Homemade Cheeky Chilli Oil with a Secret Ingredient

You know that one ingredient that makes everything better? This is it. This chilli oil is smoky, nutty, spicy, and deeply savoury. The secret weapon? Lardons. Hear me out—those little smoky nuggets bring a subtle sweetness that perfectly balances the Mexican chillies and star anise. Spoon it over everything from noodles to eggs, swirl it into soups, or if you're feeling bold, enjoy it straight from the jar (we won’t judge).

Cheeky Chilli Oil Recipe

Cheeky Chilli Oil Recipe

Makes: ~550g Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 400ml Rapeseed Oil

• 200g Banana shallots, finely chopped

• 4 big old garlic cloves

• 100g Smoked lardons, cut into small pieces (I use London Smoke & Cure—so delicious)

• 6x Dried Chipotle chillies

• 3x Dried Guajillo chillies

• 2x Star Anise

• 70g Macadamia nut halves

• Salt

Method:

1. Add the oil to a pan on the lowest heat and toss in the shallots and garlic. Let them confit gently for 15 minutes. Then, add the lardons and leave for another 15 minutes.

2. While everything is cooking, dry toast the chillies in a pan until they gain some colour and puff up slightly. Remove them, cut into smaller pieces, and blitz them in a spice grinder or blender until coarse—don’t go too fine, you want texture.

3. After the lardons have been cooking for 15 minutes, add the star anise and macadamia nuts and leave for another 10 minutes.

4. Turn off the heat and stir in the blitzed chillies. Let the oil infuse and season to taste. For the best flavour, let it sit for 24 hours before using.

Top Tips:

• Season your chilli oil generously—it should act as both a seasoning and a flavour bomb in whatever you add it to.

• The possibilities with this are endless, but for a quick and ridiculously good lunch, toss some udon noodles with this chilli oil, miso + mirin shiitake mushrooms, spring onions, chicken stock, and a fried egg. Pure magic.