Crispy chili oil; it is delicious, spicy and goes with so many different things. Use it for making a dressing, spicing up a fried egg or just sprinkle it on everything and anything. It’s the perfect spicy condiment.

Crispy chili oil

It’s my latest addiction. I use crispy chili oil on almost every single dish I make these days. Which is slightly insane, I know but it is soooo good. And it’s also pretty easy to make yourself at home. Now originally crispy chili oil is made by using soybeans. It’s apparently a recent invention and the original brand is LaoGanMa. Which is funny because that is actually exactly the brand you can find in the Dutch grocery stores. So this chili crunch is not the same, but it is a perfect and delicious alternative.

For making this chili crisp recipe I used unsalted peanuts, gochugaru, loads of garlic, onions and spices. Gochugaru is essentially a coarse kind of chili powder but you could substitute this with red pepper flakes.

How to make the crispy chili oil recipe

Obviously in order to make your own chili crisp you need something crispy. In this case it is the garlic, shallots and the peanuts that help in that respect. There are several other options and you can make this without the peanuts, but it’s a nice and crispy addition to the recipe.

You need two complete bulbs of garlic, so that does mean you have some serious slicing to do with all the garlic cloves. You need thin slices and if you have a food processor that can do that, it will make life easier. Heat the oil until it is hot enough and make sure you stay with the pan as it can quickly become too dark. And you don’t want it to get too dark. The garlic and fried shallots can get bitter if you do.

Once crisp and golden brown strain shallot mixture and let them dry on paper towels to crisp up. Keep the oil.

Heat-proof bowl

Now take a large heatproof bowl and mix the spices together. That would be the 5-spice, the sugar, miso, gochugaru and some salt. Chop the peanuts coarsely and add to the spice mix. Now heat the vegetable oil to about 180˚C (350˚F) and pour the hot oil over the spice mixture and stir well. When the oil is cooled to room temperature you can add the garlic and the shallots back in. Both the peanuts and the fried shallots and garlic will give the crunchy bits to the crisp oil.

You can store the crispy chili oil in a sterilized jar and keep it for at least a month. But I guarantee you it’s finished before that!

Additions and variations

As with all of these kinds of recipes there are endless variations out there and you can easily add flavor to your crispy chili oil. You can add some sichuan peppercorns, star anise, sesame seeds or let a cinnamon stick infuse some cinnamon flavor into the hot oil.

In terms of the oil, it is best to use a neutral oil like mild olive oil, sun flower oil or peanut oil. If you want more sesame flavor you can add a little bit of sesame oil to it as well. It is really one of my favorite condiments to use. The spicy flavors really life just about any dish.

How to use the crispy chili oil

Now that you’ve made your own crispy chili oil, you might be a little unsure as to how to use it. But there is no limit really to using this popular Chinese condiment. It’s delicious sprinkled on avocado toast. You can add a teaspoon to mayonnaise and create a spicy dressing. You can even sprinkle some over ice cream!