The Complete Guide to Chili Crisp

Making Your Perfect Chili Crisp At Home

What’s so exciting about making chili crisp from scratch is the customization. Maybe you really enjoy the flavors of fermented black beans, but store-bought chili crisps don’t have enough. Or you haven’t found the ones with a perfect spice level. This formula allows you to create your own perfect blend within a flexible framework.

Chili flakes

This is one of the most important components of making chili crisp. It sets the tone with flavors and heat levels, and it gives chili crips their unique identity. It’s crucial not to use fine chili powder for this because we want to see chunks of chili flakes. The coarser the flakes, the better. If you can’t find specific chili flakes, I recommend getting dried chili and breaking them apart using a food processor. You can just use one kind, but I highly recommend playing with a blend of different kinds to maximize flavors.

• • Red pepper flakes
• • Gochugaru
• • Aleppo pepper flakes
• • Sichuan pepper flakes
• • Pasilla chili flakes
• • Cobanero chili flakes
• • Dried Thai red chili
• • Ancho dried chili
• • Guajillo dried chili
• • Arbol dried chili

Oil

Oil is another important component that makes chili flakes into chili crisp. It doesn’t add dramatic flavors to the overall product, but a good blend of oil can add subtle differences that will make your chili crisp unique. And, you must think about the burning point. Depending on the type of oil you choose, you may not be able to simmer chili flakes for as long as you would like. Maybe the hot temperature of the oil may burn the chili flakes too quickly. But the point here is to have fun and find your own perfect recipe through trial and error, so think beyond regular cooking oil like canola and olive oil. How about Ghee? Lard?

• • Avocado oil
• • Canola oil
• • Olive oil
• • Vegetable oil
• • Peanut oil
• • Grapeseed oil
• • Coconut oil
• • Sesame oil
• • Chicken fat
• • Duck fat
• • Beef fat
• • Ghee

Flavorings

The flavoring stage is when you add your twist and showcase your flavors. Whether it’s adding textures, like fried garlic, or flavors, like black vinegar, the unwritten rule of flavoring chili crisp is to keep the options open and exciting. Maybe you want to add potato chips for crunch! Or crushed-up potato chips? There’s no rule!

• • Fried onion
• • Fried shallots
• • Fried garlic
• • Dried onion
• • Toasted sesame seeds
• • Black vinegar
• • Apple cider vinegar
• • Soy sauce
• • Potato chips
• • Crushed almonds
• • MSG
• • Chicken powder
• • Mushroom powder
• • Brown sugar
• • Pomegranate molasses
• • Gochujang
• • Miso
• • Hondashi

In the framework of these components, you can be as creative as you want! Pick an ingredient from each category that speaks to you and apply it to your chili crisp recipe. If you want oily chili crisps, I recommend using an 8:2 oil-to-chili flakes ratio with your flavoring. But if you want the crisp-heavy kind, I recommend using a 5:5 oil-to-chili flakes ratio with other crispy ingredients, like fried shallots. But it’s all up to you how crispy and oily you want because it’s your perfect chili crisp!