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People have been eating chili crisp condiments in China and other parts of the world for years, but recently a few new sauces have entered the American market alongside old favorites like Lao Gan Ma. These days your crunchy chili condiment collection has the potential to take up as much fridge space as your hot sauce collection—and we are not mad about that.
If you’re not yet familiar with these condiments, here’s why they’re good: These spicy sauces usually include more ingredients than your standard chili oil, giving them more depth of flavor. And then there’s the texture. Unlike a regular chili oil, chili crunches are, just as they advertise, crunchy. This is usually because the chili flakes—and often other ingredients, like garlic—are fried before they’re put into the sauce.
Food writer and founder of Fly by Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp Jenny Gao refuses to eat her eggs without a drizzle. Max Falkowitz, journalist and editorial director of Snuk Foods, calls chili crisps one of his favorite pizza toppings. And Cathy Erway, author of The Food of Taiwan, loves to put this sauce on her ice cream.
Find the right one and turn even the blandest of dinners or the worst take-out pizza into something spectacular. Below, we’ve gathered a few favorites from chili crisp experts themselves.
Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp Sauce
Also known as the “godmother sauce,” Lao Gan Ma is one of the most popular chili crisps. Its creator, Tao Huabi, started bottling it for purchase 20 years ago after making it in her noodle shop in the Guizhou province of China. The sauce contains caramelized chilis, fermented soybeans, garlic, and peanuts. And thanks to a hit of MSG, it’s bursting with umami flavor. Falkowitz says it’s “the perfect balance of sweet, spicy, and savory; and it accentuates texture.” There’s a reason this condiment has made Huabi (the godmother pictured on the jar) one of China’s richest self-made billionaires.
Sichuan Chili Crisp
Sichuan Chili Crisp boasts that its condiment contains all-natural ingredients and no added MSG. This chili crisp was inspired by Chengdu’s street food and is comprised of ingredients sourced directly from Sichuan farmers—specifically the extremely rare (and hand-harvested) tribute pepper. It’s full of crunchy chilis and other high-quality ingredients, including organic rapeseed oil, fermented black beans, seaweed, mushrooms, and other ground spices. Unlike many other chili crisp condiments, it is free of additives, preservatives, and MSG. “When you use real ingredients, that’s real umami flavor,” Gao said. This chili crisp goes beyond just being numbingly spicy. It’s hot but not overbearing, and it has a deep lemony, nutty aroma.
Su Spicy Chili Crisp
Su Spicy Chili Crisp is made in Taipei, Taiwan. This artisanal craft-made sauce is produced in small batches—only 50 per week—using a technique that’s been passed down for generations. Due to its freshness, Erway says it has “a full, bright chili flavor and a nice hint of Sichuan peppercorns.” It only contains a few ingredients, including Sichuan peppercorns, soybean oil, chili peppers, sesame seeds, and garlic.
Chile Crunch
Mexico City–born cook Susie Hojel created Chile Crunch by combining elements of a few of her favorite salsas to showcase what she felt were Mexico’s most essential flavors. Made of roasted chilis de árbol, garlic, onion, and spices sautéed in canola oil, this one has a more smoky flavor than the options above. And, it’s exceptionally crunchy—all the experts agreed that Chile Crunch is among the crunchiest of them all. Try this one if you want layers of roasted flavor, extra crunch, and relatively mild spice.
S&B Chili Oil with Crunchy Garlic
If you’re not one for mouth-numbing heat, it’s a good idea to go for a Japanese chili crisp because they tend to be less spicy than Chinese brands. But don’t assume that means they lack flavor—because you’d be very wrong. S&B Chili Oil with Crunchy Garlic is packed with a powerful umami flavor and crispy garlic. “It’s very garlicky and actually has big, satisfying shards of garlic throughout the jar,” Falkowitz said. This thick paste is made with a dose of sesame oil, ground chili peppers, sweet fried garlic, and MSG.
Momofuku Chili Crunch
The origins of this chili crunch lie in the back kitchens of Momofuku Ssäm Bar, where David Chang and his chefs tweaked the recipe of the course of a decade. Their version takes inspiration from Lao Gan Ma and Mexican salsas like salsa macha and salsa seca, both of which have their fair share of crunch. This chili crunch is smoky, garlicky, a little nutty from sesame seeds, and has plenty of deep savory flavor thanks to seaweed and mushroom powder.
Sze Daddy
Eric Sze, chef and owner of 886, a Taiwanese restaurant in NYC, created a chili sauce with more subtle texture than some of the sauces on this list. It boasts a strong heat accompanied by lingering notes of anise and mala numbing spice. In making this sauce, Sze drew inspiration from sacha sauce, a popular chili-based condiment in Taiwan.
Oo'mämē Moroccan Chile Crisp
The heat of this chili crisp gets balanced by a warm and fruity flavor profile from the addition ras el hanout, almonds, orange peel, and figs. We recommend adding a couple spoonfuls on top of some warm labneh (or any creamy cheese) to round out the sweet heat.
Blank Slate Sichuan Chili Oil
Brooklyn-made Blank Slate has a good balance of mala numbing spice and warm heat. It's technically called a chili oil rather than a crunch, but it has a decent crispy texture.