---
title: 'WTF is ''Red Oil'' Chili Bean Paste?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=e89_67re2z4'
video_id: 'e89_67re2z4'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 0
---

# WTF is 'Red Oil' Chili Bean Paste?

> Source: [WTF is 'Red Oil' Chili Bean Paste?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=e89_67re2z4)

## Summary



## Transcript

So this product, red oil chili bean paste, it's 
a big reason why ‘Sichuan food’ is really so  
synonymous with ‘the color red’. Like this is 
a Mapo Tofu that's made with it and this is a  
Mapo Tofu that's made without. The stuff, it's 
not actually very spicy… it primarily has this  
really deep fermented bean flavor to it, but it 
is importantly, incomparably… gorgeously red.  
But something that I've seen when people are 
trying to hunt this down for their mapo tofu or  
whatever is honestly… a lot of confusion. Because 
like, you don't want this. This one is Cantonese  
and it's really a bit more for dipping sauces. You 
also don't want this. This is Taiwanese and it's  
not really the same thing as our red oil chili 
bean paste. And further confusing everything, even  
in Sichuan itself, there are two major different 
varieties of red oil chili bean paste. There's  
this and there's also this, which is in turn made 
from this. So, red oil chili bean paste variety  
number one, which is a chili bean paste that's 
been aged together with oil, which is basically  
what this product is here, which is honestly for 
most home cooks the standard kind of red oil chili  
bean paste. If you see a recipe online calling 
for Pixian Doubanjiang, whether it's in English or  
in Chinese, 99 times out of 100, they're going to 
be calling for this thing. The way that it's made  
is by fermenting broad beans together with chili 
pepper and a whole bunch of salt and then taking  
that and aging it together with oil inside of a 
fermentation crock. I'll leave an English language  
recipe for the stuff if you're in the market for 
a fermentation project, but you can also just  
buy this bottle. It's easy. It's ready to go. But 
there's also chili bean paste variety number two,  
which is a chili bean paste that's been fried with 
oil. Now, this I think you might be able to tell,  
is a homemade red oil chili bean paste that is 
in turn made from this, which is a not-homemade  
oil-less Pixian Doubanjiang. This specific 
pack here, it's pretty popular in restaurants,  
but in Sichuan itself at the markets, you can also 
find some more… artisanally made… varieties. What  
you'll do is you will get your oil-free Pixian 
Doubanjiang and then you'll bring it home and  
then you'll fry it on low together with a bunch 
of oil and then you can take that, reserve it,  
and save it for dishes. So if you've gone online 
and you've mistakenly bought a pack of this,  
know that it actually is a pretty nice product, 
but also know that it is not quite ready to use  
just quite yet. Again, you're going to need to fry 
it. Now, there's a couple different ways that you  
can fry this stuff. You can also flavor your oil, 
which we'll show you how to do a little bit later.  
But first, let's just show you how to get this 
guy ready to use. So, assuming a base of about  
100 g of our packaged Pixian Doubanjiang, we're 
going to be using a half a cup of oil. Now, the  
oil that we're using today is this – Caiziyou - 
which is a sort of virgin rapeseed oil that's very  
traditional in Sichuan cooking. Now, Caiziyou, 
unfortunately, it is a raw oil. So, first we're  
going to need to cook it. Now, to do so, you 
just toss that into a walk and over a high flame,  
you begin to get that up to smoke point. So, for 
this stuff, we're looking for an oil temperature  
about 230C. Then, we'll swap the flame to low 
and keep it at around that temperature for 30  
to 40 seconds. Then, shut off the heat and let the 
temperature come down. The reason for this move is  
whenever you're working with any kind of raw oil 
like this kind of Sichuan Caiziyou or if you're  
in Guangdong or Guangxi, a more kind of artisanal 
peanut oil or maybe an Indian mustard seed oil,  
which is our common Caiziyou sub, cooking it first 
is going to be a pretty important step to really  
remove its pungency. With most mass-produced oils, 
even the nicer ones, you're not going to have to  
do that step. So, you're probably not going to 
need to do it. But, uh, if you're curious what the  
result is, you could try it on the raw natural oil 
that's popular in the West, which is, of course,  
olive. Try the before and after. But anyway, 
once the oil's cooled down, we can then toss  
in our Pixian Doubanjiang. And over a low flame, 
we'll start to fry it. You'll be looking for the  
oil to start to stain red, which is going to 
take about 10 minutes over a medium low flame.  
You're going to be done once the oil's been 
stained and the chili peppers inside of the  
