This homemade chili garlic oil recipe is easy to make and adds a very flavorful kick to any dish. A great recipe for chili oil that can be used for cooking or as a condiment!
You will always try to use this garlic chili oil in your favorite savory dish once you try it! It happens every time I make a batch of this homemade chili oil. We thoroughly enjoy dumping a spoonful of this on gyoza. That shows how much we love it!
Chili oil sauce is a popular seasoning in Asian cuisine. Adding chili oil to a dish gives it a unique, spicy flavor. Dumplings, pizza, chicken, veggies, pasta, and noodles are just a few of the treats we tried this chili oil recipe on. You might already be familiar with this well-loved dipping sauce because you’ve seen it in restaurants. Now, you can make it at home!
Chili Oil On Filipino Food
Filipinos enjoy this condiment as much as their Asian neighbors. It’s a must-have when eating siomai or fried noodles. But you don’t have to stop there because you can also use chili oil on these:
Arroz caldo – Rice porridge with tender chicken, boiled eggs, and topped with toasted garlic. This Filipino chicken porridge is the ultimate comfort food!
Tokwa’t Baboy – Made with boiled pork cuts, tofu cubes fried to perfection and then poured over with a sauce mixture of vinegar, soy sauce, onions, and chili peppers.
Lumpiang Shanghai or Filipino spring rolls – Spring rolls that is crispy-crackly outside with juicy pork, onion, and carrot filling.
Notes On Ingredients
Oil – The prominent ingredient of this recipe. Ideally, using neutral oil that is flavorless like vegetable oil, canola oil, peanut, soybean, avocado oil or grapeseed oil works best. You can adjust the amount of oil depending on the aromatics you are adding. You can add-in sesame oil too but that depends on personal preference.
Garlic – I like it more garlicky but you can adjust depending on your personal taste or even skip if you like. The garlic needs to be finely minced to achieve the texture of the sauce that we are familiar with.
Chili – Grinded dried chili or red chili flakes can be used in this recipe. You’ll also need Korean pepper flakes which is optional but highly recommended.
Spices – There are essential aromatic spices that are needed to make chili garlic oil. You will need star anise, Sichuan peppercorn, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. These give the dish its mouth-watering aroma.
Salt – Enhances the flavors of the aromatic spices.
Additional ingredients -Sugar, ginger, soy sauce are add-ins that boost and balances the taste of the dish.
How To Make Chili Oil
Personally, I find making chili oil straight-forward. It does need some attention to safety because hot oil is involved. I have broken down the process in a couple of steps that are easy to follow.
If you are using dried chili, pass it through a food processor first until crushed and coarse-fine in texture. Place dry ingredients in a bowl like crushed chili, Korean pepper flakes, Sichuan pepper, brown sugar, and salt including the minced garlic.
In a cooking pot, pour the oil and tip in the cinnamon stick, star anise, ginger, and bay leaves. Turn the stove top on to medium-high heat. Let it cook for 3-4 minutes or until aromatic. Stir occasionally to avoid ingredients from burning.
When the oil and spices are in the last stages of cooking, pour the soy sauce in the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated.
Take the pot with hot oil using oven mittens or pot holders. Carefully and slowly pour the hot oil through a strainer onto the bowl with chili flakes. You’ll notice that the mixture will sizzle and immediately stir to evenly distribute the heat of the oil and avoid the ingredients from burning. Continue stirring until the oil settles down and let it sit in room temperature until totally cooled.
Cooking Tips
If you want to use fresh red chilis, pass it in a food processor first until minced then cook together with the other until the chilies become dark.
Ideally, the oil should be between 225-250° F (110-120° C) when pouring over the chili flakes. So a kitchen thermometer will come in handy if you want to be precise.
Crushed dried chili or chili flakes will sizzle with small bubbles at first when pouring the hot oil and gets larger as you continue pouring. Pour in a consistent flow to avoid oil splatters.
Stir the oil mixture as soon as the hot oil is poured to avoid burning the chili and getting a bitter, burn taste.
Use oven mittens when handling the pot of hot oil to avoid injury.
How to Serve And Store
Once cooled down, serve as a condiment to your favorite dishes or salad.
Store cooled down chili oil in a mason jar with lid then place in the fridge and will last for 2 weeks.
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Chili Garlic Oil
This homemade chili garlic oil recipe is easy to make and adds a very flavorful kick to any dish. A great recipe for chili oil that can be used for cooking or as a condiment!
