Common Latin Chilies

Guide to Ancho, Chipotle, Habanero and Other Southern Chili Peppers

Jul 4, 2007

Chilies are a fundamental part of Latin American and Caribbean cuisine. Here's a quick guide to help you properly sort out your peppers.

Guide Use

Pretty basic stuff here: Appearance, Scovilles, common uses, possible substitutes in a pinch, and some fun facts to impress your friends.

Common Chili Guide

Ancho

Appearance: Anchos are dried poblano chilies. They are a wrinkled red-brown color about 4-6 inches long with wide shoulders. They have a mellow, sweet flavor.

Uses: Because of their sweetness, anchos are used in sweet moles and sauces. They can also be soaked in warm water for half an hour to soften for use in recipes like chilies relleños or blended into a salsa.

Chipotle

Appearance: Chipotles are smoked jalapeños. There are two main types, chili morita, which is a reddish brown color and chili ahumado which is a tan variety. The difference in the color comes from the length of time the chilies have been smoked. The longer smoked, tan variety are considered superior, but both kinds will add a lot of flavor to your dishes.

Uses: These are great chilies to use to spice up lots of dishes. They are used in dressings, sauces, powders... For a more complete list of great ways to use chipotles, just check this article out.

Substitutes: You can substitute dried chipotles with canned chipotles in adobo. Adobo is a sweet, sour, and spicy sauce and really gives the chilies a great flavor. Be careful though that the chipotles in adobo tend to be spicier than dried chilies, so back off by half from your recipe when using canned.

Fun Fact: It takes 10 pounds of jalapenos to make 1 pound of chipotles. The name comes from the Aztec words, "chil", chili, and "pochilli", to smoke.

Habanero

Appearance: These little fireballs are typically an inch or two long and range from green to red in color. Most commonly, though, you will find them between shades of orange and yellow.

Scovilles: 100,000-350,000 (One company has bred a Red Savina Habanero that is between 350,000 and 577,000 Scoville)

Uses: Adding heat to sauces. Habanero salsa is quite common and a great way to add a sweet and spicy kick to a lot of foods.

Fun Fact: With chiliheads constantly looking for increasingly spicy foods, breeders have been selectively growing hotter varieties.

Jalapeño

Appearance: These spicy ladies are between three and five inches long and range from dark green to a dark red. They are fairly skinny which is probably where the term "Texas Torpedo" came from in this kicked up popper recipe.

Uses:There aren't too many Latin dishes you couldn't use these in. They are very common in salsas, street foods, and just as a condiment on the side of meals.

Substitutes: Serranos are fine substitute. Resist the urge to buy canned or jarred.

Fun Fact: This chili is named after the city of Xalapa in the state of Veracruz in Mexico where it originates from.

Poblanos

Appearance: Poblanos are a dark green color, between four and six inches long with a wide top.

Uses: These are the perfect pepper to use for rajas because of their thick flesh. Also stuffed as in this chili rellenos recipe, these are great chilies to use.

Substitutes: Either New Mexico chilies or Anaheim chilies will substitute well.

Serranos

Appearance: Serranos look a bit like jalapenos that have been stretched out. The texture of their surface tends to be rougher than that of jalapenos as well.

Uses: Pretty much anything you would use a jalapeno for you can use a serrano. Just beware you're going to be adding a bit more punch with serranos.

The copyright of the article Common Latin Chilies in Latin/Caribbean Cuisine is owned by Timothy Dzurilla. Permission to republish Common Latin Chilies in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.