Chili Oil & Chinese Sausage Focaccia

This recipe for Chili Oil Focaccia features the delicious savory Asian flavors of chili oil, garlic and green onions, studded with Chinese sausage packed in a light and fluffy dough.

What is focaccia?

Focaccia is an Italian-style flatbread with a spongy, light texture which makes it suitable for sandwiches, mopping up sauces, or snacking on its own.

What's the difference between focaccia and ciabatta?

Ciabatta is another Italian bread, typically used for sandwiches. 

Both focaccia and ciabatta are high-hydration (over 80%) Italian breads.

Focaccia has a light, cakey, fluffy texture similar to pizza dough and has oil added, whereas ciabatta is open-crumbed and chewy, with minimal or no oil added. 

Why you'll love this recipe

This recipe for Chili Oil & Chinese Sausage Focaccia is:

Flavorful: Italian focaccia bread gets an injection of Asian flavors with the addition of spicy chili oil, garlic, scallions and Chinese sausage (lap cheong).

Straightforward to make: the no-knead dough is really easy to make and is low-effort.

Takes a little time: the only caveat is that the focaccia dough requires an overnight rise, which does take a little time, but it's well worth the wait as the extra time improves the flavor.

Easily adaptable: not a fan of spicy? Try my miso mushroom focaccia instead, or add other toppings such as furikake seaweed seasoning.

Versatile: make it into a pan pizza by adding cheese and your favorite sauce. 

Ingredients you'll need

Focaccia dough:

• cool or room temperature water: since the dough will undergo a cold fermentation, it's not necessary to use warm water
• active dry yeast: acts as the leavener for the dough
• granulated sugar: feeds the yeast and balances out the flavor
• all-purpose flour: regular flour or bread flour, which has a higher protein content
• sea salt
• olive oil: + extra for greasing; you can sub with chili oil in the dough if you like, but I prefer to save the chili oil for the top

Toppings:

• chili oil: to your taste; choose a chili oil that you enjoy -- if you like it spicy, add more; if not, use less
• green onion: chopped
• garlic: minced
• Chinese sausage (lap cheong): thinly sliced; is a sweet and savory sausage that is used in Chinese dishes such as lap cheong bao (Chinese sausage buns), claypot rice, and many others; if you don't have Chinese sausage, you can certainly omit it or add another meat instead, such as pork floss

How to make chili oil focaccia

Make the focaccia dough:

In a large bowl, combine water, sugar and active dry yeast. Give it a stir using a wooden spoon or silicone spatula.

Add in flour, sea salt and olive oil. Continue to mix until everything the dough roughly comes together. It will be sticky -- don't worry.

Pour a drizzle of olive oil around the edges of the dough. 

Cover the bowl with a lid and place into the refrigerator overnight.

Prepare the focaccia:

Remove the dough from the fridge and transfer to a 9" by 13" baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

If the dough is too stiff, let it rest at room temperature before transferring to the baking sheet.

Let the dough warm up to room temperature (anywhere from 2-4 hours, depending on how warm your kitchen is), or until it becomes light and bubbly.

Pour chili oil and sprinkle garlic over the surface of the focaccia dough and use your finger tips to make small indentations on the dough, at the same time pressing in the garlic.

Sprinkle on chopped green onion and press Chinese sausage pieces into the dough.

Preheat oven to 450F.

Bake the focaccia on the lower 3rd rack of the oven at 450F for 15-20 minutes, or until the top is lightly golden in color.

Remove from oven and let cool in the baking pan for 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

How to serve

Serve chili oil focaccia with pasta dishes such as Wafu Japanese style pasta, Hong Kong macaroni soup, kimchi mac and cheese. 

How to store & reheat

Store cooled focaccia in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Wrap focaccia in aluminum foil or plastic wrap, place into a freezer bag and freeze for up to 1 month.

To reheat, bake the focaccia at 350F for 10 minutes; add a few minutes if baking from frozen.

Expert tips

You can customize the toppings to add whatever you like. 

Depending on how warm or cool your kitchen is, the dough may need more or less time to rest and proof. 

The dough should not feel cold to the touch. 

Double the amount of dough to fill a half sheet (18" by 13") baking pan.

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