doubanjiang have started to curl slightly and ever 
so slightly lose the color like this. And then you  
can just toss that in a bowl and jar it up once 
it's cooled down. But with that said though, we  
should probably talk about color because like this 
is the color that we just fried up, and this is  
the color of the package bottle. Now, this one, it 
is going to get a bit darker as it sits, but trust  
me that it is never going to get as red as the one 
that's actually been fermented together with the  
oil. So, functionally, I think for us as cooks, 
type two, it'll often have a superior flavor, but  
then type one, it's going to end up with a bit of 
a better color. Now, unless you're making stuff in  
a restaurant or on YouTube, if you're just cooking 
for yourself, obviously not everything needs to be  
super super red. But if you find yourself using 
the pack and you do want to amp up the color a  
bit, three options for you. First, if you're using 
this, you could also try adding a half part of a  
red fragrant chili powder to your recipe. So 
like if your recipe is calling for something  
like a tablespoon of Pixian Doubanjiang, you could 
maybe try adding a half tablespoon of a Kashmiri  
or Gochugaru to your recipe, mixing that in. It's 
not going to end up being quite as red, but it'll  
end up kind of splitting the difference. Then 
option two is if you happen to have both this and  
this both on hand, you could try going half/half. 
So you could do like half a tablespoon of your  
homemade one for depth, half tablespoon of the 
package for color, that kind of thing. And then  
option three, you can also fry up your own flavor 
with a mix of different Pixian Doubanjiang. And  
that really is the benefit of these kinds of packs 
is that as a cook, you can really kind of take it  
and make it your own. Now, the most common way 
to make it your own is to mix different ages  
of Pixian Doubanjiang. So, today we're going 
to be doing three parts of a hongyou douban,  
the red one. Three parts of a one-year Pixian 
Doubanjiang, that's the pack, and then also one  
part of a three-year Pixian Doubanjiang, which is 
a little bit saltier, but it has this really deep  
fermented flavor to it. Now, again, this is just 
our mix. One-to-one is another very classic mix in  
Sichuan. But again, you can just make it your own 
because in addition to that you can also - if you  
want - add in a bit of spices and aromatics. So 
today we decided to go with a quarter of an onion  
and about 3 inches of smashed ginger together with 
this spice mix right here - which we tossed in a  
bowl and wetted with a bit of baijiu liquor… and 
vodka would also work great. Then we'll cook one  
cup worth of our rapeseed oil just like before. 
Let it cool down just like before and then add in  
the onion and the ginger and let those fry over 
medium flame. After about 5 minutes, we'll then  
toss in our liquor-wetted spices and continue to 
cook. Once the onions are nice and golden brown,  
about 5 minutes more, strain that all and then 
return the oil back to the walk. Then add in your  
Pixian Doubanjiangs. We've got 90g of our red oil, 
90g of the 1-year together with 30g of the 3-year.  
Then slowly fry those again, medium low flame for 
about 10 minutes until red and fragrant. And then  
out. And with that, you've got yourself a nice 
and seasoned red oil chili bean paste. So, right,  
big question whenever you're making any kind of 
intermediate product in a home kitchen is, uh,  
is this actually worth it? Like, is it the bread 
or is it the butter? And for me, I would say this  
kind of home fried Pixian Doubanjiang, I would 
say it's… kind of worth it? Like if you're making  
Sichuan food on the regular, I think the easiest 
way for you to level up, so to speak, is if you  
can make a good quality homemade chili oil. And 
we have a whole video on the topic here. Um, then  
the second most important thing, if you can swing 
it, is going to be a homemade stock. Now, that's  
obviously a lot more common in restaurant kitchens 
than it is in home kitchens for a reason. But if  
you can even whip up a simple pork bone stock, 
I do think that that's really going to move the  
needle on your Kung Pao. And then I would put this 
one, I think, underneath those two. Like if you  
already have a homemade chili oil and you already 
have homemade stock AND you are frying up a lot  
of stuff in the homestyle flavor profile, which 
we covered a couple weeks ago, but is basically  
Pixian Doubanjiang and not all that much else. I 
do think that it can be pretty tasty, but um it's  
I don't think that obligatory. You can also just 
use this bottle. So yeah, recipe for everything is  
going to be down in the description box. Free 
as always. And again, huge huge thank you to  
everybody that's supporting us on Patreon. And of 
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