One of our favorite condiments, we always have a bottle of chile oil on the counter. This is a great way to add some spice to just about anything from salads to steaks. In its simplest form it can be made with just oil and pepper flakes but we like to add some other flavors to perk it up. We’ll share how in this recipe.

This recipe is naturally gluten free and vegetarian.

Watch A Video

Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Chile Oil:

Fresh Or Frozen Chiles (Optional)

We are going to start with some fresh (frozen) chiles. We grow chiles in our greenhouse and there are just so many at harvest time that we take the seeds out and freeze some of them. For this we are using some rocoto chiles and some kind of ghost pepper cross that happened one year. We want to add heat to our chile oil with these peppers so the hotter the better. You can use peppers that are easy to find such as habañeros for this job, or you can skip the fresh peppers altogether. Also the quantity isn’t important. You can just use however many you have. We have a lot so I’m using about three cups of chopped peppers.

Chile Oil Flavorings

We also like to add some other flavors to our chile oil. Our favorite is a combination of star anise and cardamom seeds in peanut oil. The peanut oil gives it a nutty flavor that we enjoy. You can use just about any oil you like for this, from olive oil to sesame, but avoid using oils that are solid at room temperature such as coconut oil.

Sichuan Peppercorns

One last ingredient that really adds a punch to chile oil is sichuan peppercorns. These little jewels have a numbing effect on your tongue that can be fun and interesting. We’ll add a couple tablespoons of these.

Infuse the Flavors Into the Oil

We will put the chiles, star anise, cardamom seeds removed from the pods, sichuan peppercorns and 2 1/2 cups of oil into a saucepan. We’ll bring this to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for at least 1/2 hour. Then we will cover it and let it sit in the pan for 24 to 48 hours to let it infuse as much of the flavors as we can.

Hot Oil and Chile Flakes

Now that we have infused our oil with some flavors we’ll move on to the final steps in making our chile oil. For this we will need 1 1/2 cups or so of red chile flakes. We make this oil frequently and use quite a lot of chile flakes so we buy the big container from Costco but you can use any chile flakes you can find. You’ll want to put the chile flakes in a heat proof bowl such as glass or metal. We prefer to use glass because the metal gets so hot you have to wait a long time before you can handle it. There is some possibility that glass could crack when the hot oil is poured in but that hasn’t ever happened to us.

Now we want to get our oil hot again. Put it back on the burner and bring it to a rolling boil. Be very careful when working with hot oil because it is REALLY hot! Once the oil is fully boiling we will pour it over our chile flakes. We recommend doing this in the sink in case something goes wrong. This is when the magic happens. The chile flakes will boil furiously for a couple minutes. If you are skipping the fresh chiles and the spices you won’t need the infusing step and you can make the chile oil just by boiling oil and pouring it over your chile flakes.

Strain the Oil

Now we have to allow this to cool a bit before we can do anything with it. No need to rush this. The bowl will be very hot and you don’t want to burn yourself. The last step is to strain the oil into our oil bottle. We use a cocktail strainer set into a funnel to strain directly into the oil bottle. You can also use any fine mesh strainer and strain the oil into a measuring cup to pour into the bottle.

That’s all there is to it. This oil will last a long time on the counter and you can add it to just about anything to give it that chile kick.

We put this oil on just about everything from salads to curries to molés.

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