(June crunching)
(June coughing)
(beep)
- The year is 2022,
and we are fascinated with chili oil and chili crisp.
It is starting to pop up everywhere,
there are so many brands making it,
and they are probably all delicious.
But the question is, can you make it at home?
If you've watched at least two episodes of "Budget Eats,"
you probably know the answer.
Yes, you can make it at home.
Yes, I've made chili oil before.
Yes, there are different ways to make it,
and today we're gonna explore exactly
what those different ways are.
Are y'all ready to get spicy?
So the first thing you might be wondering is
what is chili oil?
I think when it comes down to it,
chili, plus oil, it's chili oil.
But if you just take chili, cut it up, add it to oil,
that flavor won't really infuse.
You won't really get much of the spiciness,
or the fragrance.
Plus, the red color that you're looking for
just isn't gonna be there.
Now, one way you can force that infusion is through time.
Just let it sit forever and ever
until it kind of just leaks into the oil.
But if you're in a rush, grab a pot, apply some heat.
So the first way to make chili oil,
especially when you're using fresh,
moisture laden ingredients like fresh chilies
is to simmer and low fry.
By heating up the oil slowly with these ingredients,
you are basically extracting that flavor out,
intensifying the color into the oil,
and marrying them together into chili oil.
As the oil heats up, the chilies get nice and toasty.
The color should still be somewhat red,
but it won't be as vibrant.
If you're using fresh chilies
and you want to make a chili crisp,
you're gonna have to cook them low and slow long
enough to drive off all the moisture
before they can crispify.
I aim for a temperature of 250 to 275 degrees Fahrenheit
so that we're not burning anything,
so that it's cooking nice and slow.
But if you don't have a thermometer,
it might take a little bit of trial and error.
Instead, what you'll want to be looking for is mild,
gentle bubbling activity, nothing too drastic,
nothing too burning.
As your chili cooks,
you'll start to see it become translucent.
This method tends to be less colorful as a result,
and the flavor isn't quite spicy punchy either,
so your mileage may vary depending on your chilies and oil.
When you're cooking with fresh moisture-related ingredients,
listen...
(chilies sizzling)
You should start to hear little sizzles,
and once they start dying down a little bit,
that's when you know it's ready to be pulled off the heat.
Keep your heat super low.
Keep an eye on the pot,
and especially observe the color of the seeds.
Once they start turning golden, be careful.
Give it a nice, good stir every once in a while
to make sure everything's cooking evenly.
Depending on your desired spice level,
you can vary the amounts of chili to oil.
Here, I have about a half cup of oil
to about a quarter cup of freshly chopped chilies.
Depending on the amount of chilies you have in your pot,
your process may take anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes.
I don't hear much anymore, and just like popcorn,
it's time to come off the stove.
I'm gonna let this pot cool off a little bit,
and we can pour it into a jar and give it a taste.
(liquid splashing)
Now, really the only difference between chili oil
and chili crisp is the crispy part and the oily part.
They are basically essentially the same recipe,
just different portions of it.
If you want more crisp, use more chilies.
Now, I think we all know I am not the spice
head of the household,
but for science, I will do this for you.
(June crunching)
(June coughs)
(gentle music)
(June slurping)
(June sighing)
- For sure, very spicy.
(June chuckling)
And it does have a very nice toasty flavor to it,
but I'm gonna add a little bit of MSG and salt,
because flavor.
No need to be precious with it,
just however much you think you need.
(wood tool tapping)
Remember that after all, this is a condiment,
so you do want it to have some sort of saltiness.
Just wanna make sure you give it a nice, good stir,
so that it starts melting in that hot oil.
To taste test the chili oil portion of this,
I'm going to put it over rice,
because the first taste was not pleasant.
My 33 year old stomach is gonna hate me today.
As you can see, the oil is not very vibrant on its own,
barely colored, just slightly golden hue, but...
Smells good.
Even with just salt and MSG, the chili,
fire across my tongue.
Starting to feel the heat.
Absolutely deliciously painful first trial.
Let's move on to our second method, shall we?
The second method, which might be the more popular one,
is the pour over and shock fry method.
This involves bringing your oil close to its smoking point,
letting it cool a little bit,
and then pouring it over your spice mix,
including your chilies.
The process doesn't take very long,
but it does require a little bit of patience.
Now, at this point,
if you don't know if your jar is heat proof,
go ahead and just make this in a bowl.
Either way, just be safe.
For me, the best option is a stainless steel bowl.
(tapping on metal)
Durable, unbreakable, perfect for the job.
The second method is more suitable
for mostly dry ingredients.
So in a large jar,
I'm gonna go ahead and dump in my chili flakes.
I'm gonna add in my salt and my MSG.
To add a little pizzazz to our second round,
I'm gonna add in some sesame seeds,
and then we're gonna heat up our oil.
