This spicy chili oil is the perfect addition to many asian dishes. The key is the Szechuan peppercorn which gives this oil a unique flavor that will be sure to elevate your favorite recipes. It is one of my all time favorite oils to add to recipes or just drizzle on top of wraps, chicken or even fries to give food an extra punch. The spices in this definitely carry a punch so this is perfect for any lovers of heat and spicy food.

I cannot stress this enough: take a minute to go to your local asian market or grocery to find Szechuan peppercorns. These spicy peppercorns give this oil an amazing flavor as well as an unique numbing sensation on the tongue. You can also find them on amazon if you do not live close to an asian market. They come whole, so just use a pestle and mortar to roughly crush them before adding them to the oil.

Oil

You can use any kind of oil for this. I prefer avocado oil, but any oil with a mild flavor and high smoke point will work. You can try grapeseed oil for a less expensive Paleo oil or vegetable oil for those not following Paleo.

Chilis

Szechuan Peppercorn: This is an absolute must for this recipe. You can easily find these rose colored peppercorns at your favorite asian market or on Amazon.

Dried Chilis/Birds Eye Chilis: I personally love the whole dried thai chilis added in. Rough chop them to help release the spices. If you are going to the asian market to pick up Szechuan peppercorn, just throw a bag of these in your cart while you’re there to amp up this recipe. I’ll be including multiple recipes on my blog that call for these, so if you’re fallowing along, they won’t go to waste!

Crushed Red Pepper: You can use any crushed red pepper for this, but since I was at the asian market already, I picked up some thai chili flakes. Which is just crushed red pepper made with the above dried chilis. It packs a spicier punch than traditional crushed red pepper and I use it almost exclusively for my asian dishes.

Whole Spices

Garlic: To peal the garlic I generally just crush it with the flat side of a large knife. This will not only make it easy to peal, but will also crush it just enough to release more of the flavors into your oil. Just add the whole crushed cloves to your oil. Chopping or putting the garlic through a press will only make it easier for it to burn and harder to strain out at the end.

Anise: Again, you can find this much cheaper at the asian market. If there’s no asian market close to you, try looking in the ethic food section at many chain grocery stores. They sell many whole spices in bulk for a fraction of the cost compared to what you would find in the spice isle.

Cinnamon: I found a large bag of bulk cinnamon sticks at my asian grocery for approximately $3 here in Western North Carolina. Again, like I said above, you can also check the ethic food isle to see if there are any bulk spices there, often they sell cinnamon sticks in packs of 3-4 for about $1*.

Cooking Walkthrough:

This is incredibly easy to assemble. Start by preparing your ingredients. Peel your garlic by crushing it with the flat side of a knife. This will make it easy to peal and allow you to add the entire clove to the pan and still release maximum flavor.

Chop you Thai chilis to release extra flavor and heat.

Add your oil, whole chilis, Szechuan peppercorn, anise, garlic an cinnamon to a small sauce pan and cook on medium heat. You will need to monitor the oil closely as the spices will begin to brown. You do not want your spices to burn. Once your spices have a nice brown color to them remove them from the heat.

Remove your whole spices, but leave the Szechuan peppercorns.

In a separate jar add you crushed red pepper. Poor your oil over the chili flakes and stir well. You oil is now ready for use! You can store this in the fridge for ~4 weeks, if it lasts that long.