Name: How to make chili oil
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 1
Cuisine: Chinese/Indo Chinese
Ingredients: 1 cup oil (any oil that you use for cooking); 1 tbsp red chili powder; 1 tbsp crushed red chili flakes

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Giddy up folks, in this post I am going to blabber a bit about my favorite condiment, The chili oil and where to use it.

If you are brown person, or…just generally a person, you already know and love Chinese food. I mean, I have had my share of disagreements with Burgers and Pizzas, but I have yet to meet a soul who doesn’t like Chinese food! (And..if you are here…I am assuming you aren’t that soul either)

So, Chili oil is an aromatic, spicy, staple when it comes to Chinese/Sichuan cooking. Its a condiment made with chili peppers and of course, oil. It adds that really bold flavor to Asian food. If you are familiar with Indo-Chinese cuisines, then you know this oil is a must in your house!

Click here if you wanna gather some more intel about this awesome oil.

But Chinese cuisines isn’t the only place this oil comes in handy. In fact, this oil makes a lot of appearances in many of recipes and foods. It just adds that character to otherwise seemingly boring food. One of the popular recipes on the blog, called Dragon Chicken, is also made with chili oil.

Where can you use Chili oil?

If you are new to cooking, or new to Chinese style of cooking, fear not, here’s a list of ways you can introduce Chili oil to your cooking:

Let’s start with the obvious shall we? Use it in Chinese and Indo-Chinese Cuisine
Add a tsp of chili oil to Marination of all kinds
Use it as an oil rub for baking fries or veggies.
Just drop spoonfuls on top of eggs
Drizzle it over your regular salads and bring some heat to it.
Add it to your pastas
Use it to make these Saucy Meatballs
Use the oil while making dips for nachos!
Blend a little chili oil while making hummus and make a kick-ass hummus dip
And last but not the least, use as the basic oil for regular curries too!

It’s literally a 10 minutes recipe guys! Once you’ve made this oil, it is definitely going on your shelf of permanent condiments!

3 INGREDIENT CHILI OIL

Here are the only 3 things you’ll need to prep this condiment.

HOW TO PREPARE THE OIL

Heat Oil in a wok/pan at high flame, like you would do for deep frying. Once the oil is all heated up, turn the flame off.

how to make chili oil — Add the red chili powder

Now stir the oil a little bit and then we are going to let the oil cool down. Once it comes to room temperature, cover it and let it sit overnight to get a really nice chili infusion situation going on.

straining chilies in a strainer to get chili oil — After about 12 hours or more, strain your oil in a glass jar

Some recipes and chefs prefer leaving the chili bits in the oil for as long as they store it. I personally prefer the clear oil because I don’t add the emulsion of peppers in my cooking. It’s totally up to you to strain and store, or store the oil as it is.

Now that you have your jar of liquid heat ready, you are ready to conquer Chinese cuisines! Or just use it in the ways mentioned above! Here’s a kick-ass Dragon chicken recipe that you make using Chili oil!

Or you could improvise, and use this oil to make these awesome pasta recipes.

Make Chili oil in 10 minutes