Homemade Chili Crunch Recipe (Chili Oil Crisp)
Make this homemade chili crunch recipe and it’ll be your go-to spicy condiment. Have you tried this popular condiment? It was originally served in restaurants and it’s now a staple in home kitchens. This crunchy chili oil recipe is slightly spicy, savory and flavorful.
What is Chili Crunch, Chili Crisp, Chili Oil?
This wildly popular condiment has so many other names: chili onion crunch, chili garlic crunch, crunchy chili oil and much more. These are examples of the different terms used to describe basically the same thing: a popular Chinese condiment with onion, garlic and different spices infused in oil. But all you need to know that it’s crunchy, savory, spicy and delicious. The most common ingredients are crushed dried chilies, fresh or dried onions or shallots, dried garlic and sometimes Sichuan peppercorns. Everyone has their own recipe with different aromatic combinations. But chili crisp is essentially a crunchy, crispy, spicy condiment that you can put on anything and it can be found in most Chinese restaurants. Once you make this homemade chili onion crunch recipe, you’ll always want to have it as a go-to condiment.
How to Serve Garlic Chili Crunch or Chili Oil?
There’s always the classic dishes that chili garlic onion crunch or crunchy chili oil is served. But if you think outside the box you open up a whole new world of culinary possibilities. Grilled meats and veggies are always fantastic with a little drizzle of this homemade magic.
- Dumplings are always more exciting with a little drizzle of this homemade crunchy chili oil
- Chili crunch fried eggs are amazing. Add that to an avocado toast.
- Popcorn! Drizzle this stuff on popcorn for a delicious spicy topping. You don’t need the butter!
- On noodles, it’s fanastic.
- Rice, fried rice or pasta
- grilled meats or vegetables
- air fryer chicken wings with this chili crisp is the best!
- mix it with some hummus for a super flavorful dip
- Add it to deviled eggs…. amazing!
- there’s so many more things you can serve with this chili oil recipe. The possibilities are endless.
Video: Homemade Chili Crisp Crunch Recipe
Best Brands of Chili Crisp or Chili Crunch?
We love making this homemade because you can customize all your favorite flavors. But a quick way to enjoy this condiment is to buy it and there’s plenty of great pre-made bottles. It’s available at speciality grocer stores, Asian supermarkets or in the International aisle of your regular markets. Over the last years a new generation of brands have come into the chili crunch crisp market. From more traditional brands to new brands of chili oil with unique spices, there’s something for everyone.
Tips on How to Use Chili Crisp Crunch
- Before eating, stir the chili crunch well. Oil floats to the top and the crunchy ingredients sink to the bottom. So stir the everything together well for easier drizzling. That way each spoonful has a good balance of oil and crunchies.
- Customize your batch by tasting it first. Some folks like their chili crisps light on the seasoning and spice, so taste yours first then customize. If you want it a little less spicy, start with about half the red chili flakes that we recommend in the recipe.
- Add Honey for more sticky consistency instead of oily: To make this chili garlic crunch recipe more sticky, add a little honey to make the sauce more sticky. It’ll be a little more sweet but it’s a nice flavor balance.
- Extra crunchy: The crunch comes from dried garlic and onion. You can easily customize the “crunch” by adding as much or as little as you like.
- Using fresh chopped onion/shallots or garlic will give a nice flavor too but a little less crunch. But the fresh aromatics are hard to beat when you’re using fresh ingredients.
- Spice level to your liking: the heat comes from red chili flakes. Our ratio in the recipe makes this batch Medium. So if you want to be a little more cautious on the heat, add about half. If you really love food extra spicy, double the amount of red chili flakes.
- Small servings: If it’s your first time using this chili oil recipe, go light on the drizzle.
- All homemade chili crunch recipe details are in the recipe box below
Chili Garlic Crunch (Chili Crisp)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) oil , vegetable, grapeseed or neutral flavored oil
- 6-8 cloves fresh garlic , minced
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) red chili flakes , or to personal taste. For medium spicy, you can start with 1 Tablespoon first, then add more.
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) dried minced garlic
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) dried chopped onion
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) sugar , or to taste
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) toasted sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) kosher salt , if using table salt, use a little less
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) cayenne (optional to taste)
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) soy sauce , or to personal taste. We like it very savory so will add an extra teaspoon or two.
Equipment
- Canning Jars optional
Instructions
- Mince or slice the garlic to your preferred size (it doesn't really matter how big or small it is, just how much of a garlic bite you want).
- Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook about 1 minute or until lightly golden.
- Immediately remove from heat (the garlic will continue to cook a little in the pan. You want it to be just a light golden brown. Don't let the garlic burn or else it will become bitter).
- Stir in rest of the ingredients (red chili flakes, dried minced garlic, dried chopped onion, sugar, sesame seeds, salt, smoked paprika, cayenne, and soy sauce).
- Taste for flavor and adjust to your liking. Cool completely.
- After cooled, store in a mason jar or similar. Stir well before using.
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
Delicious ways of using and serving our Chili Crunch
Like we discussed above, we love experimenting with different dishes. Here’s more details on how what we drizzle this umami bomb on. The flavor combinations are outstanding. Can you tell we’re obsessed?
Fried Egg with Chili Oil or Chili Crunch
Just add about 1 Tablespoon of your chili oil with crunchies in it. Add to a hot pan and fry your egg in it. Easy peasy and it’s fantastic on so many things. Here’s the full recipe for chili crisp fried egg on toast or what ever you want!
