• Thai Cooking Classes
  • Thai Recipes
  • Latest Posts
  • About
    • A Thai-Foodie Love Story
  • Contact
  • Nav Social Icons

  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Thai Cooking Classes
  • Thai Recipes
  • Latest Posts
  • About
    • A Thai-Foodie Love Story
  • Contact
  • Mobile Menu Widgets

    search for your fav thai recipe

Thai-Foodie.com logo

Thai-Foodie

A Thai Food Love Affair

5 Tips for How to Make Crispy Fried Garlic Topping

April 20, 2017 · In: Thai Cooking TIps

Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe
Crispy Fried Garlic | thai-foodie.com

Thai food and garlic are best friends. They can’t live without each other, and almost all Thai dishes have some sort of garlic thrown in whether it’s stir-fried in the Thai food or fried garlic sprinkled on top of a dish.

Of course we always have garlic in our house, and usually whatever amount of garlic a recipe calls for, I always double it, per request of my Thai Hubby. And a glass container of fried garlic in garlic oil is often on our counter, waiting to be sprinkled on any dish that needs an extra pop of crunchy garlic goodness.

In Thailand, they typically put fried garlic in Thai noodle bowls, or in different Thai stir-fried dishes like Garlic Pepper Chicken.

We like to put it on fried eggs along with some Golden Mountain sauce, or Thai fried rice to give a little pop sometimes, or even American dishes that need a little garlic zing to them like pizza or spaghetti. It really works with anything!

Fried garlic topping is so yummy, yet so easy to mess up! But these 5 tips on how to make fried garlic will help you make it golden and crispy every time!

< >

It can be very tricky to make though, and I’ve often ended up with blackened garlic bits instead of golden brown because it’s such a delicate process.

To help you avoid the same mistakes I’ve made, here are five tips for how to make fried garlic topping.

1. Use more oil than you would expect to.

I know most people are cautious about oil because and don’t like using too much, but if you don’t have enough oil in your pan, your garlic wont be fully covered enough to get crispy brown. Plus, in Thailand they like to keep the oil the garlic is fried in, so that you can sprinkle the oil along with the crispy garlic on your Thai dish to get that extra garliky hit.

SO good!

Fried garlic topping is so yummy, yet so easy to mess up! But these 5 tips on how to make fried garlic will help you make it golden and crispy every time!

2. Make sure that the oil is NOT hot before you put in the garlic.

If the oil is steaming hot before you put in your garlic, it will most likely burn in seconds. You don’t want that, so make sure you put your oil in your pan, and immediately put in your garlic before the pan is hot.

3. Just keep stirring! Just keep stirring!

You can sing that little phrase in your head, Dory-style, while stirring your garlic in your pan. If you leave the garlic for a moment, it could turn black, so make sure you coddle it, and stir it often, so it doesn’t have time to sit and quickly, yet sneakily burn while your back is turned.

4. Leave your heat on low to medium-ish.

Most of the time when I stir-fry, my heat is as high as it can go since that’s how you get that lovely smoky flavor in stir-fries. But not when making fried garlic topping! All stoves are different, but usually somewhere around low to medium-low  is a good setting. If you see it getting too hot, immediately remove your pan from the burner and turn down the heat.

Fried garlic topping is so yummy, yet so easy to mess up! But these 5 tips on how to make fried garlic will help you make it golden and crispy every time!

5. The minute the garlic turns golden brown, take the pan off the burner.

Once you see the garlic turn the color it is in these photos, aka golden, you have done your job, so remove your pan from the heat and quickly put the garlic topping and garlic oil in a heatproof container. If you leave it on a second longer, the garlic could start to burn. Plus, the garlic still cooks some in the hot oil even off the burner, so make sure you keep that in mind too.

You might not get it right the first time, and that’s totally fine because that’s how you learn (preaching that to myself). Or you might get it perfect the first time, yay! Either way, you have learned something, double yay!

Now go make some crispy garlic topping, put it on amazing Thai dishes like Garlic and Pepper Chicken and sprinkle it to your heart’s desire!

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
Crispy Fried Garlic | thai-foodie.com

5 Tips for How to Make Crispy Fried Garlic Topping


5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

No reviews

  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 3-4 1x
Print Recipe
Pin Recipe

Description

Fried garlic topping is so yummy on Thai food or any food, yet so easy to mess up! But these 5 tips on how to make fried garlic will help you make it golden and crispy every time!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 whole head of garlic, cloves peeled and finely chopped

Instructions

  1. Combine oil and garlic in a saucepan over low heat.
  2. Stir constantly for about 3 minutes until garlic starts to turn a light brown color, as shown in the pics, and the amazing aroma of toasted garlic hits your nose and makes you smile.
  3. Take it off the heat immediately because in a split-second it can go from brown to black and smell burnt instead of amazing.
  4. The hot oil in the hot pan removed from the burner will finish toasting it up some if need be.
  5. Pour it into a heatproof container and sprinkle on any Thai dishes or any dish that needs some garlicky crunch!
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 5 minutes

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @thaifoodie on Instagram

By: Sherri Pengjad ยท In: Thai Cooking TIps

you’ll also love

How to Make Toasted Rice Powder | Thai-foodie.com How to Make Thai Toasted Rice Powder
top 5 best thai cooking books 5 Best Thai Cooking Books for Authentic Thai Recipes
What is Fish Sauce? What is Fish Sauce?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Cristina says

    October 14, 2018 at 12:07 pm

    I really like adding fried garlic in most dish. It also comes very handy for me since I can store it in my pantry for a long period of time. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Sherri Pengjad says

      October 18, 2018 at 12:39 pm

      Yes! i feel the same way! ๐Ÿ™‚ So glad you enjoy it!

      Reply
  2. Nicholas Ng says

    January 16, 2019 at 11:51 am

    How do you save the fried garlic? Do you put it in the fridge in a bottle?

    Reply
    • Sherri Pengjad says

      March 19, 2019 at 7:19 pm

      I put it in a glass jar and save it on the counter for a few days. If it’s put in the fridge it doesn’t stay crispy.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

Next Post >

Thai Larb Meatball Lettuce Wraps Recipe

Primary Sidebar

meet sherri

meet sherri
meet sherri

hey dear! wanna know how I fell in love with Thai food, Thai Hubby and Thai cooking?

get all the deets here

find your fav thai recipe

Connect

Featured Posts

Pineapple Chicken Fried Rice | thai-foodie.com

Pineapple Chicken Fried Rice (Thai Style) โ€“ Easy Weeknight Recipe

thai khao pad in wok

Easy Thai Khao Pad (Better Than Takeout Fried Rice!)

thai vegetable fried rice

Vegetable Thai Fried Rice

Advertise

SiteGround Ad

Copyright © 2025 ยท Theme by 17th Avenue