What chili oil do you use?

[Naftal]

Hello-  I enjoy cooking in a variety of Asian styles. And, I also enjoy hot/spicy dishes. So it should not come as a surprise that chili oil is a staple in my pantry. My current bottle was purchased at an Oriental grocery store. The bottle is from Taiwan. The only English on the bottle is a nutritional label that lists the ingredients as soybean oil and chili powder.

 

So, what chili oil do you use?

[ElainaA]

I make my own.

Elaina

[Lisa Shock]

I also make my own, I have a couple on hand each made from different types of peppers, some fresh some dried.

[Simon Lewinson]

I love the Lao Gan Ma hot Chilli oil. It is a great condiment as well, and goes well with mayo as a salad dressing. If you want less heat it can be diluted quite a bit.

Simon

[liuzhou]

I love the Lao Gan Ma hot Chilli oil. It is a great condiment as well, and goes well with mayo as a salad dressing. If you want less heat it can be diluted quite a bit.

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Simon

 

I tend to think of Lao gan ma as a chili sauce or paste rather than a chili oil. It comes in many varieties - all pastes.

See here.

 

 

Like others I usually make my own chili oil, but also have a backup bottle in the cupboard in case I forget. This one.

 

[weedy]

I put some chiles in the ISI Whip with some grapeseed or olive oil, and charge with 2 N2O chargers.

 

5 minutes later it's Chile Oil, with whatever chiles you like, and with more chile flavour than commercial brands or heat related methods.

[cave76]

I make my own and it's really simple.

 

I steep about 2 cups of red pepper flakes (can buy at Costco if can't find anywhere else.) in about 

4 cups of peanut oil. (But you could use Wesson (type) oil. Never olive oil.)

 

I always use a stainless pan. 

 

I let that steep (soak) for anywhere from a few hours to several days, depending.

 

Then I heat it up very slowly, stirring occasionally until the pepper flakes just barely start to turn a little darker. (Do NOT let them darken too much for then it will taste burnt. I use a flame tamer just to be extra cautious.)

 

Turn the heat off and let it cool. (I sometimes have let it stay in the pan for a day or more, depending...

 

I strain it through a chinoise type strainer. into a jar. (Several layers of cheesecloth would probably do the trick also.)

 

Another hot chili oil that I love is a Hunan type that has black beans, garlic, red pepper flakes in it. It's more complicated to make but worth the little bit of effort. My daughter always makes it for me so I'd have to dig around for the recipe.