Did you know that there are around 4,000 varieties of chili peppers in the world? From those, ore than 60 types are produced in Mexico. You probably already know that chiles are a fundamental part of authentic Mexican cuisine. A wide variety of chiles are crucial elements to add complexity, depth, and a kick of delicious heat to countless dishes. Also, fresh chiles are also useful if you want to add color, texture, and heat to any dish. Some of the most common chiles found in Mexico include the Jalapeño, ancho, cascabel, poblano, chipotle, morita, guajillo, serrano, habanero, pasilla, de arbol, manzano, puya, and piquín chiles. Árbol chilies, which are called chiles de árbol in Spanish, are probably the most popular of the hot chilies used in traditional lMexican cooking. Is your mouth watering yet? Keep reading more to learn all about the various types of chilie’s in Mexico.
Mexico Chili Peppers – Facts and Info:
- Poblano Chili Peppers – Also known as Ancho chiles, Poblanos are dark green and usually quite large. In fact, the word “Ancho” is Spanish means “wide.” The ancho chile is the sweetest and mildest of all dried Mexican chile pepper types. Once dried, the large and triangular in shaped poblano chile is the most common dried pepper in Mexico.
- Jalapeño Chili Peppers – Jalapeños are one of the most commonly found chillies around the world. The Jalapeño pepper is super versatile too and can be used in various forms including fresh, roasted, pickled or smoked. Also, did you know that chipotle peppers are actually just jalapeños? Once dried, chipotle peppers are smoky, spicy, and a little sweet. There are two types of chipotle peppers. Chipotle meco chili peppers are large, tan in color, and have a strong flavor. The most common dried jalapeños pepper is knon as chipotle morita or chipotle colorado, which are small, dark red, and sweet peppers.
- Pasilla Peppers – The pasilla chile is also known as chile negro and is the dried form of the chilaca chili pepper which is a long and narrow pepper. It earns itts name due to its dark, wrinkled skin. Rich-flavored pasilla peppers can be anything from mild to hot and spicy. They are usually around 6 to 8 inches long and 1 to 1+1⁄2 inches in diameter once dried. Similar to the Guajillo pepper, the pasilla peppers has more intense heat. Usually, dried pasilla chiles are commonly used in sauces including fresh salsas, enchilada sauce, and mole sauce.
- Guajillo Peppers – Guajillo chilies used in a wide variety of Mexican dishes. For example, they are a common ingredient used in salsa for tamales. In order to prepare this sauce, guajillo peppers are dried, then seeded, soaked or simmered. Next, they are pulverized, mashed or pureed into a paste. At that point, they are then cooked with several other ingredients to produce a flavorful sauce.
- Serrano Peppers – Serrano peppers are spicy and delicious peppers that pack quite a punch of spiace. In Mexico, serrano peppers originated in the mountainous regions of the states of Puebla and Hidalgo. The name of the pepper is a reference to the mountains of these regions. The pepper is commonly used to make giardiniera.
- Habanero Pepper – The habanero chili pepper is one of the spiciest chiles around. Unripe habaneros are green, and they color as they mature. The most common color variants are orange and red, but they may also be white, brown, yellow, green, or purple. Usually, a ripe habanero is around 2–6 centimetres in length. In terms of heat, the peppers are loaded with capsaicinoids, and score around 150,000 Scoville Heat Units, which ranks the habanero among some of the spiciest peppers in the world.
- Ghost Pepper – Last but not least, the ghost pepper t is a hybrid of Capsicum chinense and Capsicum frutescens. In 2007, Guinness World Records certified that the ghost pepper was the world’s hottest chili pepper, 170 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. The ghost chili is rated at more than one million Scoville Heat Units (SHUs). For comparison, the hottest ghost pepper is estimated to be 416 times hotter than the mildest jalapeño pepper which usually scores around 5,000 Scoville Heat Units on the Scoville Scale.
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