Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

Nam prik, the fiery Thai chili dip you should be adding to everything

Chiang Mai native Chef Setalat Prasert of Spicy Shallot breaks down this amazing Thai favorite

Hunter Lu
By

Fiery, herbaceous, tart, and savory, nam prik is a chili sauce that’s absolutely beloved throughout Thailand. With more than a dozen varieties, this hot sauce and dip is enjoyed with everything from raw and steamed vegetables to grilled meats or fish. While the dip is traditionally prepared in a mortar and pestle (or a Thai krok), modern cooks often use a blender or food processor to make this vibrant chili dip. 

To guide us through this Thai delicacy is Chiang Mai native Chef Setalat “George” Prasert of Spicy Shallot. Spicy Shallot, located in Elmhurst, Queens, on a three-block stretch of Woodside Avenue named Little Thailand Way, serves a unique blend of Thai cuisine and Japanese sushi. The restaurant is also a showcase of Prasert’s favorite — nam prik kha.

Related Videos

“My mother taught me how to make nam prik kha from galangal, chilis, and garlic,” said Prasert. “We’d eat it every week with steamed vegetables and sticky rice. At Spicy Shallot, I serve it with grilled ribeye or short ribs.”

At Spicy Shallot, a great way to sample the spicy food staple that is nam prik is in the Hors d’Oeuvres Muang, a northern Thai-style appetizer plate with tomato and pork nam prik ong and roasted green chili nam prik num. All of it is accompanied by pork rinds, vegetables, and a Vietnamese-style pork loaf, a popular dipping ingredient for nam prik.

Nam prik num recipe

Spicy Shallot Nam Prik in a basket.
The Hors d’Oeuvres Muang at Spicy Shallot with nam prik ong and roasted green chili nam prik num.

Ingredients:

  • 4 large, long, hot green chilis
  • 4 whole, very small shallots, unpeeled
  • 5 medium cloves garlic, unpeeled
  • 2 tablespoons Thai shrimp paste
  • 1/3 cup roughly chopped cilantro, including the stems
  • Kosher salt

Method:

  1. Place chilis, shallots, and garlic in a preheated cast iron pan.
  2. Place under a broiler at high temp and cook for 10 minutes, turning occasionally until uniformly charred.
  3. Transfer cooked vegetables in a covered bowl and let sit 10 minutes.
  4. While the veggies are cooling, toast shrimp paste in broiler on heavy-duty foil until aromatic, about a minute or so.
  5. Remove skin from vegetables and add to krok along with cilantro, shrimp paste, and a pinch of salt. Pound into a rough paste.
  6. Stir in lime juice.
  7. Nam prik num will stay fresh for up to a week if refrigerated in an air-tight container. Serve with steamed and fresh vegetables for dipping, pork rinds, etc.

Nam prik kha recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 dried chili, preferably bird’s eye
  • 10 garlic cloves
  • 3 very small shallots, unpeeled
  • Thumb-sized piece of fresh galangal, finely sliced. Frozen sliced galangal is available in many Chinese supermarkets and may be substituted.
  • 1/2 tablespoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon of fish sauce

Method:

  1. Roast chili, garlic, and galangal in a pan over medium-high heat until fragrant.
  2. In a krok, pound the chilis and salt until thoroughly mixed, then transfer to a bowl.
  3. Add galangal to krok and pound into a paste, then place into a bowl.
  4. Add garlic to krok and pound into a paste.
  5. Add fish sauce, chili, and galangal to garlic and pound all ingredients until thoroughly mixed.
  6. Remove from krok and serve with grilled meats and steamed vegetables for dipping.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Pizza Hut brought back an iconic item for March Madness — but you can’t eat it
Be still our nostalgic 90s hearts with this Pizza Hut throwback
pizza hut brings back mini basketballs for march madness 06 satx 027

The 90s have been back for a while now. In fashion, in music, and even in our favorite snack foods. Everywhere you turn, there's a TikTok or YouTube video titled "You might be a 90s kid if..." Grocery store shelves can hardly stay stocked with old-school cool snacks like Waffle Crisp and Dunkaroos, and we millennials couldn't be more ecstatic about it.

Now, Pizza Hut has jumped on the nostalgic bandwagon as well. Coming in hot just after their re-release of 1990s favorite, The Big New Yorker, is another classic Pizza Hut throwback — mini basketballs. Participating restaurants will be selling their 2023 version of mini basketballs starting March 14, just in time for March Madness. The balls feature Pizza Hut's popular catchphrase, "No One Out Pizzas The Hut," in the restaurant's signature red and black color scheme. The cost of revisiting one of your favorite childhood memories will set you back just $7.

Read more
Expert pitmasters reveal their top tips to make smoked brisket
Expert pitmasters shows us how to make smoked brisket
hill country barbecue market brisket 3

No one can argue that smoked meat is one of the great joys in life. If someone does, immediately unfriend them — they are not worthy of your time. Kidding, but only kind of. And while we love all pieces of smoked meat, from sausages to ribs and beyond, there’s something truly special about biting into a perfect piece of brisket, with its pink smoke ring, flavorful bark, and juicy meat that is just the right texture. While we’ve cooked many briskets in the oven in our day, smoked brisket is a much bigger undertaking, especially if you’re new to the backyard barbecue game.

New York City barbecue has been coming into its own during the past decade, which can be seen in the city’s many meaty festivals that take place every year. (Don't believe us? Check out this episode of Beards, Booze, and Bacon with Arrogant Swine's Tyson Ho.) One such event, Brisket King NYC, which has been going on for over ten years and draws pitmasters from near and far to compete for the best brisket in the city. This year, top pitmasters will be throwing down for the title on April 26, 2023, in what is sure to be a meat-tastic day.

Read more
Bubbly? Full-bodied and red? Zesty and white? Your favorite wine types, explained
All the primary types of wine (and everything you need to know about them)
Glasses of different kinds of wine

Trying to understand everything about wine all at once is an impossible endeavor. Wine is a beautifully complicated, ever-changing quiddity, and even the most decorated and prestigious wine experts in the world often find themselves confounded by its constant little surprises.
That isn't to say that, if you care to, you shouldn't become educated on the subject of wine. It's a hobby and a passion that's tremendously fun to pursue, and there's much to learn on the matter.
If you find yourself in the beginning stages of your wine education, just as in everything, you'll want to start with the basics. It's possible that up until now, you haven't put much thought into the several different kinds of wine there are, except for, say, red and white. But while there are obviously exceptions within every hard and fast rule, for the most part, wine can be broken down into roughly nine categories. Here we'll take a minute to break those categories down, explain what they mean, which wines fall into them, and, our favorite - how to drink those wines.

Sparkling wine

Read more