Making chilli oil

Cheetah Designs · 22 May 2017 at 12:56

So I've bought some extra virgin olive oil and just stuck a cut open fresh chilli in it....how long should I expect to leave it?

I've just had a google and everything I've seen has told me to cook the oil with the chilli in it....is this required?

thewanted · 22 May 2017 at 13:00

Sticking a chili in olive oil will do nothing. You need to use chili flakes and heat the oil up gently in a pan, and then pour the oil back into the bottle afterwards.

I've used this recipe a few times and it has turned out quite well.

HazardO · 23 May 2017 at 10:04

Cheetah Designs said:
So I've bought some extra virgin olive oil and just stuck a cut open fresh chilli in it....how long should I expect to leave it?

I've just had a google and everything I've seen has told me to cook the oil with the chilli in it....is this required?

IIRC sticking wet chilies in oil can cause botulism, you need to use dried. Garlic for instance should be blanched, chilies or herbs dried etc etc..

Psycho Sonny · 23 May 2017 at 10:53

you don't need to heat the oil.

you could dry the chillies in your oven at a low heat (below 90c) over a period of 1-3 hours. lower and longer the better.

then throw them into a spice blender, chop and crush them up, etc. then throw them into the oil.

you can't just throw a whole fresh chilli in.

FrenchTart · 23 May 2017 at 16:39

Gently heating the oil can help improve/speed up extraction so I'd suggest doing that tbh.

D.P. · 23 May 2017 at 19:26

Cheetah Designs said:
So I've bought some extra virgin olive oil and just stuck a cut open fresh chilli in it....how long should I expect to leave it?

I've just had a google and everything I've seen has told me to cook the oil with the chilli in it....is this required?

You will want to consume it within a couple of weeks otherwise you have a risk of food poisoning. As above, you need to use dried chilies.

Street · 24 May 2017 at 21:09

I did it in the past with dried chillies and heated the oil gently. I removed the chillies after and put it in sterilised bottles, it was some potent stuff! I'd also recommend not using extra virgin, just use normal olive oil.

SkeeterUK · 26 May 2017 at 11:08

Stictlydumpling on YouTube has a hot chilli oil video.

topgun06 · 14 Jun 2017 at 14:09

thewanted said:
Sticking a chili in olive oil will do nothing. You need to use chili flakes and heat the oil up gently in a pan, and then pour the oil back into the bottle afterwards.

I've used this recipe a few times and it has turned out quite well.

Recipe states use within one week? Is this really true? In the past I've made chilli oil and have been using it for months.

thewanted · 14 Jun 2017 at 14:10

topgun06 said:
Recipe states use within one week? Is this really true? In the past I've made chilli oil and have been using it for months.

I've never paid attention to it

Mine is at least 8 weeks old and I haven't died yet.

FrenchTart · 14 Jun 2017 at 14:13

If you use dried chillies..and especially if you heat the oil to hot enough and for long enough to pasteurise/sterilise I don't see why you wouldn't be able to keep it for ages, outside of oxidation.

topgun06 · 14 Jun 2017 at 16:51

That's what i thought. Id understand if you just whacked some fresh chillies in.

Ahhhh well. I'll be making some later this year with the silly number of chillie plants I've decided to keep.