How to Use Chili Crisp: What to Put It On

A slice of avocado toast topped with a fried egg and Super Magic Taste chili crisp, the jar behind it on a red tiled counter.

Spoon it on at the end, not in at the start. Chili crisp is a finishing condiment. A spoonful on food that is already cooked adds crunch, garlic and a gentle heat. It goes on almost anything, and it is best on something rich or creamy.

What to put chili crisp on

  • Eggs. Fried, scrambled, any way you like them. The classic, and our breakfast most mornings.
  • Rice and noodles. A spoonful turns a plain bowl of rice into dinner.
  • Anything creamy. Mayo, burrata, mozzarella, nut butter on toast. Fat carries the flavour.
  • Something sharp. A squeeze of citrus or a splash of vinegar wakes it right up.
  • A quick marinade. Thin it with soy sauce or tamari and you have one.

It is not very salty, so season your food the way you normally would and add the chili crisp at the end. The longer version is below, including a grapefruit, burrata and pistachio plate.

The longer version

I've always been slightly averse to providing prescriptive recipes for our products. Recipes always run the risk of being overly procedural, which can remove my favourite part about cooking - the creativity! 

All cooking provides the opportunity to understand food and its component parts. What makes a meal special? What makes a meal memorable? What makes flavours pop? 

Instead, here are some guidelines for how you can use our Chili Crisp:

  • It has very versatile, and overall a fairly neutral spicy + savoury flavour profile, so as a first rule, try it on anything! It is also intentionally not heavily salty, so you can season your food as you usually would, then add our chili crisp without upsetting the salt profile of the dish. 
  • It's great on a spoon - try some to better understand the flavour.
  • It goes really well with some form of fat - eggs, nut butters, mayo, or other buttery, creamy dishes. 
  • It goes really well with some added acid (citrus fruits, vinegar)
  • You can add different things to it to shift or enhance the flavour profile - add some acid with vinegar, make it more galicky with some fried garlic, make it a delicious marinade by diluting it with soy sauce or tamari, add some extra crunch with crushed pistachios, boost sweetness by drizzling honey. 
  • Using the above, you can start to imagine dishes:
    • Grapefruit for acid
    • Mozzarella or burrata for some nice creamy fattiness
    • Crushed Pistachios
    • Big spoonfuls of our Chili Crisp
    • A drizzle of honey, and sprinkling of large flaked salt

It can be as simple or as complex as you'd like, but we've made it to be a neutral vessel around which you can build a dish. I always start my day with eggs and Chili Crisp, and this is a wonderful way to use our product, but we always encourage creativity in the kitchen, with the firm belief that the best meal is one you create, tweak, interpret, and imagine yourself. 

XOXO

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