Muoi Ot (Vietnamese Chili Salt)

Muối Ớt, Vietnam’s vibrant and spicy chili salt, is the perfect accompaniment to your favorite fruits, especially those slightly unripe such as green mangoes and tart-like guava fruit or green apples.

Serving Muoi Ot

When staying at our fruit garden property in the Mekong River Delta, a constant on our kitchen table is a generous platter of fruit and a supply of Muối Ớt. We have friends, family, and neighbors regularly visit, so we often cut up fruit into bite-sized pieces and place a few dipping bowls of the addictive chili salt on the table to share. It is always very popular.

Luckily, we have chili plants in our garden, so keeping a fresh batch on hand is very easy.

I wasn’t a fan when I first tried chili salt with fruit many years ago. I’m not sure if it was the unripe or tart fruit I was pairing it with or whether I couldn’t get my head around having salt and chili with fruit. It hadn’t been part of my upbringing.

The longer I spent in Vietnam, the more often I noticed muoi ot, and the more often I would try. Now when I sit down to enjoy some fruit, I always have a dipping bowl of the addictive spicy mix close by.

Read More: The Ultimate Vietnamese Food Guide. Vietnam’s favourite dishes, drinks, and sauces.

Muoi Ot’s Cousin, Mexican Tajin

You may have heard of a close cousin of Muối Ớt, the Mexican equivalent called Tajin, where the zest of lime is added to the chili and salt mix. When I spent six months living in Merida, the vibrant capital of the Yucatan State in Mexico, the constant heat meant my fruit intake increased markedly. Tajin became a regular in the kitchen. Not only with fruit but as a balancing addition to my guacamole. 

But there’s no need to choose. Having fresh limes on hand means we can whip up a batch of both, depending on what we’re consuming.

Fruit for dipping in Chili Salt

There is no shortage of the different fruits you can dip Muối Ớt into, with green mango, pomelo, pineapple, and guava being our favorites, but of course, any tart or unripe fruit will work. 

If you find yourself traveling through Vietnam or live in an area with many Vietnamese, you will often find pre-cut fruit sold with small bags of dried muoi ot dipping mix, and it is an excellent snack for those long bus rides. 

The Key Ingredients for Chili Salt

We use fresh bird’s eye chilis that we grow in our garden, although any chili with some heat will work. If our current crop of yellow habanero chilies continues to grow, we will be trying this combination. 

Tips for preparing Muoi Ot

We use fresh chilies not long picked from our chili plant and coarse salt to make grinding the chilies in the mortar easier.

It is possible to use a blender to make muoi ot, but the results don’t match the mortar and pestle, as blending doesn’t release the chili oils as effectively.