This chilli and garlic oil is a delicious condiment or ingredient to have in your pantry. And it’s so easy to make too!
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Table of contents
Chilli and Garlic Oil
This is going to be a quick post (I heard that!). I have so many chillies to use up from the garden that I often find myself staring at the plants trying to come up with inspiration. This garlic and chilli oil is something I’ve mad in many form over the years, but usually with dried chillies.
Not too long ago, I published the recipe for the Italian-style preserved chillies in oil, and this is kind of a combination of that and your regular Chinese chilli oil (popularly called chili crisp in the US).
The Recipe
It’s very, very easy. This is what we’ll be doing:
- Prep the chillies and garlic.
- Coarsely chop both in turns.
- Add to a saucepan, along with salt, sugar and oil.
- Cook for 20 minutes.
- Finish off with optional vinegar.
That’s all there is to it.
The Ingredients
Red Chillies
I’m giving you the weight for both the chillies and garlic in the recipe. However, how spicy your garlic and chilli oil is will depend entirely on the kind of chillies you are using.
As you can see in the image and video, I’m using birds eye chillies. This is going to give me a chilli oil that’s fairly spicy. You could switch to a milder variety like jalapeños or even hotter ones, if that’s your thing.
We’ll have to remove the stalks of every single chilli before chopping them in a food chopper. This took me about 7 minutes for the amount in the recipe below.
How coarse you chop your chillies and garlic is a matter of preference. I like mine half coarsely chopped and the other half, almost whole. This happens naturally in the chopper when you are pulsing it, without using a spoon to mix halfway.
Garlic
No two ways about it, we need lots of garlic, about 3 medium-small bulbs. Weight wise, we’re using slightly less than the amount of chillies. But it’s all negotiable! Reduce the amount of garlic you are using, or increase the, for a vampire repelling chilli and garlic oil!
We’ll be peeling each clove and dropping them into the food chopper whole before pulsing to get a coarse mix.
I’ve given you the weight of the pre peeled bulbs. because chances are, you buy your garlic unpeeled?
Vegetable Oil
You want a flavourless oil for this, so corn oil, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil or peanut oil will work. How much oil you use is to some extent, also a matter of choice.
Compared to some other chilli oils we have on LinsFood, I’m using a little more in this recipe, for the simple reason that I tend to use this chilli and garlic oil more as a cooking ingredient than a condiment.
If you want to treat it like a condiment like we would this Katsuobushi chilli oil, reduce the oil use to 250 ml (1 cup).
Vinegar
I love finishing this chilli oil with a little vinegar stirred in. It just lifts the flavour and adds a wonderful tartness to it. I’m using Chinese rice vinegar (not rice wine), but you can use any clear vinegar you like, even apple cyder or white wine vinegar.
Or leave it out altogether.
How to Use it?
Pretty much how you’d use any chilli oil. If I happen to have some on hand, it’s what I would use in stir-fries, whether noodles or vegetables, like this Sambal Stir-Fry on my other site, Singaporean and Malaysian Recipes. So instead of oil and sambal, I’d just use 1-2 Tbsp of today’s chilli and garlic oil. And skip any garlic the recipe calls for.
Other ways of using today’s flavoured oil:
- as a cooking ingredient – besides stir-fries, think omelettes, potatoes and even roast vegetables
- straight up as a condiment with rice and noodles (dry or soupy)
- in sandwiches, like a spread
- on pizza, especially when it has an East or South East Asian slant
How to Store Chilli and Garlic Oil?
I keep this one in my pantry cupboard and use it within 2 weeks. Everything has been cooked and is submerged in the oil, so I’m happy to leave it out.
You could also store it in the fridge and use it within 2 months. Sometimes I keep my chilli oils in the fridge, sometimes I leave them out. To some extent it depends on how much I’ve made. If I know that it’ll be used up quickly, it stays out.
And that’s all there is to it. Let’s get our aprons on!
If you enjoy the recipe, drop me a comment and let me know. And if you are feeling like a star, don’t forget that 5-star rating!😉
If you make this recipe, post it on Instagram and tag me @azlinbloor and hashtag it #linsfood.
Lin xx
More Chilli Oil Recipes
Chilli Garlic Oil
Equipment
- Chopping board
- knife or scissors
- Food chopper
- small saucepan or wok
- 2 jars for storage capacity about 400 – 500ml (2 cups) each
Ingredients
- 200 g chilli
- 150 g garlic pre peeled weight
- 500 ml vegetable oil
- 1 Tbsp white sugar
- ½ – 1 Tbsp salt
- 2 Tbsp clear vinegar
Instructions
- Pull or cut the stalks off the chillies and place them in a food chopper. If you're using bigger chillies than birds eye, you'll probably need to halve them first.Pulse the chopper to get a coarse grind. How coarse you go is a matter of taste. I like the chillies fairly large, with a few of them even almost full size.Tip them out into the saucepan you'll be using.
- Peel and drop the garlic cloves in the chopper. Do the same here. Pulse to get a coarse grind. I go for a slightly smaller grind with the garlic.Drop them into the saucepan or wok that you're using.
- Stir in the sugar and salt either with a wooden spoon, or with your hand. If using your hand, massage in the salt and sugar for 10 seconds.Put gloves on when handling hot chillies. I put gloves on even with jalapeños as my skin hates raw chillies.
- Stir in the oil and heat on medium to a simmer. Then reduce heat all the way down, and cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes. You could go for 30 minutes if you'd like a more cooked taste to your chilli oil.
- When done, turn off the heat and stir in the vinegar. Transfer to a jar and store.
Made a jar of this on Saturday and have already used it twice with pasta and pizza. Thanks it’s very handy and delicious. I used habaneros for an extra kick.