Mexican Peppers: The Must-Know Chilies, Fresh And Dried

To truly enjoy authentic Mexican cuisine, it’s a must to know your Mexican peppers. Few cuisines are more reliant on a single ingredient, from mole sauces to rellenos. But Mexican chilies have even more range than you may know. These are some of the most versatile chilies around, with a lot of flavor nuance and a very eatable heat. Below, we round up the must-know Mexican peppers, fresh and dried, that’ll both change your appreciation of the regional cuisine and open new opportunities in your kitchen.

Mexican peppers at a glance

Here’s every pepper below in one place, sorted from mildest to hottest. The third column compares each one with a jalapeño, and the last tells you whether you’ll usually cook with it fresh or dried.

Pepper	Heat (SHU)	Compared with a jalapeño	Fresh or dried
Poblano	1,000 to 1,500	About ¼ as hot	Fresh
Ancho	1,000 to 1,500	About ¼ as hot	Dried (a ripe poblano)
Anaheim	500 to 2,500	About ⅓ as hot	Fresh
California chile	500 to 2,500	About ⅓ as hot	Dried (a ripe Anaheim)
Chilaca	1,000 to 2,500	About ⅓ as hot	Fresh
Pasilla	1,000 to 2,500	About ⅓ as hot	Dried (a ripe chilaca)
Cascabel	1,000 to 3,000	About ⅓ as hot	Dried
Mulato	2,500 to 3,000	About half as hot	Dried
Guajillo	2,500 to 5,000	A little milder	Dried (a mirasol)
Jalapeño	2,500 to 8,000	The baseline	Fresh
Chipotle (morita and meco)	2,500 to 8,000	About the same	Smoked and dried (a jalapeño)
Puya	5,000 to 8,000	A little hotter	Dried
Serrano	10,000 to 23,000	About 3 times hotter	Fresh
Pasilla de Oaxaca	15,000 to 20,000	About 3 times hotter	Smoked and dried
Manzano	12,000 to 30,000	About 4 times hotter	Fresh
Chile de árbol	15,000 to 30,000	About 4 times hotter	Mostly dried
Pequin	40,000 to 60,000	About 10 times hotter	Fresh or dried
Chiltepin	50,000 to 100,000	About 14 times hotter	Fresh or dried
Habanero	100,000 to 350,000	About 43 times hotter	Fresh

Why do Mexican chilies have two names?

Why does the same chili show up under two names? Many Mexican chilies go by one name fresh and another once they’re dried. A ripe poblano becomes an ancho, a chilaca becomes a pasilla, the mirasol becomes the guajillo, and a ripe Anaheim becomes a California chile. Jalapeños get smoked as well as dried, and they come out as chipotles.

So if a recipe calls for a chili you can’t find, check whether you already know it by its other name. And if you’re new to dried chilies, our guide on how to rehydrate peppers walks you through bringing them back for sauces.

Which Mexican peppers go into mole?

Mole recipes vary from cook to cook, but dried chilies do most of the work. Our profiles name the ancho, mulato, pasilla, guajillo and puya as mole chilies, and in Oaxaca, the smoked pasilla de Oaxaca goes into the local moles. Want to try one at home? Our easy mole sauce is a good place to start.

Mild Mexican peppers

These range from barely warm to about half a jalapeño’s heat, so they’re about flavor first. Most of the big sauce chilies are here.

Poblano and ancho peppers

The poblano is one of the most popular peppers in Mexican cooking, and it takes its name from the Puebla region. It’s mild, with an even lower ceiling than the Anaheim, and it has an earthy flavor. Its thick walls give it a meatiness you don’t often get with chilies, and the broad cavity makes it a natural for stuffing.

Dried, the ripe poblano is called the ancho, and in this form it’s arguably even more of a Mexican staple. The earthiness takes a sweet, smoky turn, with notes of raisin and coffee, and you’ll find anchos in sauces, rubs, chili and mole.

Anaheim peppers and California chiles

With one of the lowest heat ranges on the list, Anaheim peppers are about as family friendly as a hot pepper gets. Their slightly sweet flavor is delicious chopped fresh in salsas, and their thick walls and large cavity make them perfect for stuffed pepper recipes. They’re also a good bell pepper substitute when you want just a little bit more.

Our Anaheim profile traces the pepper to New Mexico and its name to Anaheim, California, where it caught on, but it’s a fixture of Mexican and Southwestern cooking. Picked red and dried, it becomes the California chile, sweet like dried fruit and barely warm, the base for mild red enchilada sauce and chile Colorado. Torn between it and a poblano? See our poblano vs. Anaheim comparison.

Chilaca and pasilla peppers

The chilaca has a robust, meaty flavor, rich and slightly floral, with a family-friendly heat that’s delicious in salsas. Dried, it becomes the pasilla, also called chile negro. The name means little raisin, after its dark, wrinkled skin. Pasillas are sweet, fruity and earthy, and they’re a mainstay of mole and adobo sauces.

Cascabel peppers

Cascabel means rattle, and that’s the fun of this one. Cascabels keep their round shape when dried, which is unusual for chilies, and the seeds come loose inside the pod and rattle when you shake it. They have a delicious earthy nuttiness that makes them a favorite for sauces and marinades. The dried pods are pretty enough that people buy them as kitchen decor, too.

