Mexican chile guide
Every dried and fresh Mexican chile compared by real heat, flavor and substitute. Written in Mexico by someone who cooks with them, not compiled from other blogs.
A note on the numbers below. If you have searched for this before, you have probably seen three sites give three different heat ranges for the same chile, and at least one claim that mulato is hotter than guajillo. It is not. The ranges here are the ones we cook by, they are consistent across every page on this site, and where a chile is genuinely variable, it says so.
Mexico grows more than sixty varieties of chile, and a large market will have twenty on the counter at once, most of them unlabeled. The naming does not help: the same chile changes name when it dries, changes name by state, and occasionally two different chiles share a name in two different cities. A dried poblano is an ancho. A dried chilaca is a pasilla. A smoked jalapeno is a chipotle.
The second thing worth unlearning is that chiles are for heat. Heat is one of their qualities and often not the main one: guajillo is used for color, ancho for sweetness, morita for smoke. When you pick a chile you are picking flavor, and you adjust the heat afterward with the quantity and the veins.
Dried chiles
| Chile | Scoville | Tastes like | Also sold as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mulato chile | 500 – 3,000 | cocoa, licorice, dried cherry | mulato pepper, chile mulato |
| Ancho chile | 1,000 – 3,000 | sweet, raisin, prune | ancho pepper, dried poblano |
| Pasilla chile | 1,000 – 4,000 | raisin, cocoa, tobacco | pasilla pepper, chile negro |
| Cascabel chile | 1,500 – 3,000 | toasted nut, earthy, dry | cascabel pepper, rattle chile |
| Guajillo chile | 2,500 – 5,000 | fruity, black tea, prune | guajillo pepper, dried guajillo |
| Catarina chile | 3,000 – 6,000 | toasted nut, dry, earthy | catarina pepper |
| Morita chile | 5,000 – 10,000 | smoky, prune, tobacco | morita pepper, smoked jalapeno |
| Chipotle meco | 5,000 – 10,000 | heavy smoke, ash, tobacco | meco chipotle, dried chipotle |
| Puya chile | 5,000 – 8,000 | fruity, black tea, clean | puya pepper, chile puya |
| Costeno chile | 8,000 – 15,000 | clean, fruity, citrus | costeno pepper, chile costeno |
| Chile de arbol | 15,000 – 30,000 | toasted, sharp, clean | arbol chile, chile de arbol pepper |
| Japones chile | 15,000 – 30,000 | toasted, sharp, dry | japones pepper, japanese chile |
| Piquin chile | 40,000 – 60,000 | citrus, sharp, wild | pequin pepper, chiltepin |
Fresh chiles
| Chile | Scoville | Tastes like | Also sold as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poblano pepper | 1,000 – 2,000 | green, earthy, mild | poblano chile, chile poblano |
| Guero chile | 1,000 – 8,000 | fresh, slightly sweet, green | guero pepper, banana pepper |
| Chilaca pepper | 1,000 – 2,500 | green, herbal, slightly bitter | chilaca chile, fresh pasilla |
| Jalapeno | 2,500 – 8,000 | green, vegetal, bright | jalapeno pepper, chile jalapeno |
| Serrano pepper | 10,000 – 25,000 | grassy, green, clean | serrano chile, chile serrano |
| Manzano pepper | 12,000 – 30,000 | fruity, apple, sharp | manzano chile, rocoto |
| Habanero | 100,000 – 350,000 | floral, tropical fruit, apricot | habanero pepper, chile habanero |
Canned chiles
| Chile | Scoville | Tastes like | Also sold as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chipotle in adobo | 3,000 – 10,000 | smoke, vinegar, sweet | canned chipotle, chipotle adobo |
How to buy dried chiles without getting burned
A good dried chile is still pliable. If it snaps like a cracker it has been sitting in the sack too long and has lost the oils that carry its aroma; toasting will not revive it. It should smell like something — raisin, tobacco, dried fruit — when you hold it to your nose. Check the folds for white dust, which is mold, and for pinholes, which are weevils.
Color lies. A very red guajillo may have been treated, and a duller but pliable and fragrant one will make the better salsa. At home, store them in a sealed glass jar away from the stove; in a plastic bag they sweat and mold.
In the United States, a Mexican grocery is both cheaper and fresher than a supermarket spice aisle, because the bags turn over. Guajillo, ancho and chile de arbol are now stocked almost everywhere. For pasilla de Oaxaca, costeno or catarina you will probably be ordering online.
Adjusting heat without changing chile
Capsaicin lives in the white veins inside. The seeds are hot by contact with them, not on their own. Pulling the veins and seeds cuts the heat close to half and removes bitterness along the way, so if you are making a salsa for a mixed table it is worth the extra minute.
It works in reverse too: if your salsa came out flat, do not add whole chiles — that unbalances the flavor — add back the veins you set aside. And if you have already overshot, what rescues a salsa is fat and sugar: a spoon of oil, some avocado, a pinch of sugar. Water does nothing, because capsaicin does not dissolve in it.
Toasting without scorching
Almost every dried-chile salsa starts the same way: hot dry comal, chile opened and seeded, thirty seconds a side. Thirty. The moment blue smoke rises and the chile turns from red to dark brown, it has burned, and one burned chile makes the whole salsa bitter with no way back. If it happens, throw it out and start over — it is cheaper than throwing out the finished salsa.
After the comal they go into hot water for fifteen to twenty minutes with the heat off. Boiling makes them bitter. And taste the soaking water before you use it: if it tastes bitter, discard it and blend with clean water.
Common questions
Which Mexican chile is the hottest?
Of the ones used daily, the habanero: 100,000 to 350,000 Scoville units, roughly twenty times a serrano. Piquin is a distant second at 40,000 to 60,000. Everything else you will find at a regular market is far milder than its reputation suggests.
Why is my guajillo salsa not spicy?
Because guajillo barely is: 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville, the same range as a mild jalapeno. Guajillo is used for its deep red color and its fruity flavor, not for heat. If you want heat, add chile de arbol or puya, which are its hot relatives.
Are dried and fresh chiles interchangeable?
No. Drying a chile does not just concentrate it, it transforms it. A fresh poblano is green and vegetal; dried it becomes an ancho, sweet with notes of raisin and prune. Swapping one for the other does not adjust the heat, it changes the dish.
Does removing the seeds make a chile milder?
Partly. Capsaicin concentrates in the white veins inside, not in the seeds, though the seeds carry heat because they touch those veins. Removing veins and seeds cuts the heat by a third to a half, and takes the bitterness with it.
How long do dried chiles keep?
A good year in a sealed jar, away from light and moisture. They lose aroma before they lose color: when a dried chile no longer smells like anything as you tear it, no amount of toasting will bring it back. A good one is still pliable, not brittle.
Where do I buy real Mexican dried chiles in the US?
A Mexican grocery is cheapest and freshest, and the bags turn over fast. Latin aisles in large supermarkets carry guajillo, ancho and chile de arbol almost everywhere. Online is the fallback for pasilla de Oaxaca, costeno or catarina. Wherever you buy, the test is the same: it should bend without snapping and it should smell.