Is Sriracha keto-friendly or not?

If you love Thai or Vietnamese food or other spicy Asian food, you’d probably had Sriracha hot sauce as one of the spicy ingredients to give that dish its distinct hot and spicy flavor.

Sriracha has been around for decades and it’s still going strong! It was first introduced as an ingredient by the Huy Fong Foods Company back in 1979 in the United States. Today, this popular chili garlic sauce can be found at most grocery stores across America. If you are looking for ways to spice up your diet with healthy ingredients, then sriracha might be what you need. This fiery red pepper paste contains capsaicin which helps reduce inflammation and pain while also boosting metabolism.

What is Sriracha hot sauce?

Sriracha sauce originates from Thailand and Vietnam, with one story of the origin of the spicy chili garlic sauce claiming a Thai woman, named Thanom Chakkapak from the town of Si Racha made a popular version of it. Americans may be more familiar with the Huy Fong Foods iconic red plastic sriracha sauce bottle with its rooster logo founded by David Tran, who immigrated from Vietnam to the United States and founded the hot chili sauce producing company in Southern California in late 1970s.

How and where is Sriracha made?

In the United States, Huy Fong Foods is the primary producer of sriracha hot chili sauce from its Irwindale, California production facility. The main ingredient, jalapeño chili peppers, is sourced from one company as well. Huy Fong Foods makes about 20 million bottles of its Sriracha sauce a year.

Sriracha Ingredients

Sriracha is a chili garlic sauce and its main ingredients consist of:

• chili peppers
• garlic
• sugar
• distilled white vinegar
• salt

Sriracha Nutrition Facts

Sriracha chili sauce contains just 5 calories per 1 teaspoon serving. 

Is Sriracha Sauce High in Carbs?

Although sriracha chili sauce contains chili peppers and some sugar, because its used sparingly, one teaspoon serving contains only 5 calories, mostly from the 1 gram of carbohydrates. The nutritional information for Huy Fong Foods sriracha sauce does not list any calories from fats or protein.

Is Sriracha Allowed on the Keto Diet?

Because sriracha is used in small amounts, it’s hard to eat more than 2 to 3 teaspoons, which would only add 2 to 3 grams of carbohydrates to your daily macros and would not be a significant enough source of carbohydrates to knock you out of ketosis.

I like to use Sriracha as the spicier replacement for ketchup, which usually is higher in sugar, and not always keto

Therefore Sriracha is keto-friendy!

Is Sriracha Healthy?

The main ingredient in Sriracha is jalapeño chili peppers,  which contain capsaicin. The capsaicin gives the peppers and the chili sauce its spicy flavor. Capsaicin is also used as a topical pain reliever and can be used in a gel or cream form for people with arthritis pain.

Jalapeno chill peppers are also high in potassium and folate as well as vitamins A, C, and several other B vitamins and vitamin K.

There’s some research that people that each a diet higher in peppers have less obesity and may live longer. However, it’s unclear if the relationship between the jalapeño peppers and these 

Making keto-friendly Sriracha Sauce 

Yes, you can eat sriracha hot sauce on the ketogenic diet. However, if you’re looking for something more low-carb friendly, then I would recommend using sriracha instead of ketchup. If you want to try out this recipe, here’s what you need:

• 1/4 cup of coconut oil
• 3 tbsp of sriracha hot sauce
• Salt & pepper

Interesting Sriracha facts

1. The rooster logo on the Huy Fong Foods brand of Sriracha chili sauce presents the birth year of company founder David Tran in 1945 and the Year of the Rooster.

2. Huy Fong Foods is named after the freighter that carried founder David Tran and his family from Vietnam in 1975 to Hong Kong.

3. The color of Sriracha chili sauce may vary depending on the time of year its produced. Sriracha sauce made early in the season when the chili peppers aren’t fully ripe will have a slightly greener tinged, while the Sriracha made at peak chili pepper season will have its recognizable deep red color.

4. There’s a movie documentary about Sriracha

5. More than likely, you’re pronouncing it wrong. It’s pronounced “See-rotch-ah”

6. Bon Apetit Magazine named Sriracha the magazine’s “Ingredient of the Year” in 2009.

7. The Huy Fong Foods plant runs 24 hours a day, 6 days a week

8. Some residents in the city of Irwindale, California sued Sriracha maker Huy Fong Foods because of the “unpleasant smells” and complaints of eye irritation from the processing of the jalepeño chili peppers at the production plant.

9. Sriracha is a hot sauce made from jalepeño chiles, vinegar, and garlic. However, the chilis lose about half of their hotness during the manufacturing process

10. Huy Fong Sriracha chili sauce is one of the most popular sauces in America.

11. The original sriracha recipe most well-known in the United States was created by David Tran. In fact, there are over 100 different recipes for sriracha that have been developed since then.

12. Sriracha hot chili sauce has a Scoville scale between 1,000 and 2500 due to the jalapeño peppers.

13. Most commercially produced sriracha sauces use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic.

Sriracha-based foods to try on the Keto Diet

Sriracha almonds – If you haven’t tried the sriracha almonds from nut manufacturers like Blue Diamond, then you need to add this keto-friendly snack to your shopping list.

Sriracha mayo – mix a small amount of sriracha sauce with a healthy keto mayonnaise for a spicy mayo that will spicy up any dish or can be used as a low-carb/keto dipping sauce.

Sriracha eggs – a dash of Sriracha added you your scrambled eggs will add a spicy zesty flavor to your breakfast.

Keto Sriracha Hollandaise sauce – adding a small amount of sriracha sauce can be mixed with a keto hollandaise sauce to add a spicy and delicious sauce to foods.

Sriracha Oatmeal Just kidding, but The Oatmeal does love sriracha.

Where to Buy Sriracha

Most grocery stores carry sriracha sauce in the condiment aisle. You can also find a variety of keto-friendly sriracha sauces at Asian specialty markets.