New Mexican Chile Peppers Cooking Guide

Tips on how to shop for and cook New Mexican chile peppers.

Fresh and dried chiles vary widely in spiciness depending on variety and seasonality. Smaller varieties are generally hotter. What makes chiles hot, capsaicin, is found in the inner membrane and seeds. Our shopping and cooking tips for chiles will help you add flavor and spice to your favorite savory recipes.

Chile-Spiced Recipes

“New Mexican” Chile

This is an umbrella term for a group of long, thin, tapered peppers that are relatively mild. Different cultivars of New Mexican chiles include Chimayó, Española, Anaheim and Big Jim. Hatch peppers are one of the most widely available—the name Hatch doesn’t actually refer to a distinct variety of peppers, but instead to the town around which they are grown in southern New Mexico.

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