Chile de árbol

Chile de árbol

What it is

The name means tree chilli, after the woody stem the plant builds rather than any relation to a tree. It keeps its bright red through drying where most chillies go brown, which is why it is the one reached for when a salsa has to look red as well as burn — 15,000 to 30,000 Scoville, ten times an ancho.

In the kitchen

Fry them whole in oil for ten seconds and then use the oil as much as the chilli — capsaicin is fat-soluble and most of it crosses over. Stems on and seeds in, or you have given up the only thing this chilli is for.

Goes with

Tomatillo Garlic Lime Sesame Peanut Onion Tomato Cilantro / Coriander

Same species

Ají amarillo Ají panca Ajvar Aleppo pepper Ancho chilli Bell pepper

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