Chili Crisp Recipe in 10 min | Easy Homemade Chili Crunch | Best (2024)

FAQs

What makes chili crunch crunchy? ›

For those with nut allergies, however, keep in mind that the crunch in chili crunch is often due to chopped pieces of peanuts or seeds. If you have dietary preferences you need to accommodate, chili crisp, with its pieces of fried garlic and an abundance of chili flakes, can help turn up the heat of your recipes.

Combine chile flakes with peanuts, ginger, star anise, cardamom, Sichuan peppercorn, mushroom powder, sugar, salt, cumin, MSG (if using), and black pepper.

To substitute, you can use red pepper flakes instead. Gochujang (コチュジャン) – this is a fermented chili paste popular in Korean cooking. Gochujang is a great condiment to use for savory, spicy and slightly sweet flavors. It's sold in any Asian supermarket or online.

As one of many Trader Joe's superfans, I was particularly excited when I found out about their version of chili crisp, called Crunchy Chili Onion. It's not spicy compared to common chili crisps, such as Fly By Jing's, but it is textured and filled with lots of crispy bits.

Chili crisp is a condiment consisting of oil infused with peppers and other flavorful, often crispy, crunchy ingredients. It is also sometimes called “chili crunch,” “chili oil” and “chili sauce,” with crunches and crisps tending to have a higher ratio of crispy bits to oil (though not always).

The Momof*cku Chili Crunch explicitly states to refrigerate the product after opening the jar, however, Lao Gan Ma makes no indication of where to store it. Jing Gao's Fly By Jing jars read “Store in a cool, dry place. For best results, refrigerate after opening.”

Chili crisp is an infused oil condiment that usually contains crunchy, flavorful bits of peppers, onions or scallions, garlic and other aromatics. “Chili crisp,” “chili oil and “chili sauce” can often be used interchangeably, but generally what differentiates chili crisp is the ratio of crispy bits to oil.

Lao Gan Ma's chili crisp has all of that, plus a big dollop of MSG. Monosodium glutamate has become a modernist-cuisine addition now, as opposed to the feared additive it was decades ago. Basically, it's the umami flavor. A funky, addictive part of the taste spectrum.

The condiment is made by infusing Chinese peppers and chili flakes in neutral oil and then mixing it with fermented soybeans and fried garlic or onions. It's spicy with the texture of crispy bacon bits.

Chili crisp or chile crisp (Chinese: 香辣脆; pinyin: Xiāng là cuì) is a type of hot sauce, originating from Chinese cuisine, made with fried chili pepper and other aromatics infused in oil, sometimes with other ingredients. Multiple regional, homemade, and restaurant-original versions exist across China.

Does chili crisp go bad? ›

Spoilage isn't really a concern here. It's not particularly likely (though it is possible) for chili crisp to go bad and actually become unsafe to eat. This is believed to be, in part, due to the natural antimicrobial properties of chili.

The best oil for making chili oil

Since you're cooking the oil at high temperature, you can use oils such as corn oil, canola oil, teaseed oil, or peanut oil. These oils are also known as neutral oils, which means they don't impart strong flavors.

Tien Tsin peppers are the traditional ingredient in Szechuan dishes, and is the most common pepper used for chili crisp from what I have heard. I think fresnos and cayennes could also work in a pinch, since other ingredients are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to flavor.

With Momof*cku Chili Crunch, we're proud to join this incredible tradition of crunchy-spicy sauces from around the world. We spent years tinkering and experimenting in our kitchens in order to create a chili oil that reflects all of our various inspirations and speaks to our specific tastes.

Be sure to avoid using polenta or coarse-ground cornmeal. It has a larger grain that's great for baked goods like cornbread, but it won't dissolve properly in the chili and adds a gritty texture. Also avoid dry cornbread mixes, which may contain other ingredients like flour and sugar.

The powdery, gritty taste is most likely from the chili powder. Apparently at many processing plants, the dried chilies are ground whole, with stems, seeds, and all. The stems and seeds never break down completely, and they leave many commercial chili powders with a sandy texture.