Best Chili Oil Overall: Lee Kum Kee Lkk Chili Oil

Sometimes simple is best.

After trying out 14 different chili oils in a variety of dishes, we pick Lee Kim Kee LKK Chili Oil as the best overall.

This simple chili oil has just two ingredients: red chilies and soybean oil. Perhaps that explained why it performed best across a range of recipes, from a basic oil for stir fry to a dip for dumplings. Here’s more:

What We Liked

• Flavor notes include a touch of fruit such as plums.

• Mild heat—zip without being too zippy.

• Simple ingredients.

What Needs Work

• Pricey.

• Not hot enough for some folks. 

Best Splurge Chili Oil: S & B Chili Oil with Crunchy Garlic

One of our readers best summed this chili oil: “it’s magic . . . in a little jar.”

And we have to agree—S&B Chili Oil With Crunchy Garlic should come with a surgeon general’s warning . . . this stuff can become habit forming!

After we tried this on dumplings, we were tempted to throw out the rest of the chili oil we were testing and just crown this stuff the winner overall. The only downside: it is quite pricey! We think it is worth the splurge, though.

Here’s more:

What We Liked

• Made in Japan.

• Crunchy texture. Amazing!

• Favorite as dipping sauce for dumplings.

•  Great as a finishing sauce for fish dishes.

• Flavor is very addictive!

What Needs Work

• Pricey!

• Contains MSG. 

• Has gluten.

• Jar contains BPA warning.

• Not exactly a “clean” food. This jar somewhat indecipherable ingredients like disodium guanylate, disodium inosinate, and mixed tocopherols.

• Allergy alert: contains tree nuts (almond), sesame.

Best Chili Oil Sauce: Lao Gan Ma Spicy Chili Crisp Hot Sauce

It your chili oil tastes run toward thicker, sauce-type oils, this is the one we’d recommend: Spicy Chili Crisp. It is most flavorful, with a bit of crunch—perfect as a condiment and dipping sauce. It topped our tests when we used it in recipes that required a thicker sauce.

What We Liked

• Wowza! This sauce is packed with flavor.

• Gluten free.

• Not too hot.

• Crunchy flavor texture.

• Loved it with ramen.

What Needs Work

• Contains MSG.

• Not exactly a health food. This jar is packed with salt. Which is probably why it tastes so good.

• Must be refrigerated upon opening.

Best Budget-Friendly Oil: Sichuan Drizzle Chinese Chili Oil

Chili oil is addictive! And like any habit, it can get expensive.

Good news: one of the top chili oils in our tests is also easy on the wallet: Sichuan Drizzle Chinese Chili Oil. Loved the flavor here, which mixes red peppers, sesame oil and extra-virgin olive oil. Here’s more:

What We Liked

• Rich flavor!

• We loved it on noodle dishes and stir fry.

• No artificial colors.

• No artificial flavors.

• No preservatives.

• Affordable.

What Needs Work

• Too hot? Not hot enough? We thought this chili oil had just the right amount of heat. But some of our testers thought it was too hot. And a few even thought it was too mild. Go figure!

• Olive oil? While we loved the taste of this chili oil, there is a distinct minor flavor note of olive oil. And sometimes that clashed with the Chinese food recipe we tried, as olive oil isn’t exactly a neutral flavor. In the end, we still recommend it . . . with the caveat that some purists may find that flavor note off.

Why Trust Us

We’ve been rating and reviewing products for the home and families since 1994. We do hands-on testing—we buy the products with our own money and evaluate with an eye toward quality and affordability.

Here’s another key point: we don’t take money from the brands we review. No free samples, no sponsors, no “partnerships.” Our work is 100% reader-supported.

Credit for photo at top of article: Percy Pham, Unsplash