No ingredient is more fundamental to Mexican food than the colorful chile.
Chile is a versatile fruit that comes in a wide variety of shapes, colors, sizes, and heat. It can be prepared in a myriad of ways: roasted (my favorite), fried, boiled, grilled, and/or fresh. In this blog post I share some of my favorite chiles.
Anaheim (Mild to Medium)
Anaheim chiles are perfect for recipes calling for roasted chiles to make salsas or chile rellenos. The riper dried, red form of this chile is called chile colorado.
Chile de Arbol (Hot)
The name of this chile is Spanish for “tree,” which is exactly what these slender, tapered chiles resemble. Chile de arbol peppers are thin-fleshed and have a tannic, smoky, grassy flavor with searing heat.
Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce (Hot)
This is actually a dried, smoked, red jalapeño. I use the canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, which are marinated in vinegar and seasonings. You can eat the peppers straight from the can, chop them up as a garnish, or cook them with your favorite meal.
Dried Red Chile (Mild to Hot)
Also referred to as chile colorado, New Mexico chile, or California chile, this chile has a thin flesh with an earthy chile flavor and undertones of wild cherries. This is the chile I use to make red chile sauce.
Jalapeño (Medium to Hot)
Jalapeños have the richest flavor of all the small chiles, which makes them perfect for salsas.
Poblano/Pasilla (Mild to Medium)
This heart-shaped chile—wider and darker than an Anaheim—is also mild. It has a wide interior, which makes it the perfect chile for stuffing.
Serrano (Hot)
The flavor of serrano chiles is bright and biting with a delayed fuse. These small, skinny, pointy chiles are about five times hotter than jalapeños.
Love this! My boyfriend’s mum always uses a variety of chiles & I never know which ones! This covers some of the bases. She also uses a super tiny chile that comes in red & green. :]
Hola Yvette! I really enjoy your blogs. I wonder if you can help me. When I was a young girl, I remember my mom and Nana making a thin, crepe like egg dish. I don’t recall any of the ingredients except for dried ground shrimp, the scrambled eggs and a red enchilada type sauce. Do you have any idea how to make these or the actual ingredients? Popular during Lent. Mucha gracias!!!!!
Hi Christina, sounds delicious! I wish I knew what it was, but have no idea.
It’s called camarones con noples en Chile rojo. In English dried shrimp with cactus in red sauce. Yes it’s made during Lent. You said the ingredients, bet the eggs and add shrimp drop a spoon full into hot oil and cook. Make your enchilada sauce add your cook shrimp patties into sause and cooked cactus. Delish!*
Such an interesting post.
I looove chilli. Mild hot in meal or dried or fresh.
I cook with it on daily basis.
Yum yum
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I loved the way you have written and also the pictures are also yummy and great.. When you come to my blog I will share a discount coupon for you for this lovely post 🙂
My favorite is the chile pequin. A friend once told me “only use one pequin per tomatoe as they are hot”.