Pepper School

Huancaína sauce is Peru's iconic golden, creamy pepper sauce made with ají amarillo, queso fresco, and evaporated milk. Learn its origins, how to make it, and how to use it beyond papa a la huancaína.

Looking for an ají amarillo substitute? Here's the honest answer — nothing perfectly replaces it — plus the best approximations and the easiest way to get the real thing in the U.S.

If you have ever eaten at a Peruvian restaurant and found yourself trying to identify the flavor hiding in the sauce — that bright, fruity, warm-but-not-burning heat you could not quite name — you were tasting ají amarillo.