How Chili Crisp Took Over America
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If you haven't tried chili crisp before, you've probably at least heard of it. Over the past few years, the spicy, crunchy Chinese condiment has become increasingly popular in the U.S. Chili crisp is a blend of dried chilis and oil that can include garlic, dried shallots, sesame seeds, peanuts, and salt or MSG. The result is a tingly, textural, multi-flavor experience that keeps you coming back for more.
Intrigue over chili crisp slowly picked up in 2019 and much more during the pandemic, when so many people were messing with sourdough starters and filling online shopping carts with new items to add flavor to tired meals. And that enthusiasm hasn’t slowed down. Internet search interest for chili crisp hit an all-time high in May 2022, and the little jar made this year’s hot lists at grocery stores like Whole Foods and Kroger. So how exactly did this little jar of perfection win over America’s heart and supermarket shelves?
It’s Got That Umami
Although it may be new to most Western palates, chili crisp has been drizzled on dishes in China for centuries. “You can add peanuts and sesame seeds and garlic and seasonings into it to make different renditions and variations,” said June Xie, Senior Food Producer at Delish. “And even across China, because it's such a huge country with so many different pockets of regional traditions, chili crisp can vary, so there's not like one Chinese chili crisp that is the chili crisp.”
While Americans have long loved spicy foods and condiments, it’s chili crisp's singular combination of flavors and textures that gets people hooked.
“It’s about the umami-ness of it, the natural flavor in there—it’s addictive,” said Chef Neath Pal, instructor at Johnson & Wales University. While chilis are spicy, once you take a bite, the crunchiness, saltiness, spiciness, and sweetness keeps you reaching for the jar.
“When I went to my mom's and we had lunch together, we would just pop open a jar of Lao Gan Ma, which is where this kind of all started in the American mainstream,” said Xie referring to the chili crisp brand from Guizhou, China, that launched in 1984 and now produces 1.3 million bottles a day. It was arguably the first popular mass-produced chili crisp to be widely available in the U.S.
“I feel like chili crisp became the new Sriracha, and so now everybody's using chili crisp,” Xie said.
What’s Red, Spicy, And From The Same Continent?
Indeed, chili crisp has been referred to as the new Sriracha. The Thai chili sauce was introduced to the U.S. in the ‘80s and grew a cult following, landing on shirts, being tattooed on arms, and even starring in a documentary. But there was a time before nearly every refrigerator had a bottle.
Both beloved sauces have a somewhat addictive umami-ness that just feels right on anything from ice cream to fried eggs. While chili crisp is centuries old, we have yet to see the condiment show up in tattoos like Huy Fong’s Sriracha, but there are some shirts.
But what is it specifically about chili crisp that’s won over America?
“I think it plays into broader trends in the industry where there has been an interest in multicultural, more interesting, exciting flavors over the last 10 years,” said Jing Gao, owner of Fly By Jing, a condiment brand that makes chili crisp. “And there's also been a movement towards hot and spicy foods—hot sauce has grown as a category tremendously over the last decade.”
Indeed, it seems like many parts of the world have been on a spice kick. Between 2007 and 2017, the launch of products with spicy flavors steadily increased globally, with a compound annual growth rate of over 20 percent, according to research by Kalsec, a food and spices manufacturer. About 18,000 spicy products were introduced in 2016, and more than 22,000 were in 2017.
Shifting The Narrative Around Chinese Food
The phrase “not traditional, but personal” is printed on Fly By Jing’s Sichuan Chili Crisp label. It’s a reference to her own story and mission, but Gao says there are many more stories that deserve to be told. That's because chili crisp isn’t just one recipe, brand, or bottle. Dozens of variations have launched recently from chefs like Gao, David Chang of Momofuku, and Eric Sze from the Taiwanese restaurants 886 and Wenwen, plus stores like Trader Joe’s, which sells Crunchy Chili Onion. Fly By Jing products are now in over 3,000 retailers, including Whole Foods, Target, and Costco.
“If you are bringing a product from a specific culture into a more mainstream spotlight, and you’re introducing this product into people’s lives and people enjoy it, I think that is a great thing,” said Xie. But when cultural products hit the mainstream market, there are often questions surrounding authenticity and accessibility. While a 24-ounce jar of Lao Gan Ma retails for $13, 5.3 ounces of Momofuku Chili Crunch is $13, and a six ounces of Fly By Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp is $15.
Born in Chengdu, Gao has cooked in major cities all over the world, but was inspired by the flavors of her hometown to create her condiments. “Everywhere I went, it was a common theme that these flavors were really universally loved, but people just had no access to the ingredients,” said Gao.
“If you want to talk about authenticity or tradition, you can't get more traditional than our product because the Sichuan Chili Crisp alone has over 18 ingredients that are meticulously sourced in Sichuan,” said Gao, who noted how difficult it was to find a manufacturer due to the premium ingredients and higher retail costs. “They’re not even available in the mainstream market in China, let alone exported to the U.S. when in the U.S. people have always said that Chinese food is low quality and it’s not worth paying for.”
“When we launched, there wasn't this awareness of what chili crisp is. It was extremely niche,” said Gao.
To appeal to a wide audience, the brand used promotional images of chili crispy on ice cream to help demonstrate the product's versatility. “That really disarms people and made them just curious and willing to really experiment and make it work and fit into their own lives,” said Gao. “And I think that's what I would attribute a lot of what has made chili crisp a mainstream condiment now in the U.S.”
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