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Chili Oil Substitute – What Can I Substitute for Chili Oil?

Chili oil is one of the finest and easiest things to add to make your ramen or soupy food hot and spicy.

You can make your food hot by using different kinds of spices instead of chili oil. Following your food habit, you may love to use these spices. Let’s see what those alternatives are.

Chili oil substitute

Chili oil is used in different foods. You can use sweet chili sauce, sriracha sauce, chili garlic oil, and different types of pepper instead of using chili oil. Because all these spicy ingredients will provide you with a strong flavor and aroma. Which may help your taste buds to enjoy the food.

If you only need to have spicy flavor in your food, you can use so many things rather than chili sauce. But, if you are South-Asian, you may have a hard time using any other ingredients in your food rather than chili oil. Which you can easily be made at your home.

Sweet Chili Sauce:

Sweet chili sauce is also a favorite condiment for Asian foods. Sweet chili sauce is not as hot as chili oil.

But it is still used as compliments the chili oil. For eating fried veggies, or fried foods, you would love to use sweet chili sauce. Though food needs to have a more spicy flavor, sweet chili sauce may not work.

Sriracha Sauce:

Sriracha sauce needs the same ingredients to make as chili oil. The main difference is there is no oil involved in making sriracha sauce. Sriracha sauce is the closest to chili oil. Sriracha sauce is hot, and it can be consumed with different food.

Dried Pepper:

Dried pepper has a better smell and has more flavor to it. And, dried pepper is used in different food garnishing, and marinating.

The aroma of dried pepper has a sweetness. You can use dried pepper, mainly crushed dried peppers for making any type of food. And you can easily use dried pepper as a good substitute for chili oil.

Red Pepper:

You can get different versions of red peppers. They come in fresh red pepper, dried red pepper, and crushed red pepper. Chili oil is also made using a red pepper, generally. People use red pepper flakes to increase the hotness of the food.

You can get this type of pepper at any grocery store. Moreover, you can get different types of chilies or pepper flakes in Asian grocery stores.

Cayenne Pepper:

Cayenne pepper has almost the same flavor as chili oil. You can make cayenne pepper oil as well. You may need to follow the same technique to make cayenne pepper oil.

If you don’t have any chili pepper or chili flakes then you can use cayenne pepper as a substitute.

Chili Garlic Oil:

The chili garlic oil and chili oil are almost the same. Because the same ingredients are used in both these oils. In chili oil, the number of garlic or the garlic flavor is a lot lesser than in the chili garlic oil. So, you can use chili garlic oil, over chili oil.

Chili oil is used widely in these recipes. But here you get some of the substitutes for chili oil for the given recipes:

RecipeSubstitute to use
For RamenGarlic Oil
For CookingVegetable and Peanut Oil
For SambalSriracha Sauce

Can you use Sriracha instead of chili oil?

Chili oil is used mainly in South Asian dishes. The main source of spice comes from different herbs they use in their cuisine. Mainly when you add red chili with hot vegetable oil and mix them for a certain time, you will get hot red chili oil.

In chili oil, you will have all the flavors of the red chili. A little amount of chili oil can give a beautiful kick to your Asian Cuisine. On the other hand, the closest substitute for chili oil is sriracha sauce.

Because sriracha sauce is also made using red chili. Instead of using vegetable oil, in sriracha sauce, you will get garlic, vinegar, sugar, and salt.

Sriracha sauce is sugary and the chili in this sauce is fully blended with all other elements. Though for garnishing, you may not use sriracha but instead chili oil.

How to make a hot chili oil substitute?

You can prepare different hot chili oil substitutes. The way of making chili oil is so easy that everyone can make it without any hassle.

You will only need two basic things, Red dried Chili, and vegetable oil. Generally, vegetable oil doesn’t have any flavor, it absorbs the flavor of the ingredients it is added.

Gather Ingredients:

If you want to make a basic chili oil substitute, you will love to make it with cayenne pepper and corn or peanut oil. You can bring them to any grocery store.

Cayenne pepper has similar capsaicin in it and corn oil or peanut oil is slightly thicker than regular vegetable oils. Along with them, you will need a spatula, a strainer, a frying pan, and a regular mid-sized nonstick cooking pot.

Check if the Peppers are Fully Dried:

If your peppers are not dried enough, you can dry them using a frying pan and toss them on the stove for four to five minutes.

Use a spatula to move the pepper on the pan spontaneously, so that the pepper will not going to burn itself on one side. After dry frying them for a couple of minutes take them off the stove.

Drop all the Oil into the Cooking Pot and heat them:

Whether you are using corn oil or peanut oil, you need to cook them or make them hot. So, after you put off the oil on the cooking pot, use the spatula again and stir the oil, until it reaches the boiling point.

Toss the Dried Pepper into the Cooking Pot:

After the oil is fully cooked. Toss the dried pepper into the pot and stir them well. You will see the color of the oil will eventually change and the flavor will change as well.

When the flavor of the pepper dissolves with the oil completely, you can take down the heat or take the pot out of the stove. Rest the cooking pot, so that the temperature of the oil gets down.

Use a strainer and store the oil:

Use a strainer to take the oil only, not the other fragments of the chili or the spices from the oil. Put the oil into a glass jar and store it in a cool place.

How do you make chili oil?

Making chili oil is an easy thing. Anyone with basic knowledge of the kitchen can make chili oil. No extraordinary knowledge is needed to prepare chili oil. Here are the steps,

Things you need:

You will need to have a frying pan, a cooking pot, a strainer, vegetable oil, and red dried chili. Everyone has these things in their kitchen. If you don’t have them, you can easily get them from any grocery store nearby.

And, if you want your chili oil to be better than usual, you can add some herbs like Star Anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves, dried ginger, and cardamom.

Drop all the ingredients together on a Cooking Pot:

When you gather all the ingredients. First, you need to put some of the oil on the pot and then stir the oil, until it reaches 225 to 250 Fahrenheit and starts bubbling. Then put all the herbs, and spices in the pot.

Stir it rigorously, and make sure that the spices should stick to the surface of the cooking pot. And ensure that the temperature remains as it is. Don’t stop stirring. Keep the pot on the stove for 30 to one hour.

Use the Strainer to strain the solid ingredients from the Oil:

Strain the solid ingredients out of the oil. Before that, rest the oil to reduce some heat from it.

Add Chili Flakes with the Strained Oil:

The oil has all the other flavors with it. The last thing you will have to do is to add the main flavoring ingredient with the oil. You can make your own chili flakes using the red dried chilis. Or you can get them from the grocery store.

Final Thoughts

Chili oil isn’t so strong, but you will get the flavor of chili. Without burning your tongue, you can easily use chili oil to have a little kick. Instead of chili oil, you can have a variety of substitutes to fulfill the urge for spicy goods. You can use different spicy sauces and peppers.