Dried Chili Dipping Sauce

Name: Dried Chili Dipping Sauce
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons Fish sauce; 3 tablespoons Fresh lime juice; 2 teaspoons Sugar; 2 teaspoons Sun-dried Thai hot chili ground into flakes, not fine powder; 2 teaspoons Toasted ground white rice coarse, not fine; 1 tablespoon Coriander/cilantro leaves cut into large pieces, not finely chopped

Nam Jim Jeaw

A toasted rice and dried chili dipping sauce for grilled meats

Prep: 5 min
Serves: 4
Heat: hot

Nam Jim Jeaw is the classic partner to Gai Yang, Thailand's grilled chicken, built on the same toasted rice powder technique found in other northeastern dishes like larb. Coarsely ground dried chili and toasted rice give the sauce real texture rather than a smooth consistency, while lime, fish sauce, and sugar balance out into the familiar sweet-sour-salty combination. It comes together in minutes with no cooking required, and works just as well spooned over a western-style grilled steak as it does with traditional Thai barbecued chicken.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons Fish sauce
3 tablespoons Fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons Sugar
2 teaspoons Sun-dried Thai hot chili (ground into flakes, not fine powder)
2 teaspoons Toasted ground white rice (coarse, not fine)
1 tablespoon Coriander/cilantro leaves (cut into large pieces, not finely chopped)

Directions

If you don't have toasted rice powder on hand, toast raw rice in a dry wok over medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until mostly golden brown. Cool, then grind coarsely with a mortar and pestle — some larger pieces are fine, it doesn't need to be a fine powder.
If making your own chili flakes, grind whole dried chilies just until well broken up, not into a fine powder. Squeeze the lime juice.
Cut the cilantro into large pieces, avoiding fine chopping, which bruises the leaves.
Stir together the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, ground rice, and chili flakes. Keep stirring until the sugar dissolves.
Stir in the cilantro leaves.
Let the sauce sit for 15 to 20 minutes before serving. Stir again and add a few more cilantro leaves on top just before serving.

Notes

Grind both the chili and the toasted rice coarsely rather than fine — the texture of both is part of what defines this sauce, giving it bite and crunch rather than a smooth consistency.

Substitutions

Store-bought toasted rice powder and dried chili flakes both work fine here if you don't want to make your own from scratch.