Chili Oil

Adding Chili Oil to your dishes can elevate them to a new level adding a burst of aromatics, spice, and flavor. The benefits of making homemade chili oil are you can play around with different infusions and types of Chiles you use and control the amount of heat, resulting anywhere from burning hot to mild, depending on your preferences. 

There are wide varieties of chili peppers in the world. To list a few, the mildest Anaheim Chili provides a touch of smoke and spice. The Cascabel Chili is gentle and used in the Mexican chili oil sauce for the ever-trending Birria tacos. Ancho Chilies have medium spice and are used in making Adobo sauce. Chipotle peppers have spicy and smoky flavors. Everyone loves an excellent chipotle ranch dressing. Bird's eye chilies should be used sparingly, as these are one of the hottest and used in Asian cuisine, especially Thai dishes. Korean red chilies are spicy and used to make the famous Korean dish Gochugaru. Finally, the last one is used for this chili oil Sichuan chilies. They look similar to Italian chili flakes but are smaller, providing a richer flavor and a deep red color for chili oil. 

We're using a Chinese-style chili oil recipe by infusing star anise, cloves, shallots, and garlic into neutral vegetable oil, then pouring the hot bubbling oil over the Sichuan chili flakes adding toasted sesame oil, salt, and sesame seeds to the finished chili oil. Toss this oil with your favorite noodle dish, add it to fried rice or stir-fry or use it as a dipping sauce for dumplings.

It keeps in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 months and gets better with age. So soon, you'll add your favorite chili oil infusion to everything you can get your hands on.