Easy Homemade Chili oil- How to make it flavourful
Homemade chili oil, an essential item in my home kitchen. When I was younger I loved spicy food, the spicier the better. These days my stomach can’t handle too much spicy food. That doesn’t stop me from enjoying it though, I just need to eat it in moderation. I used to love putting raw hot peppers into my meals, but now I like putting a bit of chili oil in my meals. While there are a lot of different chili oils in stores, something about homemade just hits differently. It sure helps that it’s pretty simple to make and can be stored in the fridge with a long shelf life.
Chili oil, the perfect compliment
There are so many ways chili oil can be used. I like to put on noodles, wontons and also dipping sauce for dumplings or even hotpot!
You will find many chili oil recipe so it’s one of the most versatile condiments you can have. The ingredients can vary and you can remove based on your preference. Choosing types of chili flakes (if you are able to get multiple types ) will help to determine the spiciness. YES! There are different type of chili flakes with different spiciness level. The simplest recipe is with oil, salt and chili flakes. While this would work, I think chili oil should have more flavour just chili flavour.
My mom would make her own chili oil. She would sometimes complain that she burnt the chili oil and it would taste bitter. I remember her saying her oil temperature is too high so she ended up burning the chili and it would taste bitter.
Then what is the secret to a flavourful chili oil?
If there is anything to take away from this post is that you need to: 1. infuse the oil 2. do everything at a low temperature. The key to actually getting good and delicious chili oil is infusing the oil with vegetables and spices at low temperature. The highest heat I will use is medium and that’s when I’m heating the oil up for the first time. Not only this will help to extract flavour of the ingredients it also prevents burning. If you burn the ingredients, you will have a bitter tasting oil. In addition, low temperature means that there are less splatter which also means less mess.
It may take some patience but it’s well worth the time to heat the oil slowly. The final result is a flavourful and delicious chili oil. It’s a perfect compliment to all your favourite dishes.
For this recipe, I’m going to be using Korean chili flakes: coarse and fine. This will give you a slightly spicy chili oil but definitely flavourful.
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups of neutral oil (don’t use olive oil!)
Vegetables
- 2 green onions cut into 2 inch pieces
- 1/4 red onion
- 2 inch of a carrot (cut into slices)
- 1 stalk of celery
- 1 stalk of cilantro
- 2 slices of ginger (0.5cm thick)
Spice mix
- 1ยฝ tsp Sichuan peppercorn
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 star anise
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- โ cinnamon stick
- 9-10 crushed dry red chilis (optional)
Chili
- 2ยฝ tbsp coarse Korean chili flakes
- 2 tbsp fine Korean chili flakes
- 2 tbsp white sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp black Chinese vinegar
- salt to season (optional- I don’t add it because I usually season the food and then add the chili oil)
Ingredients substitutions for chili oil
For anyone who is allergic to sesame or simply don’t like it, just omit it. While sesame seeds adds a nutty flavour to the chili oil, it’s not necessary. What you can do is to take a little bit longer when infusing your oil with the veggies by leaving them in oil longer
You can also add some crushed dry chilis and this can be found in most Asian grocery stores. I recommend using a food chopper or processor to blend them. Add them in along with your other spices. This will give you some heat.
What about the left over veggies you fried?
You might be wondering what about the veggies we used to infused the oil, do we throw it out? NO! you can use it in your dumplings or even into your meatballs. Take the veggies and strain out any of the excess oil, then grind them up and put with ground meat (pork preferably). Then you can make dumplings with it, soooo good!
How to make Chili oil
- Cut all the vegetables into large pieces (green onions, onions, carrots, celery, cilantro)
- Grind up all the spices into a powder.
- In a bowl add in coarse chili flakes, fine chili flakes, and white sesame, add about 1 tbsp of black Chinese vinegar. Mix
- Pour the oil into a pot and turn to medium. Add in all the vegetables.
- Fry until the vegetables are wilted and turn slightly yellow. It should take 15-20 minutes. You should be able to smell the vegetable flavour in the oil
- Take out the vegetables. Turn the heat off.
- Add in the spice mix. There should be some bubbling. Turn the heat to low for about 1 minute and then remove from heat.
- Put a couple ladle of hot oil onto the chili flakes. Then pour rest of the oil into the chili flakes.
- Add in the rest of vinegar.
- Make sure it’s fully cooled (this will also help with the infusing the oil) before storing in an air tight container or jar. This recipe is enough to fill 500ml jar with a bit extra.
- Store in the fridge. It can last 6 months or more. Use a clean spoon to avoid contamination and spoiling the oil.
Pro-tip
- Don’t try to heat the oil up too quickly. Heat oil on medium and turn to low when frying or even the heat off.
- The oil retains a lot of the heat so even if you turn off the heat, it will still fry your ingredients. Do this when you are adding the sesame seeds, ground up spices and chili flakes
- If you don’t have all the spices, substitute with 1.5 tbsp of five spice powder with bay leaves. The recipe asks for two types of chili powder, if you don’t have both, try to get more the coarse chili flakes.
- Turning the heat on and off is to keep the oil temperature consistent (watch for the bubbling, if there is too much, heat is too high) without burning all of your ingredients.
Other recipes to check out
- Homemade Chili Sauce (Spicy!)
- Homemade Easy Caramel sauce
- Onion infused oil-2 ingredients and simple to make!
Homemade Chili Oil
Equipment
- 1 heavy bottom pan
Ingredients
- 1ยฝ cup vegetable oil
Vegetables
- 2 green onions cut into 2 in pieces
- ยผ red onion
- 2 inch carrots cut into slices
- 1 stalk of cilantro
- 1 stalk celery cut into 2 in pieces
- 2 slices of ginger 1/4 in thick
Spice mix*
- 1ยฝ tsp Sichuan peppercorn
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 star anise
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- โ cinnamon stick
- handful dry chili crushed (10-15) optional
Chili
- 2ยฝ tbsp coarse Korean chili flakes
- 2 tbsp fine Korean chili flakes
- 2 tbsp white sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp Black Chinese vinegar
- salt to season optional
Instructions
Prepping spices and vegetable for chili oil
- Cut all the vegetables into large pieces (green onions, onions, carrots, celery, cilantro)
- Grind up all the spices into a powder.
- In a bowl add in coarse chili flakes, fine chili flakes, and white sesame, add about 1 tbsp of black Chinese vinegar. Mix
Infusing oil
- Pour the oil into a pot and turn to medium. Add in all the vegetables.
- Fry until the vegetables are wilted and turn slightly yellow. It should take 15-20 minutes. You should be able to smell the vegetable flavour in the oil
- Take out the vegetables. Turn the heat off.
- Add in the spice mix. There should be some bubbling. Turn the heat to low for about 1 minute and then remove from heat.
Making the chili oil
- Put a couple ladle of hot oil onto the chili flakes. Then pour rest of the oil into the chili flakes.
- Add in the rest of vinegar.
- Make sure it’s fully cooled (this will also help with the infusing the oil) before storing in an air tight container or jar. This recipe is enough to fill 500ml jar with a bit extra.
- Store in the fridge. It can last 6 months or more. Use a clean spoon to avoid contamination and spoiling the oil.
