We won’t claim that our new Chengdu Crispy Chili Oil is the best of the dozens of chili oils on the market now, because “best” is totally subjective, and we still believe you can never have too many. But we’ve tasted them all—as well as dozens made in China—and we will tell you why it’s the best for our palate and purposes.

It's VERSATILE: In Sichuan, chili oil may be used as a condiment for noodles and soups, but it’s more frequently used as an ingredient of a noodle sauce and for liang ban/cold dishes/salads/side dishes. These cold dishes play an integral role in Sichuan cuisine, and they usually come dressed in a chili oil-based sauce, which requires chili oil, not just crisp. As per its name, Chengdu Crispy Chili Oil has both oil and crisp. Specifically, it's two-thirds oil and one-third crisp, versus a chili crisp or crunch, which generally has little to no oil atop the crisp. 

It's BALANCED: The heat and flavor of this oil are pronounced without being overwhelming. It’s not too salty or full of forced umami (loads of msg or mushroom powder), so it plays well with soy sauce in your dumpling sauce. It’s not too garlicy, so feel free to use it with dishes that already include garlic. It’s not too sweet, as sweet is not the typical Sichuan flavor profile. It’s not too numbing, because it’s better to add your own preferred level of freshly ground Sichuan pepper to a dish. And it’s spicy but not too spicy, because Sichuan uses chili oil in abundance but still wants to enjoy the food.

In short, this chili oil won’t throw off your dumpling sauce or cold dish sauce or noodle sauce by overwhelming the other flavors. Instead it complements them with a balance of spicy, numbing, salty, garlicy, nutty umami. Add it to your dandan mian, zajiang mian, cold noodles, sesame noodles, chili oil wontons, smashed cucumbers, eggplant salad.... and everything else, Sichuan or not. It plays nice!

While most of the Chinese-style chili oils and crisps on the U.S. market are made in the U.S., we went to the source to source ours. Chengdu Crispy Chili Oil is made for us in small batches in Chengdu by a team of national level Master Chefs. Read more about the chefs and how the oil is made. 

When 99% of their customers on Taobao, China's mega-Amazon, rate their spicy oil as "authentic" and say it "tastes better than homemade," then you know it’s the real deal!

Non-GMO, Vegan, Gluten-Free (double-tested for gluten)

• Made for us in Chengdu by national level Master Chefs
• All natural, with no additives or preservatives
• 2/3 oil and 1/3 crisp, to be used as both cooking ingredient and condiment
• Featuring Sichuan's finest caiziyou, erjingtiao chili and Tribute Sichuan pepper
• Spicy, but not too spicy, with the perfect balance of flavors
• A generous 8 ounces

Pickled erjingtiao chilies flavor the pork mince for the zajiangmian above, and you can also use the pickled form of Sichuan's favorite chili in place of chili bean paste in yuxiang dishes (pork, eggplant, etc) as is often done in Sichuan, or in dishes like fish stew with pickled greens and chilies or pickled-pepper beef noodles or as a sauce ingredient for cold dishes. Anywhere you'd like a little pickled pepper punch! 

While they look like long green beans, yardlong beans are actually in the cowpea species, like the black-eyed pea, though they taste much more like a green bean than a black-eyed pea. Called jiangdou in Mandarin, the pickled version is used mostly as a cooking ingredient, and is particularly good stir-fried with ground pork or chicken for a "xiafan cai" rice topping or as a zajiang noodle topping.