Mulato peppers

The mulato is a dried poblano as well, but from a closely related variety with a darker color and a fuller flavor. Expect a smoky, sweet, earthy flavor and a touch more warmth than the ancho. Mole and enchilada sauces rely on it, though you’ll have a hard time finding it fresh.

Medium Mexican peppers

This is jalapeño territory, give or take. The jalapeño is the only fresh one here; the rest are dried.

Guajillo peppers

A popular chili for mole sauces, guajillo peppers are the dried form of the mirasol. They’re tangy, with a little cranberry, a tea-like crispness and an underlying smokiness. As a dried chili, it’s usually ground into a powder, but it can also be rehydrated and pureed for salsas, stews and soups. Our guajillo vs. ancho comparison covers how it differs from the other big sauce chili.

Jalapeño peppers

Jalapeños really have a space all their own among chilies. The jalapeño is a staple of Mexican and Tex-Mex cooking, and it shows up in kitchens all over the world. There’s a bright, grassy bite, perfect for fresh salsas and just spicy enough. And the chili has thick walls and enough cavity space to be perfect for stuffing.

Chipotle peppers (morita and meco)

Ripen a jalapeño red, then smoke and dry it, and it becomes the chipotle pepper. Chipotles are known for their deep smokiness, which makes them delicious in barbecue rubs and marinades. You’ll find two kinds: the morita, which is smoky, sweet and earthy, and the chipotle meco, also called chipotle típico. Both carry the same heat as a fresh jalapeño.

Puya peppers

The puya is a dried chili, 3 to 4 inches long, with a sweet, fruity flavor and a little bitterness. Puyas are picked late in their maturity for drying, and cooks use them in everything from mole sauces to burritos. Are they easy to find? In their native Mexico, yes.

Hot Mexican peppers

These bring about 3 to 4 times the heat of a jalapeño, so a little goes further.

Serrano peppers

Jalapeños and serrano chilies share a similar bright, grassy flavor, but serranos take the heat up to another level, at roughly 3 times a jalapeño’s. The name comes from the sierras, the mountains of Puebla and Hidalgo. So if you’re ready for a next-step pepper, the serrano is an excellent choice. They work very well in salsas, pico de gallo and guacamole, and while serranos are thinner than jalapeños, they still work for popper recipes.

Pasilla de Oaxaca

The pasilla de Oaxaca comes from one small corner of Mexico, the Sierra Mixe in the mountains of northeastern Oaxaca. Locally, it’s sold fresh as chile mixe, then dried over a wood fire for days until it’s wrinkled and dark burgundy. What you get is deep, meaty smoke over a dried-fruit sweetness, with more heat than a regular pasilla. Oaxacan cooks use it in moles, salsas and beans.

Manzano peppers

The manzano is the odd one out here. As a different species native to the cool Andes, it’s an unusual pick for a Mexican list, but you’ll find it at nearly every market in Mexico. The pods are round, 1 to 2 inches long, with thick walls and a sweet, fruity flavor, and that makes the manzano a superb salsa chili. Outside Mexico, a local Mexican market is your best bet for finding one.

Chile de árbol

Chile de árbol is a small but potent chili, also called bird’s beak or rat’s tail. Cooks mostly use it dried, crushed into flakes or ground into powder, and it has a nutty, slightly smoky flavor. At the top of its range, it reaches the bottom of a cayenne’s, which our chile de árbol vs. cayenne comparison covers. The chili’s long, thin shape and the bright red it keeps when dried make it perfect for decorative ristras and wreaths.

Extra-hot Mexican peppers

These are the hottest chilies on the list, from about 10 times a jalapeño’s heat to more than 40, so handle them with care.

Pequin peppers

The pequin is tiny, about half an inch to an inch long, with a smoky, fruity and slightly citrusy flavor. Green pequins go into fresh salsas, while the red ones are more often dried, which brings out the smoke. You’ll see them in Mexican and Southwestern cooking alike.

Chiltepin peppers

How small can a chili get? The chiltepin is even smaller than the pequin, a round pod a quarter to half an inch across, and it grows wild in the American Southwest and northern Mexico. Many of the dried chiltepins you’ll find were picked from wild plants. They’re smoky and earthy, and a few go a long way in salsas, sauces, soups and stews.

Habanero peppers

The habanero didn’t start in Mexico. So where did it come from? It’s a Capsicum chinense from the Amazon basin, though today it’s most closely tied to the Yucatán Peninsula. There, it turns up in salsas, table sauces and marinades. Under all that heat, there’s a bright tropical sweetness.

Which Mexican pepper should you start with?

Not sure where to start? Here’s a quick guide by what you’re cooking.

• For stuffing: the poblano, or the Anaheim for something a little sweeter.
• For fresh salsa: the jalapeño, or the serrano if you want more heat.
• For red sauces and mole: the ancho and the guajillo.
• For smoke: the chipotle.
• For dried heat: chile de árbol.
• For the most heat: the habanero.

Related reading

• Smoky Peppers: The Chilies That Bring The Smoke, Mild To Super-Hot: Chilies with a smoky side, from chipotles to smoked paprika peppers.
• Common Peppers You’ll Find at the Supermarket (and How Hot They Are): The everyday peppers at most grocery stores, and how hot each one gets.
• Mexican Hot Sauces Guide: Five Widely Available Must-Knows: Five Mexican hot sauces you can find at most stores.