Here is a tried and tested homemade chilli oil recipe. Drizzle it over your favourite dishes for a spicy and flavourful kick.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
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Instagram Viral Chilli Oil
This Chili Oil recipe hack has been Instagram’s most trending and popular since 2022. It is oddly satisfying to watch, easy to try at home, and borderline addictive once you taste it. You will end up drizzling it over anything and everything.
Chilli Oil is a spicy, garlicky, vegetarian Asian sauce—also known as chilli crisp. It is a traditional Chinese condiment served as a dipping sauce for dim sum, bao, and other main dishes.
Over the years, like other Chinese dishes, the chilli oil recipe popularity reached worldwide.
Why You Should Make it at Home
- no artificial colour or flavours
- great edible gift
- easy to make
- gluten-free
- no MSG
- vegan
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Chilli Flakes or crushed dried red chillies. You can blend dried red chillies in a food processor to get flakes.
- Chilli Powder: If you can get Gochujang chilli powder, nothing like it. Or use Kashmiri red chilli powder for that bright red colour and medium spicy flavour.
- Garlic: You need finely minced garlic. Many chilli oil recipes suggest garlic powder, but that won’t give you the crispy bits of garlic.
- Oil: Use sesame, peanut, or any other flavourless refined oil. Do not use overpowering oil like mustard or coconut oil.
- Whole Spices: Bay Leaf, Black Peppercorns, Star Anise, Cinnamon
- Fresh Ginger Slices to flavour the oil.
- Sesame Seeds add a delicious crunch to the oil.
- White Granulated Sugar or brown sugar gives a caramelised taste and balances the heat of red chilli.
- Lemon Zest and Juice, Salt
How To Make Chilli Oil
Step 1: Take a wide, heat-proof bowl, preferably steel, stoneware, or thick ceramic.
Step 2: Combine chilli flakes, garlic, powder, salt, and sugar in the heat-proof bowl (image 1).
Step 3: In a saucepan, add oil, whole spices, and ginger slices—heat oil to 180 degrees F (approx 80 degrees C). In simpler words, the oil should be ready for deep frying, and the aroma of spices should release. Ensure it is not fuming or smoking, or chilli flakes will burn.
Step 4: Remove the whole spices from the hot oil using a slotted spoon or a pair of tongs. You can also filter the oil to get rid of whole spices (image 3).
Step 5: Carefully and cautiously pour the hot oil over the chilli mix in a heat-proof bowl (image 4). Keep the bowl at a safe distance from your eyes.
Step 6: Mix the chilli oil with a big spoon. Once it cools down a bit, add lemon zest and juice. Mix one last time and allow it to cool completely. Store it in an airtight container or use it right away.
Serving Suggestion
Chilli Oil is a versatile Asian condiment. You can drizzle it over chicken noodle soup, dim sum, dumplings, crispy tofu, smashed cucumber salad, ramen noodles, or fried eggs.
Use it as a stir-fry sauce for chilli oil noodles, pasta dishes, fried rice, or tofu stir fry.
My Tried and True Tips
- You can use most types of vegetable oil, though a neutral, flavourless or complimenting flavour oil like sesame, canola or peanut is ideal for highlighting the chilli pepper flavour.
- I do not recommend oils with more robust flavours, such as olive oil, coconut oil, or mustard oil, as they overpower the taste of chilli oil.
- Do not let your oil smoke; it can burn your chilli flakes and spices, resulting in a bitter flavour and black oil.
- If you do not have a temperature thermometer, you can test it by adding a tiny pinch of chilli flakes to the hot oil. It is ready when the flakes sizzle.
- Homemade chilli oil can last for 2-3 months when stored in an airtight container in a cool dark place at room temperature and even longer in the refrigerator.
- You can increase the shelf life of chilli oil by keeping it away from moisture and water. Use a clean, dry spoon to scoop it out each time.
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Homemade Chilli Oil Recipe
- Saucepan
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoon red chilli flakes
- 2 tablespoon Kashmiri red chilli powder or the Gochujang chilli powder
- 2 tablespoon finely minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds (til)
- 2 teaspoon sea salt or table salt
- 2 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 Cup sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns (sabut kali mirch)
- 1 cinnamon stick (dal chini)
- 1 bay leaf (tej patta)
- 2 ginger slices
- 2 star anise (phool chakri)
Instructions
- Take a wide, heat-proof bowl, preferably steel, stoneware, or any other bowl that does not break while pouring the hot oil.
- Combine chilli flakes, garlic, powder, salt, and sugar in a heat-proof bowl.
- In a saucepan, add oil, whole spices, and ginger slices—heat oil to 180 degrees F (approx 80 degrees C). In simpler words, the oil should be ready for deep frying, and the aroma of spices should release. Ensure it is not fuming or smoking, or chilli flakes will burn.
- Remove the whole spices from the hot oil using a slotted spoon or a pair of tongs. You can also filter the oil to get rid of whole spices. You can leave the black peppercorns in the oil itself.
- Carefully and cautiously pour the hot oil over the chilli mix in a heat-proof bowl. Keep the bowl at a safe distance from your eyes.
- Mix the chilli oil with a big spoon. Once it cools down a bit, add lemon zest and juice. Mix one last time and allow it to cool completely.
- Store chilli oil in an airtight container or use it right away.
Recipe Notes:
- Make sure the oil is rightly heated before pouring over the dry ingredients. It should not be lukewarm or mildly hot.
- Instead of lemon juice, you can add rice vinegar or Chinese vinegar.
- You can flavour the chilli oil with a teaspoon of light soy sauce, fish sauce, or Schezuan Chilli Peppers.
Nazish Amir says
Good recioe