Everything You Need to Know About Peppers

Peppers are so individual, from color to flavor to heat. Use our guide to fire up your recipes. 

Poblano

This emerald-colored Mexican chile pepper has a thick skin and a mild, earthy flavor. It packs a bit of heat and is found in classics like mole sauce. Stuff poblanos with mild filling like rice and beans, then bake them with melty cheese.

Shishito

Shishitos are small but mighty, only 2-4 inches long, with an electric green skin that blisters wonderfully and quickly when pan fried. Beware: 1 in 10 packs a big punch of heat. 

Habanero

Despite its hot hot heat, the habanero has a somewhat smoky sweet flavor underneath all of that spice. Its acidity complements citrus-forward dishes like tacos, salsas, and sauces.

Bell Peppers

All bell peppers begin as green on the vine and then are picked at various stages of ripeness, delivering a variety of heat-free flavors and colors. (Got a green you’d rather were red? Leave it in a paper bag for 1-2 weeks and watch it ripen.)

Red bell: The most mature and sweetest, which makes it a favorite for roasting or eating raw on crudité platters or dipped in hummus.

Orange bell: The sweet, semi-herbaceous orange bell pepper is often stuffed with grains and veggies, then baked. Or, try dunking slices in ranch or sautéing them with onions and Italian sausage.

Yellow bell: With a refreshing sweetness and no heat, yellow bells bring color and crispness to any plate. Dice and combine with mango, onion, and cilantro for a sweet salsa. 

Green bell: The youngest pepper with a refreshingly grassy flavor. We like them sautéed in a stir-fry, atop a cheesesteak, in a relish or ratatouille, or roasted and blended in a tomato-based sauce.

Jalapeño

Jalapeños have a thick, grassy skin and a refreshingly mild spice that makes them just right for adding heat to salsas, casseroles, or wrapping in bacon. You can also pickle, candy, or purée them (try the latter in cocktails). Remove the seeds if you want less spice.

Anaheim

The Anaheim pepper is a mild, versatile pepper about 6-8 inches in length. Treat larger Anaheims like poblanos: stuff and bake. Smaller ones are good for any recipe that calls for green bell peppers—just plan on a bit more spice.

Serrano

Don’t mistake these small peppers for jalapeños—serranos are about five times spicier. The serrano, which can be green or red, is most often used in salsas, hot sauces, and relishes, but can also be pickled or chopped for garnish.

Mini Pepper Medley

Though these colorful peppers resemble miniature bell peppers, they are much sweeter. This classic combo of red, yellow, and orange is easy to roast and is delicious added to salads with nutty feta and other mediterranean flavors.

Fresno

These crimson peppers are spicier than jalapeños, but less so than serranos. They have a fruity, smoky flavor, which adds depth when pickled, blended into sauces, or used to pump up a salsa.

Hatch Chile Peppers 

Spicy, smoky, and slightly sweet, these green peps from New Mexico are slightly harder to come by, but are well worth the hunt. The name “hatch” comes from their origin in the Hatch Valley, where they grow in optimal conditions to get a classic spice, on top of an earthy flavor profile.

Long Sweet Peppers

Juicy, crispy, and (you guessed it) sweet, these Italian peppers add a crisp bite to salads, crudites, and chutneys. One of our favorite kinds of sweet peps are an heirloom variety known as Jimmy Nardello’s, named after one of the 11 Nardello children from the Basilicata region of southern Italy who brought the peppers to the US in 1887. 

What the SHU?

Scoville Heat Units (SHU) or the Scoville scale is a measurement of pepper pungency—aka how hot it is. Bell peppers hang out at the bottom of the scale with a range of 0-100, followed by Anaheim and poblano peppers, with jalapeños in the 2,500-10,000 range. And habaneros? A whopping 100,000+ SHU on the Scoville scale.