Types of Chiles for Mexican Cooking

By:

Mary Sue Milliken

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Updated:

2016-03-26 21:25:58

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Chiles are a staple in Mexican cooking. Take this list grocery shopping so you can recognize the type of chiles used for Mexican meals and choose the chiles with the flavor and degree of spiciness you like:

Serrano: A small, fresh, green hot chile. Used for spice and flavor in cooking and as a garnish.
Jalapeño: Larger than a serrano, though still small. This fresh green or red chile is probably the easiest to find in America. The ripe red version is sweeter; the green version can be spicy.
Poblano: A dark green, medium-sized fresh green chile often roasted and stuffed.
Habanero: A tiny, lantern-shaped fresh chile of extraordinary heat. Interchangeable with the incendiary Scotch Bonnet.
Chile de arbol: A small, red dried chile. It's the chile used for the dried red chile flakes in the spice section of the market.
Chipotle: A medium-small, wrinkled, dried brown chile with a unique smoky flavor reminiscent of bacon. It's the dried, smoked version of jalapeño.
Chile negro, or pasilla: A long, narrow, dark brown dried chile used for grinding into moles.
Ancho: A medium-sized, wrinkled, brown dried chile with a mellow, earthy, sweet flavor. It's the dried version of the poblano.

About This Article

About the book author:

Susan Feniger may be “ a gringa from the Midwest,” but she fell deeply in love with Mexican food when first introduced to it more than 20 years ago. She and fellow chef Mary Sue Milliken became friends in the late ’70s while working in the otherwise all-male kitchen of a prestigious French restaurant in Chicago called Le Perroquet. After honing their skills in fine restaurants in France and America, they opened their first restaurant, the highly celebrated City Café, in Los Angeles in 1981. These days, they divide their time between their three restaurants, Border Grills in Santa Monica and Las Vegas, and the upscale Ciudad in downtown Los Angeles. They also have authored five previous cookbooks, including Mexican Cooking For Dummies, host the popular Television Food Network series, Too Hot Tamales, and are heard regularly on Southern California radio.

Mary Sue Milliken may be “a gringa from the Midwest,” but she fell deeply in love with Mexican food when first introduced to it more than 20 years ago. She and fellow chef Susan Feniger became friends in the late ’70s while working in the otherwise all-male kitchen of a prestigious French restaurant in Chicago called Le Perroquet. After honing their skills in fine restaurants in France and America, they opened their first restaurant, the highly celebrated City Café, in Los Angeles in 1981. These days, they divide their time between their three restaurants, Border Grills in Santa Monica and Las Vegas, and the upscale Ciudad in downtown Los Angeles. They also have authored five previous cookbooks, including Mexican Cooking For Dummies, host the popular Television Food Network series, Too Hot Tamales, and are heard regularly on Southern California radio.

Helene Siegel is the co-author of City Cuisine, Mesa Mexicana, Cooking with the Too Hot Tamales, and Mexican Cooking For Dummies. She also is the author of The Ethnic Kitchen series and 32 single subject cookbooks in the best-selling Totally Cookbook series. Her articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Times Syndicate, Fine Cooking, and on the Web at cuisinenet.com.

This article can be found in the category:

Mexican Recipes