Homemade Chamoy sauce is a thing of beauty. This sweet, salty, sour, spicy sauce is an explosion of flavor and completely addictive. Drizzle over fresh fruit, rim your cocktail glass, heck, eat it with a spoon! I guarantee you’ll find a million and one reasons to make this sauce. Vegan and gluten-free!
If you could wrap the spirit of Mexican cuisine in one food, it would be chamoy.
It’s salty, spicy, sweet, sour and all of those flavors are at their maximum level. It is exuberant, flashy, and unapologetically bold—basically everything I love about Mexican food.
You most commonly find chamoy sauce served at fruit stands where it gets drizzled over fresh mango, melon, pineapple, and hunks of coconut. It also graces other sweet street food like paletas (popsicles), raspas (shaved ice), and helados (ice cream).
It has a really interesting history too, let’s take a closer look!
what is chamoy sauce?
Chamoy sauce is a Mexican condiment made from ingredients that represent all the flavors on the palate: Sweet dried apricots, spicy chile de árbol, salty Tajín seasoning, and sour hibiscus flowers.
According to food historian, Rachel Laudan, Chinese immigrants brought sweet, sour snacks made from Prunus mume, a fruit similar to an apricot when they came to Mexico centuries ago. It is the same fruit used to make Japanese umeboshi.
In Cantonese these snacks were called see mui, pronounced see moy, which eventually became cha-moy in spanish.
Chamoy is also sold as popular Mexican wet or dried plums (wet in the sauce, and dried coated in powder) as well as numerous Mexican candies, but the sauce is my favorite, and the easiest one to make at home!
ingredients to make chamoy sauce
There are loads of chamoy hot sauces on the market, however, most of them are made of ingredients you can’t pronounce, let alone know what they are.
Lucky for us, chamoy is incredibly easy to make, with less than 10 ingredients. Here’s what you’ll need:
Dried Flor de Jamaica. Also known as hibiscus flowers, these add that hit of sourness. Look for them in Latin markets or online.
Dried Fruit. Getting the original Prunus mume fruit is a bit challenging, therefore, we’re going to use sweet dried apricots and raisins instead.
Chile de árbol. These dried chiles add that essential spicy kick.
Granulated sugar. Here comes the sweet.
Tajín. This chile powder with dehydrated lime and salt gives us an extra punch of spicy, sour, and salt.
Lime juice and salt.
how to make chamoy
First combine jamaica or dried hibiscus flowers with dried apricots, raisins, árbol chiles, and water in a saucepan.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook until fruit is softened, about 15 minutes. Let cool.
Blend in a blender with sugar and Tajín until very, very smooth.
Pass this mixture through a sieve to make is pourable and silky (you can skip this step if you want).
Mix in lime juice and a bit more salt and that’s it!
what to serve with chamoy?
- Mangonada {Spicy Mango Slushy}
- Drizzle over ripe fruits like mango, pineapple, melon, or peaches
- Rim a cocktail glass with chamoy sauce and shake up a Spicy Jalapeño Michelada
- Top cups of Pineapple Soft Serve with chamoy
- Blackberry-Hibiscus Sorbet deserves a dribble of chamoy
more dessert recipes to try!
- No-Churn Cream Cheese Ice Cream
- Classic Ricotta Flan
- Chocolate Chip Coffee Bean Cookies
- Homemade Pistachio Mazapan
- 12 S’mores Combinations That Will Blow Your Mind
- Cinnamon-Coconut (Un)Fried Ice Cream
- Mexican Chocolate Sweet Tamales with Hot Honey
be prepared to have your mind blown
If you’ve only ever had the bottled chamoy sauce—or have never had chamoy sauce at all, get ready for an out of body experience. Show me what you put it on by snapping a pic and tagging me on Instagram @holajalapeno and #holajalapeno so I can see or leave me a comment below (don’t forget to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating) ! Also, make sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter, lots of good stuff there too!
Easy Chamoy Sauce Recipe
Homemade Chamoy sauce is a thing of beauty. This sweet, salty, sour, spicy sauce is an explosion of flavor and completely addictive. Drizzle over fresh fruit, rim your cocktail glass, heck, eat it with a spoon! I guarantee you'll find a million and one reasons to make this sauce. Vegan and gluten-free!
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 6 ounces (about 1 scant cup) dried apricots
- 1/4 cup dried hibiscus (jamaica) flowers
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 7 dried árbol chiles, stemmed and seeded
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup Tajín
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice (from 1 lime)
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Simmer fruit. Combine water, dried apricots, hibiscus flowers, raisins, and chiles in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer, and cover. Let simmer gently until fruit is soft and plump, about 15 minutes. Let cool.
- Blend. Pour fruit mixture in the blender. Add sugar and Tajín and blend on high until very smooth.
- Strain. Strain through a fine mesh sieve to make it pourable and silky (this is optional).
- Add lime juice and salt. Stir in lime juice and salt and enjoy!
Notes
Keep chamoy covered in the refrigerator for up to a month.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 14 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 1Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 1mgCarbohydrates: 0gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 0g
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