The Must-Have Cooking Oil For Anyone Who Loves Spicy Food

Let's be real for a second — you're probably using the wrong cooking oil. Which type of oil to pull off the shelf can be a challenging decision. Do you go with olive oil? Perhaps vegetable sounds like it's more your speed? But the variety of oil that you choose to cook with matters more than the label on the bottle. And if you're a fan of spicy food who wants to kick their dishes up to a new level of fiery heat, there is a certain oil that should be a must-have in your kitchen cabinets.

Chili oil is the perfect option for a flavor-infused twist. Its most basic form is a neutral oil — think canola, vegetable, or peanut — combined with crushed chili flakes or whole chiles. When it's used in Asian dishes, chili oil can be infused with other herbs and flavors, including Sichuan peppercorns, cinnamon, scallions, or even citrus peels. If you don't want to make the oil from scratch, there are plenty of options available in grocery stores as well.

There is one thing to keep in mind when choosing to cook with chili oil: Its smoke point. The smoke point of an oil is, quite literally, the temperature at which it starts to burn. If you're making the oil from scratch, this will depend on which neutral oil you use as the base. For store-bought oils, check the ingredient list to see what kind of base you're dealing with to avoid any unnecessary burning incidents. 

Now that we're all on the same page when it comes to chili oil, let's go over some of the great ways it can be used in the kitchen. In Asian cooking, chili oil is both an ingredient and a condiment to top or dip. Chili oil can be drizzled over spicy noodles or a steaming pile of fried rice to add an extra punch of flavor. Or, the oil can be incorporated into a sauce perfect for dipping dumplings into.

Additionally, the oil can be used to stir-fry or sauté vegetables to infuse them with a nice spicy flavor. Swap out your neutral oil for chili oil and toss in anything you want to fry — think baby corn, snap peas, spinach, carrots, or onions. You could also add chili oil to your next marinade, combined with soy sauce, garlic, or ginger.

One viral use for chili oil is connected to breakfast: Chili fried eggs. If you love spice in every meal, heat some chili oil in a pan, and fry some eggs in it. Whether you enjoy your yolks runny or more on the solid side, incorporating chili oil into the mix will kick your breakfast to the next level. For a new combination of unexpected ingredients to add to your breakfast toast, plop the eggs on a piece of sourdough toast smeared with some avocado, and you've got yourself a deliciously spicy bite.