habanero

Habanero Chile

Habanero chiles are one happy looking bunch. They have colorful colors that go from green to the yellow, and then orange to red as they mature. They are small, cute, shinny and have waxy skin. But as much as their looks are inviting, they are the spiciest chiles in Mexican cuisine. They are incredibly fierce. With a rating of 300,000 to 350,000 on the Scoville scale for measuring hotness of a chili pepper, you can get an idea of how hot they are: Jalapeños go around 10,000 to 15,000.

Habaneros are a crucial ingredient for the regional cuisine of the Yucatan Peninsula. They are native of that region, though ironically, they are named after the Cuban city of Habana as they were traded there, heavily, centuries ago.

They are very easy to grow indoors and are beautiful to look at, so it is quite common to find them in kitchen pots, not only in Mexico!

Comments

6comments inHabanero Chile

  1. Julieta Pontecorvo

    Sep 11

    Pati
    I made this Habanero Chili for my husband and son-in-law.
    All the salsas I have made for my husband
    he says , “it’s ok “ . I ask him if it’s hot he
    says “No”. So I made him the Habanero
    Salsa. Now, he said it has a real kick to it.
    He likes it. Thank You, Julie

    1. Pati Jinich

      Oct 03

      So glad you found the one to please him Julie. Hugs to both of you 🙂

  2. Meg McAlister

    Aug 08

    We love habaneros – indeed, we love all the Mexican chilis and grow most kinds in our garden. This year I also planted a ghost pepper plant which is producing a huge number of chilis. Do you have any suggestions for how to use or preserve them? I’m thinking about maybe making a hot pepper jelly with dried apricots (to marinade pork or chicken in the jelly or just serve on top of a block of cream cheese with crackers) or pickling thin slices of them to stuff in grilled bacon wrapped butterflied shrimp. I’m kind of scared of them due to their incredible heat!

    1. Pati

      Aug 08

      Hmmm I don’t cook much with ghost peppers…but what you are planning sounds yum!

  3. Lyn

    Sep 15

    love this! we really like spicy. I actually used 6 habaneros (I grew my habaneros and my plant had produced 6 (why waste 2 peppers?)I removed some of the seeds, but not all.
    A

    1. Pati Jinich

      Sep 17

      Hola! Six habaneros!!? You are brave.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.