What is Yuzu Kosho?
Yuzu kosho is a spicy Japanese condiment that’s mostly used in the Kyushu region. It’s made by roughly chopping chili peppers, grinding them with yuzu zest and salt, and then letting them mature. It’s green because it’s made with green yuzu and green chili peppers.
It’s often used as a condiment for all kinds of Japanese dishes like nabe hotpot, soups, sashimi, tempura, yakitori, and tofu. In recent years, it’s become popular in all kinds of dishes.
I find the flavor of Yuzu Kosho goes exceptionally well with chicken and I often add it to soupy dishes like Mizutaki hotpot and chicken zosui.
Although the ingredients can be difficult to find, if you have access to them, this recipe is simple to make and a perfect way to add some hot zesty flavor to your cooking!
Key Ingredients & Substitution Ideas
- Yuzu: The star of this condiment is “yuzu”, a citrus fruit commonly used in Japanese cuisine. Although yuzu can come in green and yellow depending on the ripeness, Yuzu Kosho is typically made with unripe green ones for a brighter and more refreshing flavor, these are available in Japan around July to October. Although Yuzu Kosho can be made with yellow yuzu too, this version typically pairs with red chilis to create an orange-colored paste with a spicy yet more mellow flavor.
- Chili: Green togarashi (chili peppers), also known as Taka no Tsume (Hawk’s Claw) or more specifically, unripe “Capsicum annuum” are used in this recipe. As mentioned earlier, red chili peppers are typically used with ripe yellow yuzu and green chilis are used with green yuzu. Since the green chili is usually in season first (July-Sept), they can be frozen in advance until you can get hold of green yuzu.
- Salt: Yuzu Kosho is a fermented product that relies on salt for preservation. Regular sea salt works best. The salt percentage is 20% in this recipe.
Substitutes?
I know that fresh yuzu can be difficult to find outside of Japan, especially green ones. If you want to try making this recipe without yuzu, I recommend trying a mixture of sour citrus fruit such as lemon, lime or orange. It won’t be “yuzu” kosho anymore, but it will be good!
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Visual Walkthrough & Tips
Here are my step-by-step instructions for how to make Homemade Yuzu Kosho from Scratch. For ingredient quantities and simplified instructions, scroll down for the Printable Recipe Card below.
This section aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the cooking steps and techniques with visuals. It also includes more in-depth tips and tricks and explains why I do what I do.
Start by washing the yuzu gently with warm water. Since we will be using the peel, the surface must be clean. Pat them dry with kitchen paper and remove the stems at the top. Removing the stems will make it easier to grate them.
Using a fine grater or microplane grater, grate the surface of the yuzu into a wide container. Be careful only to grate the green skin and not the white pith underneath.
If you’re making a large batch, you might find it easier to peel the skin with a peeler (or small knife) and blitz it in a food processor.
The yuzu left over can be squeezed into juice and used in general cooking or to make other condiments such as ponzu.
Since this is a fermented chili paste, you will need to weigh the ingredients as you go to calculate the chili and salt percentage. I got 19g of yuzu peel from about 8 small yuzu.
Yuzu Kosho is typically made with a 50/50 yuzu peel to chili pepper ratio and 20% salt percentage.
Although I kept the ratio the same for the process pictures., I personally like it a little milder, so I reduced my chili to 3:2 ratio (in other words 60% yuzu, 40% chili), but it’s down to personal preference so feel free to adjust to suit your taste!
Chili peppers contain something called capsaicin which can irritate the skin when touched. Please avoid cutting and preparing chili with bare hands, and be careful not to touch your eyes or other areas of skin with gloved hands that have come into contact with the chili peppers.
Wash the chili peppers, slice them through the center lengthways and scrape out the seeds.
Weigh the chili peppers as you go until you reach a weight equal to the yuzu peel (or a little less if want a milder version). Make a note of the weight.
Then finely dice them with a sharp knife.
Before grinding, we’ll need to get a bit mathematical. Calculate how much salt you will need by adding the weight of the yuzu peel and chili peppers together, then multiply the total by 0.2. In this case, 19+19= 38 and 38×0.2= 7.6 so I would need 7.6g of salt.
Unfortunately, my scales don’t do decimals so I had to add a little extra and hope that it’s close enough.
Add everything to a mortar (or food processor).
Grind the mixture until there are no large chunks of chili left.
If you feel the mixture is a little dry, add some juice from the leftover peeled yuzu from earlier. Just be careful not to add too much, the mixture shouldn’t be liquidy.
Transfer to a sterilized glass jar and store in the refrigerator.
Although it is safe to eat right away, the chili’s heat will be intense and the flavor won’t be developed yet. I recommend waiting 5-10 days before consuming, Yuzu Kosho gets better over time.
Enjoy!
Jump to Full Recipe MeasurementsHow to Store
The salt in homemade Yuzu Kosho helps preserve it, it can be stored in the refrigerator (or freezer) for up to 1 year.
Room temperature storage is not recommended.
I hope you enjoy this Homemade Yuzu Kosho recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers. Thank you!
More Yuzu Recipes
Yuzu Kosho (Japanese Citrus Chili Paste)
Ingredients
- 20 g yuzu zest green, unripe (see in post for substitutes) approx 10
- 20 g green chili peppers stems and seeds removed, finely diced
- 8 g sea salt
Instructions
- Wash the surface of the yuzu thoroughly, then dry with kitchen paper.
- Cut out the top stems to make it easier to grate all over.
- Use a microplane grater to grate the zest into a large container, being careful not to grate the white pith. You can squeeze the juice out of the leftover fruits to use for other recipes. For larger batches, peel the yuzu and blitz in a food processor.
- Weigh the total zest and make a note of it.
- Put on some gloves, and cut the stems off of the chili peppers. Slice them down the center lengthways and scoop out the seeds with the back of your knife (or use a spoon).
- Weigh the chilis as you go until you have an equal amount to the yuzu zest.
- Finely dice them.
- Combine the weights of the yuzu zest and chili, then use it to calculate the amount of salt needed to make 20%. (Yuzu + chili = total weight, total weight x 0.2 = salt amount in grams)
- Combine everything in a mortar and grind with a pestle until there are no more large chunks left. For large batches, blitz everything together in a food processor.
- If the mixture seems a little dry, squeeze in some yuzu juice.
- Transfer to a sterilized jar. Although it's safe to eat straight away, it's recommended to let it rest for about 1 week to allow the flavors to develop and chili mellow out. Store in the refrigerator and use up within 1 year.
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