Red 24 min
Salsa negra
Chiles fried nearly black in oil with garlic. Intensely hot, deeply savory, keeps a month, and a few drops go a long way.
Very hot
Dried chiles toastedsharpdry
Japones chile: the salsa negra chile
Nearly the same as chile de arbol, with a thicker skin that holds up to frying. What actually separates the two, and which one to reach for.
- Heat (Scoville)
- 15,000–30,000
- Recipes here
- 1
- Also sold as
- japones pepper, japanese chile
Where to buy in the US: Widely available in the US, often in the Asian aisle rather than the Mexican one — the same dried chile is sold for Sichuan and Thai cooking. Bags labeled 'Japanese dried chili' or 'chile japonés' are the same thing.
Despite the name it is a Mexican chile, grown mostly in Jalisco and Zacatecas. The name comes from its resemblance to the dried chiles used in Japanese and Chinese cooking, and in US stores it frequently ends up in the Asian aisle for exactly that reason.
If you keep both cuisines in your kitchen, this is one bag doing two jobs.
How hot it is
15,000 to 30,000 Scoville — a little under a chile de árbol, three to six times a jalapeño.
What separates it from chile de arbol
They look nearly identical and are genuinely close. Three real differences:
Skin thickness. The japonés has a noticeably thicker, tougher wall. This is the one that matters.
Flavor. The árbol is sharper and a touch more acidic. The japonés is flatter, drier, more purely toasted — it brings less of its own character.
Heat. The japonés is slightly milder.
That thicker skin is why it is the chile for anything fried. A chile de árbol dropped in hot oil scorches in seconds and turns the whole batch bitter. The japonés takes the same oil and holds, which is why it is the backbone of salsa negra — chiles fried nearly black in oil with garlic — and why it survives a wok.
When to use which
Japonés when the chile goes into hot oil: salsa negra, chile oil, anything fried, and stir-fries.
Chile de árbol when the chile gets soaked and blended, and you want its brighter, sharper flavor to come through: taqueria salsa, table salsas.
For everything else they substitute one for one.
Frying it
The technique that defines this chile, and the one where most people go wrong.
Medium heat, never high. The chiles go in whole, stem and all, and they need two to three minutes turning constantly. They will darken to a deep brown-black.
The line between properly blackened and burnt is narrow and there is no going back — a burnt batch is bitter all the way through and no amount of sugar rescues it. Pull them a shade before you think you should; they keep cooking in the residual oil.
The oil they came out of is now chile oil and is the best part. Do not throw it away.
How many to use
Because the flavor is flatter, quantity is doing more work here than with other chiles. As a rough starting point in a cup and a half of salsa:
- 4 to 6 — noticeable heat, background flavor.
- 8 to 10 — a hot salsa where the chile leads.
- 15 or more — salsa negra territory, where it is the entire point.
Buying and storing
Deep brick red, whole, still flexible. Broken pods are fine here — the flesh is tough and does not lose much through a crack.
Sealed jar in the dark, well over a year. Of the thin dried chiles this is the most durable, thanks to that skin.
Publicidad
Salsas made with japones chile
Every recipe here lists it, with the ones where it is the main chile first.