I pour the oil into the pot, turn the heat onto a medium,
and I let it heat, swirling ever so often.
You don't have to reach all the way to the smoke point,
just right under it, around 375 or 400 is perfect.
Pull it off the heat,
let it cool for about three minutes or so
so that it won't burn through everything.
Now, what's the point of heating it up
and then letting it cool down?
Well, there is a purpose.
In a way, you're essentially toasting the oil.
You're getting rid of any raw tastes,
and you're giving it that extra nuttiness layer.
You don't wanna use it right when it's super hot,
because you will end up burning your chili oil,
however, heating it up and letting it cool
will ensure that you have extra nuttiness in your chili oil.
This process can be as precise
or imprecise as you want it to be.
Just note that the more things you have in your jar
that you're pouring this oil into,
the more they will decrease that temperature immediately.
So, more ingredients can tolerate a higher temperature
of oil going in,
less ingredients, more likely to burn.
At the end of the 3 minutes,
your oil should be about 375 to 400.
If it dips below 350,
you won't see any vigorous bubbling action,
meaning your chilies didn't really get fully toasted.
Your flavors won't be fully extracted.
So, really try to hit that golden spot,
and then you are set to pour that straight
into your heatproof jar or bowl,
and let it sizzle on through.
Go slow, go gradual, and do it in parts.
Pouring the oil in one straight shot
will lead to a lot of uneven heating and cooking.
Parts of your chili will burn.
The other parts won't even touch the oil at first,
so I would pour in a little bit,
let it cool off, swirl it, pour in the rest.
You want to make sure you're using a vessel
that is three to four times as much as your oil is
so that it has room to grow and foam.
When the oil hits, you should smell the fragrance
coming out of that jar or bowl,
and if you don't, oil wasn't hot enough.
Which isn't to say you won't make chili oil,
this one's just a little bit better with more action.
Let this baby cool completely before you use it,
because one, you don't wanna burn yourself,
and two, the chilies won't get completely crispy
until this whole thing is cold.
If your oil temperature is under,
your chili oil will smell more like oil than chili.
I think you can tell right away
that this method yields a more colorful oil
with a lot more fragrance in it.
Time for a taste test.
Gonna taste the crisp portion first.
(June crunching)
Yes.
(June inhaling deeply)
Still very spicy,
like incredibly so.
Building the flavor, building the heat.
It's delicious.
You ever feel so spiced,
your entire body just goes down in chills?
This, invigorating.
For me, sesame seeds are a must have in chili oil,
and these, these definitely add...
Wrecked.
This is what it feels like to be in your thirties.
Just painfully delicious.
Up next, variations on the pain.
So, what are the best oils to use when making chili oil?
Go for neutral.
You wanna go for oils that have a higher smoking point,
like vegetable or canola.
My personal favorites include peanut,
sunflower, and grape seed.
And you really ought to stay away
from ones that have very low smoking points,
like flax seed, nut oils, and toasted sesame.
Not only will they burn easily,
they also have stronger flavors,
which might interfere a little bit
with what you're going for.
That being said, one of the best batches of chili oil
I've ever made was on an episode of "Budget Eats,"
where I used chicken schmaltz,
so I'm not here to say you can't experiment
with things like olive oil and coconut oil,
but just know that the more refined the oil,
the safer you are in terms of not burning stuff.
So, what kind of chilies can you use in chili oil?
Well, that depends on what you're going for.
There are a ton of choices,
especially if you go to an Asian super grocery store.
They have whole chilies, ground chilies.
They have flake chilies.
They have threaded chilies.
If you want your end result to be vibrant, red in color,
you wanna go for a vibrant red pepper.
I would recommend that you avoid
using completely ground powdered chilies,
because these will burn way faster.
Likewise for any flavors you're adding, if they're ground,
they probably will burn.
If you do plan on adding spices beyond just chilies,
I would recommend you start with whole,
and then crush them down to smaller sizes manually.
And when it comes down to it,
you can use whatever chilies you want to make chili crisp.
Is it gonna be authentic chili crisp?
Probably not, but is it gonna be chili crisp?
Yeah.
You got Mexican chilies, you can probably use them.
Never tried it before, but we can.
Chinese chilies probably would work,
and I just happened to have a lot of bird's eye chilies,
because I was working on a Thai recipe,
and I have them left over.
For a darker color and a roastier flavor,
you can also dehydrate them in the oven.
Once they're dried, crush them up by hand.
I've also seen some pieces say
you should not use crushed red chili pepper flakes,
and you know what?
They're not that potent, but you can still make chili crisp
with just ubiquitous crushed red chili pepper flakes.
Won't be the best chili oil you've ever had,
but it's chili oil at the end of the day.
I think we all know by now that the seeds and the membranes
inside chilies are what give you the most heat,
so if you're processing them by yourself,
you can remove some of these.
