Homemade Chili Oil

There is nothing like growing your own, and or creating your own homemade version from scratch. Homemade chili oil is easy to make and can be customized to suit your taste profile. This oil is an infusion, where hot oil is poured over the dried chilis to steep and extract the flavor. To customize my chili I used Jamaican pimento berries. And I would have used a sprig or two of dried thyme if I had any on hand. This recipe can literally be made in 15 minutes and yields approximately 12oz.

Course Condiment

Cuisine Asian fusion

Keyword Aromatic oil, Chili oil, Oil, Oil infusion

Prep Time 20

Rest time 23 40

Total Time 1

Servings Servings

Calories 49kcal

Author Dr. Wendy Dearborne

Equipment

16oz mason jar or larger or a heat proof container sterile
Small sieve/ strainer sterile
Metal mixing spoon sterile

Ingredients

1.5 cups of cooking oil with a neutral taste avocado canola, peanut, vegetable etc.
2 whole star anise
1 stick cinnamon 2” long
2 whole cloves
2 medium bay leaves
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tsp Jamaican pimento berries
2 tbsp Sichuan pepper corns
4 green cardamom pods
1/2 cup of Asian chili powder I used 1/4 cup each of Thai chili flakes and Korean coarse chili flakes
2 tsp salt

Instructions

Heating the oil

Put cooking oil into a sauce pan over low heat. Bring temperature to 110°F
Put Asian chili powder into the mason jar along with salt and set aside.

Pan roasting aromatics

In a frying pan, over medium high heat, dry roast all the other ingredients until they begin to release a little wisps of fragrant smoke. Keep the aromatic moving in the pan at all times. This will prevent them from burning.

Steeping aromatic in oil

Add the hot pan roasted aromatics to the hot oil. Allow to gently simmer for 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Tiny bubbles will form around the aromatics. This is what you want.
You are not frying the aromatics. You are gently simmering them in hot oil. You will not hear the usual sizzle that is associated with frying. If the aromatics start to brown quickly and or change color dramatically, remove the pot from the heat and allow to cool. If the oil is too hot and cooling doesn't start immediately, add 1 tbsp of cooking oil to help with the process.
Turn off the heat and allow to steep and cool for 5 minutes.

Infusing chili peppers

Using the sterile sieve, strain the hot infused oil into the mason jar over chili powder and salt.
From the strained aromatics select 1 cardamom pod, 1 star anise, 1 bay leaf and the cinnamon stick. Put these into the jar with the infused oil, dried chili peppers and salt. Discard the strained out peppercorns, and other aromatics used.
With a sterile spoon, mix the hot infused oil well, saturating the chili powder and dissolving the salt.
Allow to cool completely before covering with a tight fitting lid. This will store for 8-12 months in your pantry.

Video

Notes

Setting up

Use a sterile jar, sieve and spoon to make your chili oil. And always use a clean spoon when removing oil from the jar. This will reduce the chance of contamination and spoilage.

Chili Peppers

The chili peppers that you purchase in the spice isle (put on pizza etc.) will not produce the authentic aromatic flavor profile, nor the deep rich amber your are looking oil. They are a different type of dried chilis. To make this recipe, need Asian chili powders. They can be found at your local Asian grocery stores or online. Below are links to Amazon where these can be purchased

Customizing Chili Oil

This is an oil infusion that requires dried ingredients. To customize my chili oil I used Jamaican pimento berries, also known as all spice berries. I would have used dried sprigs of thyme if I had any on hand. You can use dried ginger root slices, galangal root slices, which is similar to ginger. Lemongrass, toasted sesame seeds etc. Please stay away from anything that will impart moisture into your infusion as this can create spoilage issues. Any herbs and spices that you want to use to make your chili oil needs to be whole and dried with a dehydrator. In other words no finely ground powders; no onions, garlic fresh herbs etc.

Don't Be Confused

Finally, infused chili oil should not be confused with chili crisp oil, which is fried chili peppers, herbs and other aromatic ingredients as well as tofu, peanuts, roasted soy nuts even jerky etc.

Nutrition