--- title: 'Chili-Fried Chili (辣椒炒辣椒)' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=mDLuCgnXhjM' video_id: 'mDLuCgnXhjM' date: 2026-06-28 duration_sec: 418 --- # Chili-Fried Chili (辣椒炒辣椒) > Source: [Chili-Fried Chili (辣椒炒辣椒)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mDLuCgnXhjM) ## Summary The video explores the cultural and historical context of chili-fried chili, a humble dish from Hunan and Jiangxi. It explains how spicy flavors were used to compensate for salt shortages in imperial China and how chili peppers serve as both a flavoring and a vegetable. The host then demonstrates the cooking process, including the tiger skin chili technique and the final stir-fry. ### Key Points - **Chili-Fried Dishes Overview** [00:19] — Chili fried dishes are a stir fry base of fresh chopped spicy chilis, aromatics like garlic and ginger, maybe a little douchi, resulting in dishes like chili fried beef, chili fried pork, or chili fried century egg.. - **Historical Use of Spice** [00:43] — Mountain villagers used spice to make up for a shortage of salt, which was monopolized by imperial governments. - **Chili as a Vegetable** [01:15] — Chili peppers are used as a vegetable in rustic cooking, as they are healthy and grow well in poor soil. - **Tiger Skin Chili Technique** [02:32] — The tiger skin chili technique involves charring chilis over high heat, then covering and softening them. - **Flavor Profile Ingredients** [03:22] — The flavor profile uses spicy chilis, garlic, ginger, and optionally douchi (fermented black soybeans). - **Final Stir-Fry Steps** [04:02] — The final stir-fry combines the charred chilis with the aromatic base, soy sauce, and seasonings. - **Cost of the Meal** [04:49] — The entire meal (chili fried chili and tofu) costs about one US dollar, highlighting its affordability. ## Transcript This is chili fried chili, lajiao chao lajiao,  a humble dish from Hunan and Jiangxi that has   to be one of the all-time greats when it comes to  conspiracies to down a big portion of white rice.   Because this, this is village food – together with  all the wisdom that’s inherent within. Because   like, you can find these ‘chili fried’ dishes  pretty much all throughout China – what they are   are a stir fry base of fresh chopped spicy chilis,  aromatics like garlic and ginger, maybe a little   douchi… resulting in dishes like chili fried beef,  chili fried pork, or even chili fried century egg. Now the reason that that flavor is so synonymous  with humble cooking is that back in the day,   people up in the mountain villages would  actually often use spice to kinda make up for,   flavor wise at least, a shortage of  salt. And that’s because salt was a   product monopolized by the various  governments of imperial China,   a very important commodity… and so if you were a  random Qing dynasty farmer deep in the mountains,   often that salt supply chain wouldn’t exactly  reach your front door. And so to stretch out   your supplies, those spicy chili-fried flavor  profiles could kinda help bridge that gap.  But – that’s just flavor. Simultaneously, chili  peppers – especially the mild to medium ones –   are often used as a vegetable in a lot of rustic  village cooking. Because chilis, they’re quite   healthy, lots of vitamin C, and importantly they  can grow really quite well in otherwise poor,   rocky soil. So throughout China’s mountainous  interior, you can find dishes like tiger skin   chili or ghost fire green – basically dishes  where the vegetable itself is a chili pepper. So now put A and B together. A chili-fried  flavor profile, with chili as the vegetable… and,   of course, white rice as the base of it  all. A quintessential poor man’s stir fry. So. To make it, for your ‘vegetable chili’, you  are going to want something a little more on   the mild to medium side – these ones are luosijiao  a.k.a. screw peppers, which… may or may not be the   same thing as an Italian long hot? But either way  these ones, long hots, maybe Anaheims, poblanos,   even bell peppers if you wanted… we’ve got 450  grams worth, lightly crushed to flatten and I like   to chop them into sections for ease of consumption  but a lot of people’ll just keep them whole. Now, then, the technique that we’ll use  to cook these is going to be the tiger   skin chili technique. To do the move, just  swirl a tiny touch of oil into a hot wok,   just enough to get a thin shmear, then toss in  the chilis and begin to press them down over a   maximum flame. Let one side char for about 60  seconds or so, then flip them, and do the same   move on the other side. Then we’ll sprinkle in 3  eighths of a teaspoons of salt over those chilis,   mix that super super well, then swap the flame  down to medium/medium low. Cover the wok,   and let those fry for about 4-5 minutes soften  right up, stirring them periodically… what   you’ll be looking for is for the chilis  to kinda smell ‘roasted’ and for the skin   to just start separating from the flesh. Then  remove those, and we’ll continue the stir fry. But. For the flavor profile today, we’ll be  working from a mix of 25 grams of a spicy chili,   these guys are Chinese Heaven  facing, three cloves of garlic,   and an inch worth of ginger. Slice your chilis,  smash the garlic, smash the ginger… and then   mince those all together until you get something  relatively uniform, or about 1-2 minutes. That’s   our base. …but in addition I will also  be adding in a half tablespoon of douchi,   Chinese fermented black soybeans, wetting them  with a little baijiu liquor – or you could use   water – but… definitely optional, definitely not  imperative if you don’t have any douchis on hand. But… right. Back to the stir fry, we’ll first  toss in three tablespoons of lard or oil if   you’re keeping veg, and let that melt over a  medium-low flame. Then minced chili-aromatics in,   give that a quick mix, then toss in the wetted  douchi – if you’re using – and fry those all   until they’re fragrant, or about one minute.  Then, up your flame to maximum once again,   go back in with the green chilis, stir  fry that all for about 30 seconds…   then pour a half tablespoon of soy sauce over your  spatula and around the sides of the wok. Nice mix,   seasoning in, up here on the screen, and then  fry it all for a final 15 seconds or so to   mix and dissolve. Then out, and with that,  you’ve got yourself some chili fried chilis. So. A lot of people may not associate  chilis with something that’s like really   cheap? But – what we just got here is  500g green chili and it’s only 4 kuai   rmb which is basically 6 mao us dollar. And it  is actually really cheap here in China too. And   now let’s go get some tofu and make  a complete meal out of this. Tofu…  And now we got another three kuai of tofu,  basically it’s four mao us dollar. So that’s like   one us dollar in total here and now let’s go home  and I’ll show you how I can whip this thing up. So right! There you have it – chili fried  chili, chili fried tofu… a delicious,   balanced, nutritious, cheap meal that’s just  a little more than one dollar. So right! Full   recipe for both of these dishes are over on  Substack, a huge thank you to everyone that’s   supporting us on Patreon, and of course,  subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos.