Homemade Szechuan Chili Oil

Recipe by Molly
at missmollymakes.com

5 from 2 votes

While you can buy chili oil in most Asian supermarkets, it's so easy to make yourself, and far yummier. It goes on everything, as an ingredient and a condiment.

Prep Time20

Cook Time10

Total Time30

Servings: Cups

Calories: 1848kcal

Ingredients

20-40 g dried birds eye chillies or Asian chilli flakes
3 cups canola or rice bran oil
4 star anise whole
2 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaf
4 cloves garlic minced
2-3 tsp ginger roughly chopped
8-14 cardamom pods bruised
3-4 tsp Szechuan peppercorns
3 tsp salt

Instructions

Place a frying pan over medium heat and add the chillies. Toast and toss gently for 2-3 minutes to become more fragrant.
Move to a food processor and pulse until it becomes desired consistency - I like a few chunks rather than a powder, so you can see the seeds. Set aside.
Place the oil in a saucepan over low heat
In a separate small frying pan, toast the star anise, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, Szechuan peppercorns, garlic, ginger and cardamom pods over medium-high heat until just starting to smoke.
Add the spices to the warm oil. Turn the heat under the oil up to medium and wait for the spices to gently sizzle. Cook at a gentle sizzle for 4-5 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes (do not move to next step until it has cooled quite a bit as it will burn the chilli).
Place the chilli powder and salt in a heat-proof jar or bowl. Pour the oil over the chilli salt mixture (you can strain the spices but, I like to keep them in).

Nutrition