Chili crisp went from secret weapon to grocery staple fast, and most of the new shelf versions are forgettable. The small makers below are the ones actually worth keeping in the fridge — distinct recipes, real ingredients, and the kind of crunch and heat you end up putting on everything. A couple are genuinely hard to find. Here's where to get them.
Published June 2026 · Updated 29 Jun 2026
Red Clay's Southern Chili Crisp is a peanut-oil-based take with Fresno chili and shallot — a clean, crunchy, Southern spin on the format that's become a cult favorite for good reason. It's the most widely available of this list and the easiest to recommend as a first jar, from a genuinely small Charleston operation. Put it on a fried egg once and you'll get it.
Why it's worth findingA small Southern maker built on one clean, specific recipe is a different thing than a commodity jar. The recipe and the smallness are the whole point.
See it at Red Clay →KariKari is a Seattle maker doing a chef-made garlic chili crisp in small batches, with a transparent ingredient list and a devoted following. It's the kind of jar that runs out faster than you expect because you start putting it on everything. A great pick if garlic-forward crunch is what you're after.
Why it's worth findingChef-made, small-batch crisp with a short, honest ingredient list is a hands-on operation, made in quantities a warehouse model wouldn't bother with.
See it at KariKari →Boon is a slow-cooked LA chili oil deepened with anchovy for a savory, umami undertow — distinctive enough that it has a real connoisseur following. Worth knowing up front: it contains anchovy, so it isn't vegan (the anchovy is a sustainable, non-endangered fish). If you love the deep-savory end of chili oil, this one's a standout.
Why it's worth findingA slow-cooked, anchovy-deepened chili oil made in limited batches is a chef's project, not a mass product. The distinctiveness is exactly why it's worth tracking down.
See it at Boon →Homiah makes a low-oil Sambal Chili Crunch in the Nyonya/Malaysian style — women- and AAPI-founded, no preservatives, gluten-free, with a vegan Original that's the one to start with. It's a genuinely different flavor profile than the Sichuan-style crisps, brighter and more aromatic. A good pick if you want out of the usual chili-crisp lane.
Why it's worth findingA small, founder-led maker doing a regional style in small batches is exactly the kind of producer you only find by going looking.
See it at Homiah →Su Chili Crisp is a three-generation Taipei family recipe with no added sugar, sold through Yun Hai, a small shop that curates hard-to-find Taiwanese pantry goods. This is the deepest cut here — the one most people have never heard of and can't easily find — which is exactly why it belongs on the list. Yun Hai itself is worth a browse if you like discovering this kind of thing.
Why it's worth findingA three-generation family recipe sold through a small curated pantry shop is the definition of hard-to-find. You get there because someone points you to it.
See it at Yun Hai →Chili crisp is chili flakes fried in oil with aromatics until the solids turn crunchy, so you get crisp bits and infused oil in the same spoonful. The Sichuan-style versions lean on chili, garlic, shallot, and often numbing Sichuan peppercorn; other regions do it differently, like the brighter Nyonya-style sambal crunch. The defining trait is texture — it is meant to be spooned on, not poured.
Lao Gan Ma is the mass-market benchmark and it is genuinely good for the money, but it is a large-factory product with a fixed recipe. The small makers here vary the peppers, the oil, and the aromatics, and skip fillers and MSG when they choose to. You are paying for a specific point of view — a Southern peanut-oil crisp, an anchovy-deepened oil, a no-added-sugar Taipei recipe — rather than one uniform jar.
Start with a fried egg, then work outward: dumplings, noodles, rice, avocado toast, roasted vegetables, pizza, and even vanilla ice cream. Stir the crunchy solids up from the bottom before each use, since they settle under the oil. A little goes a long way, so spoon conservatively until you know a jar's heat.
The oil and salt make most chili crisp shelf-stable for weeks at room temperature, but refrigerating it after opening keeps the aromatics and any fresh alliums from going off and preserves the crunch longer. Always use a clean, dry spoon — water or food crumbs introduced into the jar are what cause spoilage. If a jar contains anchovy or shrimp, treat it a bit more carefully and keep it cold.
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