The outside is what gives you flavor and color,
and the inside is what gives you fire.
When it comes to making chili oil and chili crisp,
you can add in so many different spices.
It's all dependent on what you want.
For me, I think Citron peppercorn is a non-negotiable,
so I always add a little bit of this.
Salt and MSG, obviously to season it.
Sesame and peanuts for nuttiness and crunch and texture,
as well as garlic and ginger.
I like to give them peel, a smash, and mince.
The moisture inside this will coat your dry ingredients
and prevent that scorching,
but if you have dehydrated versions on hand,
you're more than welcome to use them,
just maybe stir them in toward the end
of that heating process so that they don't burn.
A lot of variations exist,
some people like to use cinnamon, star anise,
and even fermented black beans.
For our next batch,
I'm gonna cut up some of these Mexican chilies
that I have on hand.
We're gonna add our salt.
We're gonna add our MSG.
We're also gonna go in with peanuts and cumin,
along with some dried garlic and dried onions.
We're gonna give them a mix, and then we'll heat up our oil
because we have way more stuff in this jar this time,
I'm not too afraid of using the oil
right when it comes off the heat.
Same rule as before still applies though,
when we're pouring in the oil,
go slow, go gradual,
and give it a stir before you go in
with the rest of the oil.
I think you can really see how the pepper's colors
affect the final oil color.
This one is a lot duller.
Nowhere near as red.
It has more of a bronzy brown color.
Smells so good.
Unfortunately, I do believe some of our smaller
garlic pieces burnt, which means probably should have
added them later after the oil had cooled down
in the jar a little bit more, but mistakes were made.
We learn, we move on.
Because I'm a little sick of rice,
I think for this one, I'm going to butter a bun,
and lay this on top.
I don't think I've ever been as excited
for buttered toast before.
Holy...
Oh my God.
The natural sweetness of the bun and the unctuousness
of the butter sliding against that textured chili crisp,
this is the perfect bite.
Everything kind of neutralizes.
I'm not in pain.
There is still flavor, taste the crunchy onions and garlic,
tasted cumin seeds,
and the peanuts are perfectly toasted.
If I were to make this oil again,
I would say just toast the bigger chilies with the peanuts,
and then stir in the garlic, onion, and other stuff
once that oil's a little bit cooler.
Lesson learned.
I don't think this batch is as spicy as the previous ones,
but that makes sense, because we were using
Thai Birdseye chilies in the previous ones.
However, the flavor, unbeatable.
super smoky, super smooth.
There is different depths,
'cause we used three different peppers.
All in all, a victory.
For my classic chili oil,
I like to mince up one inch knob of ginger,
along with three clothes of garlic.
I use about a quarter cup of ground chilies,
or crushed, one tablespoon of citron pepper corns,
one tablespoon of white sesame seeds,
or two if you're feeling nutty.
Going in with half a teaspoon of MSG,
half a teaspoon of salt.
Although now that we put cumin in our Mexican chili oil,
I have a feeling that's gonna be a new addition
to my classic.
You wanna make sure all the wets and the dries are combined,
that way, the little tiny bit of moisture
can provide a buffer against that hot oil,
and then I heat up my oil.
Let it rest after I reach a smoking point
for about one to two minutes,
and then pour it straight into that jar.
Now you can see that this is our lightest batch
of chili oil ever,
mainly because we added so much moisture
through the ginger and the garlic
that the oil didn't get a chance to really
diffuse into the chilies.
Rest assured, this will still taste quite good.
Truly punchy on all fronts, you get the chili,
you get the citron pepper corn right away.
You get hit with that nice floral fragrance of garlic
and ginger, sesame seeds, toasty,
oil, fatty.
The whole citron peppercorn is very intense,
so you might consider grinding it down a little bit
before putting it into your oil
if you don't wanna paralyze your mouth right away.
If this oil color is simply too light for you
and you want a little more toastiness,
just dump it back into your pot and cook it over low heat
until you start hearing those sesame seeds pop.
Once everything is golden, you are good to go.
While your oil is heating up again
with all the chilies and garlic in it,
you can fill your jar with even more dry chili peppers.
This will not only make it spicier and toastier,
but it will also give you a redder color
when you pour that in here again.
More chili crisps than oil, here we go.
(June crunching)
Holy crap, that's good.
Everything is amazingly crispy and golden,
ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, trifecta.
At the end of the day, you really just have to go experiment
and see what is your perfect chili oil.
I can't tell you that, only you can.
I hope this video was useful to you somehow,
and I hope you make your own perfect chili oil in due time.
And if you do, drop us a comment down below,
let us know what went into your mix.
This stuff is potent.
I hope you enjoy responsibly,
and if you have any magical food combinations
with chili oil and crisp, let us know too.
Until next time, stay fiery.
(mouse clicking)
(link chiming)