Chili Crunch Oil

By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
November 17, 2021

I am a big fan of the chili oils that Chinese restaurants make in-house and serve with meals. Lately, I’ve been buying them from our favorite eateries… But it’s never enough. So I’ve been buying jars from H-Mart and ordering a few different brands online.

I don’t have time to review them all right now, but I wanted to post this while I remembered. I’ll be updating it as time permits. But for now, enjoy the photos and blurbs for the few I did review.

Momofuku Chili Crunch: My favorite so far! I ordered a three-pack in August, which we demolished within three weeks. In September, I ordered six jars and ate one jar by myself in four days. The only problem with this brand is that since it’s not very spicy, we put a lot of everything and therefore go through it much quicker than the spicier chili oils and crunches. But, yeah, I’m addicted. ($12/5.3 ounces; or 3 jars/$30)

Fly By Jing’s Sichuan Chili Crisp: I had heard great things about this brand. The packaging is by far the cutest of any of the online orders I received. But, I wasn’t bowled over by the flavor. It was kind of bland, not very spicy and just meh. ($15/6 ounce jar)

Trader Joe’s Chili Onion Crunch: Did you know that Trader Joe’s will let you return opened groceries, just because you didn’t like it? I didn’t, until I mentioned to the cashier (at a later trip) that I didn’t like this chili oil. Anyhow, I got my money back. 😬 Condiments are meant to enhance whatever it is you’re eating. This was oily, but had very little flavor to it. ($3.99/6 ounce jar)

Homemade: So it’s 2022 now (Jan. 18, to be exact). Over the weekend, I made a couple batches of my own chili crisp oil from a recipe I found online. It is delicious! The first try was gone that same evening. The next day, I doubled the ingredients. (It was consumed in two days!) I improvised, using ingredients from my pantry, so I’m not sure how much it cost to make. But my guess is around $1 or less. The jar on the bottom right is the leftovers after we already ate a bunch (from the double batch) — and yes, I save my empty Momofuku jars, because they’re cute and come in handy.

I used drivemehungry’s recipe as a guide, but tweaked it, using what I had at home and to suit my own taste. For instance, I didn’t add any sugar or salt, as suggested. Here’s what I used (and it’ll fill up a 5.3 oz jar and then some):

• 6 minced garlic cloves
• 5 Tablespoons chili flakes 
• 6  Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce 
• 4 teaspoons rice vinegar (I may try balsamic next time)
• 1 teaspoon ginger powder

Saute oil and garlic and get a little crunch going. Then add chili flakes. This entire process shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes. Be careful not to burn the chili flakes. Take off the burner and add the other ingredients. Serve hot over noodles, mandoo or whatever. I’m not sure at what point this would go bad, because we ate ours very quickly.

Also, don’t yell at me about it not being authentic. I’m not a chef and we’re living through a pandemic when I try to spend as little time in a store as possible these days. If you have all the proper ingredients, by all means go for it … and let me know how that goes!

I’ll write about these at a later date …

CHECK THIS OUT: If you want to do your own taste test, you can purchase these items at Fly By Jing, Lao Gan Ma, Momofuku, and Trader Joe’s.