- Chili oil fried egg on avocado toast is a great breakfast or brunch dish.
- Add the chili crunch fried egg to ramen noodles or noodle stir fries
Drizzle Chili Crunch on Potstickers or Dumplings
This is the most classic way to eat this condiment. Buy your favorite brand of frozen dumplings or potstickers. Trader Joe’s has a wonderful collection of frozen potstickers. Heat them up in the microwave and drizzle the chili oil on top.
Use Chili Oil as Popcorn Topping
We tried this and are now obsessed! Instead of melted butter, drizzle a few tablespoons of this on top of popcorn. The salty, crunchy, spicy flavors are fantastic on popcorn. Only problem is that your hands can get pretty oily, so we suggest eating it with a SPOON. Yup, just scoop the chili crunch popcorn in your mouth and it’s a flavor bomb.
Douse it on Chicken Wings or Buffalo Wings
This is one of our favorite ways to serve spicy chicken wings! Drizzle this over your wings and that’s all your need. Each bite is an explosion of flavor and we guarantee this will be one of your favorite ways to use this condiment. Here’s our chili crisp chicken wings recipe.
Add Chili Crunch Oil to Deviled Eggs
We love deviled eggs and this homemade chili crunch oil is perfect as a side topping. It’s always a part of our popular deviled egg bar. Just let your guests dress their own deviled eggs and they’ll wonder why they didn’t have this more often.
Stir in Hummus or other favorite dips
Yes, this is a THING! Wow, swirling a big spoonful of this into your hummus or bean dip takes the dip over the top. The flavors work so well with hummus or any of your favorite dips. Make this chili oil recipe now and your appetizer dips will be even more amazing.
How to Store Homemade Chili Oil or Chili Crisp?
If you plan on eating it everyday, you can leave it out on the counter for about 10 days. We prefer eating it at room temperature because it drizzles better. But most importantly, the flavors taste better when it’s not refrigerated. But if you only eat it occasionally, then store it in the fridge for up to 4 weeks or so. Our recipe has fresh garlic in it. We don’t suggest keeping it in the fridge for too long.
What’s your Favorite Way to Eat and Serve Chili Crunch or Chili Oil?
We love learning all the different ways you’re eating this condiment. Let us know in the comments below. We’re obsessed with this and want to try every version possible. How about chili oil ice cream? Hmmmmm. maybe that’s one we might pass on. LOL.
More Easy Recipes:
- Homemade bread and butter pickles that are crunchy, tangy and lightly sweet
- Cowboy bacon chili cheese fries
- Chili margarita with paprika salt
- Roasted potatoes with chili garlic sauce and fresh herbs
- Savory tomato crisp with heirloom tomatoes
This is the recipe I’ve been looking for! The flavour is amazing. The only thing that could improve with mine is that it is a bit more chewy than crunchy and I’m not sure how to fix that. Otherwise, amazing.
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed the chili crunch Meghan. Yeah, it can be a bit more chewy because of all the tidbits of garlic and onion. Some brands of dried onion also cook up crisper because they’re more thin. We sometimes will crush the larger bits of dried onion to be smaller and that helps in keeping the tidbits more crispy.
This looks so good. I’m planning to make this to drizzle over baked camembert. Looking forward to the results! Thankyou for the recipe! Quick question though, can I use fresh onion and fresh garlic. I don’t get the dried variety where I live. Will it be as good? Can I get it to be as crispy? (Sorry that’s 3 questions!)
Hello Shilpa, Yes you can use all fresh onion and garlic it will definitely have a softer texture. But it’s still delicious and flavorful. You won’t miss the “crunch”. 🙂 Enjoy!
This was absolutely delicious! How long does it keep in the fridge?
Thanks Chloe! We keep it in the fridge for about a month. It might last longer than that but we eat it so quick it never has a chance to store for longer. 🙂
Delicious! My husband is not a spicy fan but we both love this, on salmon, beef, and deviled eggs. Excellent recipe and so easy to modify to taste.
Yay! That’s great to know that modifying the spice level is great for non-spicy folks. Thanks for sharing Melanie and so glad your husband enjoyed the chili crunch!
I hold you entirely responsible for my new addiction to to this deliciousness!!!!! Thank you so much. I kept hearing about this condiment but too expensive for my budget. To my delight I had everything in my cupboard to make my own jar. I used EVOO and followed all measurements for the perfect flavor combo for me. It definitely sits on my counter. I have so far used it with cream cheese for a spread, on my cheap frozen pizza to make it awesome and my cucumber salad . Oh….and straight out of the jar😊
LOL you made us laugh and smile. So happay that you enjoyed the recipe and thanks for the feedback Sherri!!
What type of oil do you use or recommend?
We love using grapeseed oil but any type of neutral flavored oil even like vegetable oil works great.
I used your recipe as a base and made some adjustments… 1 tablespoon of red chili flakes and 1 tablespoon gochugaru flakes (to decrease the heat some). I don’t think I added cayenne. And I think I added msg instead of kosher salt. Perhaps I should have written it down, whoops. But anyways, this turned out great for my first time.
Hi Lori, thanks for the feeback and glad the msg worked for you. We’ve never used it.
This is better than Momo’s for sure! I’m shocked how I can’t stop eating this. I used vegetable oil since I didn’t see an oil type and it turned out great.
Wow that’s an honor! Thanks for loving our homemade recipe better than Momo’s. 🙂