The most positive habit I’ve developed during the last couple of years living through a pandemic, is the proclivity for homemade versus store-bought. Case-in-point: this fiery chilli oil that is guaranteed to become your go-to condiment to liberally drizzle on everything from fried rice and noodles to your next avocado toast or grilled cheese toastie. The best part is that this homemade chilli oil is easily adaptable to your taste, as all you need to do is simply adjust the ingredients listed as per your preference, to recalibrate the flavours to your spice threshold!
Key Steps For Making This Recipe
- As a first step, we simmer a variety of spices and aromatics in oil for at least 20-30 minutes, in order for the flavours to fully infuse and impart their profile to the chilli oil.
- While the aromatics are simmering, we will gather together the base ingredients for the chilli oil in a heat-proof bowl. You will need:
- Chilli flakes
- Sesame seeds
- Garlic
- Pinch of salt
- Once the aromatics and spices have infused their flavour into the oil, we will strain them out and pour the strained oil (whilst it is still hot) over the chilli-garlic mixture.
- Finally, we can add a splash of soy sauce to the chilli oil and give it a good stir. Once it cools down, the chilli oil is best stored in an airtight container and can be refrigerated for up to 2-3 months.
Tips For Making The Best Homemade Chilli Oil
- Mise-en-place: Make sure all your ingredients are prepped and ready before you start the recipe. You will also require a heat-proof bowl to handle the heat of the hot oil poured over your chilli mixture.
- Neutral-flavoured oil: It is important to use an oil which does not have any flavour of its own, as otherwise it will overpower the flavours we are infusing into this oil! Examples of oils you can use include grape-seed oil and refined avocado oil.
- Recalibrate the chilli mixture: Feel free to adjust the suggested ingredients and their measurements according to your preferences and spice threshold, for instance adding less chilli if you don’t want your chilli oil too fiery and/or recalibrating the aromatics. You could also add more oil, if you plan on using the chilli oil as a base to cook other recipes such as fried eggs and noodles.
Tips For Serving This Chilli Oil
This is an incredibly versatile recipe and can be served as an accompaniment to any/ all of your favourite Asian-inspired dishes (my husband may or may not have just used this chilli oil as a dipping sauce for his kimchi grilled cheese!). Here are a few suggestions of recipes with which this chilli oil would be well-paired!
Homemade Chilli Oil
Ingredients
Aromatics for the oil
- 1 cup neutral flavoured oil
- 3-4 pieces of star anise
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 small knob of ginger (about 1 inch)
- 1 small onion, quartered
For the chilli mixture
- ½ cup chilli flakes
- 2-3 tbsp sesame seeds
- 2-3 small cloves of garlic, minced
- pinch of salt
- 1-2 tbsp finely-ground Sichuan peppercorns (optional)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce (optional)
Instructions
- Start by heating 1 cup of any neutral flavoured oil.
- Once the oil is hot (you can test this by inserting a wooden chopstick inside the oil, which should cause small bubbles at the surface), add the bay leaves, star anise, ginger and the onion
- Stirring occasionally, let these aromatics simmer in the oil for 20-30 minutes for the flavours to fully infuse. Then strain out the hot oil.
- Meanwhile in a heatproof bowl, gather together the chilli flakes, sesame seeds, minced garlic, ground Sichuan peppercorns (if adding) and a pinch of salt.
- Pour the hot infused oil over the spice mixture you’ve just prepared. Let it sizzle , then give it a stir and add the soy sauce.
- Store this chilli oil in an airtight container. Keep refrigerated for up to 2-3 months and enjoy a spoonful (or few!) over anything and everything!
Video
Enjoyed Making This Chilli Garlic Oil?
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