Straight out of Chengdu, one of China’s most famous food cities, this moderately spicy chili sauce blends a variety of Chinese dried chilies with a hint of numbing Sichuan peppercorns for the characteristic Sichuan mala (hot and numbing flavor profile).
Floral, citrusy Sichuan peppercorns are technically not a peppercorn at all, but a type of prickly ash. The peppercorns usually require toasting and grinding before use, but this convenient oil makes life far easier.