use it as a dipping sauce. Plus, it keeps for months and makes a wonderful gift.

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

For the sweet chili jam –

• 1 whole head of garlic, cloves peeled
• 2 oz (60g) fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped (or use 2 tablespoons of crushed ginger/ginger paste)
• 6 long red chilies, de-seeded and roughly chopped (keep the seeds for a spicier jam)
• Zest of 2 limes
• 2 1/4 cups (450g) superfine (caster) sugar
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 1/3 cup water
• 3 tablespoons of fish sauce (or vegan alternative)
• 1 teaspoon of light soy sauce (or tamari)

Equipment –

• Food processor, chopper, or blender
• Glass jars to store

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Instructions

To sterilize your jars –

1. Wash your jars and lids with hot soapy water, then stand upright on an oven tray. Pop into the oven at 320°F (160°C) for 20 minutes, and that’s it, they’re ready to use! PRO TIP: Glass reacts to extreme temperature changes, so don’t add hot chili jam to a cold jar or the glass may shatter. Adding hot jam to warm jars will be fine. I like to sterilize my jars as the jam is simmering, and this works out well timing-wise.

For the chili jam –

1. Blitz the garlic, ginger, and chili. Add the peeled garlic cloves, roughly chopped ginger, and 6 de-seeded and chopped chillies into the bowl of a food processor. Blitz for 2 minutes, until a thick paste forms. You may need to scrape down the sides of your bowl a couple of times to make sure everything is mixing evenly.
2. Combine the garlic, ginger, and chili paste with the other ingredients. Add the chili, ginger, and garlic paste to a large pot and add the zest of 2 limes, 2 ¼ cups sugar, ½ cup rice vinegar, ⅓ cup water, 3 tablespoons of fish sauce, and 1 teaspoon of light soy sauce. Set the pot over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves (you’ll be able to feel this with your spoon – initially it will feel quite heavy and be harder to stir, and when the sugar dissolves, it’ll become more liquidy).
3. Simmer the chili jam. At this point, reduce the heat to medium-low and leave the jam to simmer for about 25 – 30 minutes. Check on the jam and stir it occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom and it’s cooking evenly. It will start bubbling up – this is what you want. You want the liquid to reduce by roughly a third so that the jam looks thick, sticky, and deeply red.
4. Transfer the jam into jars. Spoon the hot jam into the warm, sterilized jars, leaving around a little space at the top. Seal the jars with their lids. You can store the chili jam in the sterilized jars for months at room temperature, then store it in the fridge once you’ve opened it. REMINDER: Don’t spoon your hot jam into cold jars as the glass may shatter – if your jars are cold, leave the jam to cool on the stovetop for about 30 minutes, and then transfer it to the jars.

Notes

STORAGE INSTRUCTIONS: Always use a clean spoon when getting jam from the jar. This will prevent cross-contamination and ensure the jam lasts longer. You can keep it in the fridge for months in this way after opening.

SUBSTITUTIONS: If you’re vegetarian or vegan, you can switch out the fish sauce for an extra tablespoon of light soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of lime juice, or use a vegan alternative. For ease, I often use frozen chopped chilies – you can throw them straight into the pot (there’s no need to defrost).

I love making this chili jam as gifts for my friends over Christmas, and the holidays – the recipe is easily scaled, so you can make a big batch and prepare as many jars as you like. Just make sure you share storage instructions when you give the jars as gifts.

The recipe makes approximately 500ml of sweet chili jam (depending on how long you let it reduce!) While jar sizes vary wildly, I find this is usually enough to fill 1 medium jar (300ml to 400ml), with a little extra, or 2 smaller jars. If you want to be exact with it, just check the capacity of your jars, then divide the total yield (say 500ml), by that number.

I have a whole guide that shares more about how to sterilize jars if you’d like to explore that further.

• Prep Time: 5
• Cook Time: 25
• Category: sauces
• Method: stove top
• Cuisine: asian

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 30g
• Calories: 118
• Sugar: 28g
• Sodium: 172mg
• Fat: 0g
• Saturated Fat: 0g
• Unsaturated Fat: 0g
• Trans Fat: 0g
• Carbohydrates: 30g
• Fiber: 0.25g
• Protein: 0.6g
• Cholesterol: 0mg