Chile Crisp
Published July 13, 2021

- Total Time
- 10 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ½cup vegetable oil
- ¼cup dried minced onion
- 1teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1½teaspoons kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
- ⅓cup finely crushed dried small red chiles or red-pepper flakes
- 3tablespoons sesame seeds
- 1teaspoon coarsely ground Sichuan peppercorns (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
Combine the oil, onion, ½ teaspoon sugar and ½ teaspoon salt in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion becomes evenly golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Step 2
Add the chiles, sesame seeds and Sichuan peppercorns, if using, and sizzle, stirring, for 1 minute, then stir in the remaining ½ teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon salt. Use immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Spoon over everything. It adds big flavor to milder bases, such as eggs, tofu, noodles, rice, vegetables, white fish, lean pork and chicken breast.
Private Notes
Comments
they are replying to a suggestion by one reviewer to use half vegetable oil and half sesame oil. That is the problem with sorting the Cooking Notes by "most helpful" - you never see the original post, as in this case, nor any answers/suggestions to "most helpful" questions that others have !! I wish NYT would add a tag to indicate that the Cooking Note is a reply to another note, as they do with the reader comments on other articles.
You'll want to add sesame oil at the end, since heating it will destroy the fragrance.
Lisa Lin, whom I follow on Instagram, posted a recipe for a sauce which consisted of frying a lot of minced garlic until it was just brown then mixing it with chili crisp and sesame oil, then topping asparagus with it. No matter how much I make, it's never enough!
I made some of this homemade because I bought some from Amazon and really loved it but be prepared to hurt the next day.
I wouldn't even call this Chili crisp, it's just so incredibly basic :)
I don't understand the point of refrigerating this. It's a staple in our house, and we go through a double batch in 3-4 weeks. Every single ingredient is shelf stable. If kept in an airtight container, out of the light, what part of this would spoil in that timeframe?
