The reason why this red oil is special is because it uses a Chinese herb called purple grass.
This herb itself doesn't have a particular taste, but when added during the process of making red oil, it makes the oil exceptionally bright red with a subtle sheen.
Top-quality peppers are de-stemmed and then slowly roasted on low heat, with a slight amount of rapeseed oil added during roasting, just this step alone brings out the aroma of the peppers.
Then the peppers are crushed into small, chopstick-sized pieces.
After heating the rapeseed oil to a sizzle, lower the heat and add Old Jiang, fatty chicken pieces, and a bit of purple grass to the pot for deep frying. Once the oil turns purplish-red, remove the ingredients from the pot.
The purplish-red rapeseed oil is poured into an iron barrel, and sesame seeds are quickly added. Once the oil temperature drops slightly, the crushed peppers are added and stirred evenly.
Red oil made this way tastes very unique.
