Ghost Chili Pepper

It's one of the most unique chile peppers that belong to Tex-Mex cuisine. For a more modern recipe, add one to your cranberry jam or cornbread next Thanksgiving. A sweet pepper with the taste of red pepper and cranberry.

She's fiercely intelligent, speaks her mind (much to the chagrin of herself or her family), and sweet once you get to know her. Toasted, the smell of citrus becomes dominant and the pepper flavor that can be so secondary in other chiles debuts itself.

Each pinky fingernail-length pepper is 40x hotter than a jalapeno. So what do you do with a pepper this hot? You make homemade hot sauce, of course. It's a wonderful thing for the tongue to behold before it's incinerated into a carbon slab.

Often made into hot sauces this chile is one designed for those who like to play with fire. As a rather curious contrast the flavor is extremely floral, often described as being reminiscent of rose and geranium.

She's the girl that everyone likes, but who wants to dance with only you. Close your eyes and you might imagine that what you're eating is a spoonful of cherry jam or perhaps a sweet-tart Santa Rosa plum.

Long and slender like boney fingers they have a delicate country homestead feeling to them. These chiles are equal to cayenne in heat and have a slight red bell pepper flavor. Those chiles are more often than not de arbol chiles, and not only are they...

Reaching high from the branch they look like the heads of fiery little imps keeping tabs on potential prey (that's you). For a flavorful, even impish hot sauce take a cup of wiri wiri chiles and rehydrate them in ¼ cup of white vinegar.

Don't go startin' no trouble, else you and the puya chile are gonna have words. Stick your nose in a container of puyas and you'll find it smells like the desert on a triple digit day – dusty, dry, and pungent.

These whole peppers are dark red in color and were aged on the vine to ensure a more potent heat and fruitier taste. Calabrian peppers are a chile that originates in Calabria, Italy.

Some people like to add sliced raw shallots or cilantro stems, so feel free to add a bit of either if you so choose. Similarly, don't eat them whole. Store in the fridge and use within 2 weeks.

These peppers are powerful fireworks; explosions of light and heat before altogether disappearing. Expect as mild as a jalapeno to hotter than a habanero. Since tepin chiles are so small they're very sensitive to rainfall and sunlight, thus their heat...

These little devils aren't just all heat, but are also enjoyed for their citrusy flavor and stone fruit aroma. Dried, the aroma of oranges and tangerines rise up, and when reconstituted in water you'll find notes of yellow nectarine.

The scotch bonnet is a popular chile used in Caribbean, African, and Haitian cuisine. “Take no prisoners.” For those unaware, this pepper is around ten times hotter than a serrano pepper.

A bit smokey and possessing a bitterness reminiscent of baker's chocolate the ancho is a welcome addition to stews, soups, and – toasted and ground – a secret weapon in any chocolate dessert.

You'll be ahead of the culinary trend since this chile is still totally underground. Aji Panca is the hipster of chile peppers, eschewing the idea of being spicy as, “Too mainstream.” Instead, the aji panca puts on its crotch-hugging skinny jeans...

This sophisticated pepper demands you handle it with velvet gloves so that it may better grace your dishes with its refined raisin-prune flavor and medium heat. When dried into its mulato form the chile is much more bitter with a more intense flavor of...

Then it quickly vanishes and a wave of serotonin-induced pleasure washes over you. One of the lesser-known chiles in the United States, the cascabel has a loyal following throughout Mexico and lends itself well to sauces and salsas.

Treat ghost chile the way you would good wine: a little is just fine, while a lot will leave you suffering. You should always wear gloves when using ghost chile products. Thorough hand washing afterwards is encouraged.

Its very low, practically nonexistent heat and earthy, fruity flavor have made it a go-to staple in Spanish food as a simple seasoning for finishing foods, for rounding out a romesco sauce, or grinding into homemade sausages.

Today, many American chefs are beginning to utilize it in sausage making as well as incorporating it into chocolate and caramel based desserts. Expect a slight smokiness and medium heat.

Used in numerous dishes from rice to fish, salads to dressings, and shrimp to beef, the guajillo pepper always has a welcome spot in any course of the meal. Guajillo is one of the most versatile chiles when it comes to the pepper spectrum.

Indeed, no barbecue sauce is complete without a morita. The morita variety of chipotle is smoked for just a few days until a leathery consistency is achieved. The chilies are then lightly toasted over an open flame or a flat grill top, reconstituted in...

Add water or chicken stock, a splash of soy sauce, honey, garlic, onions, chopped tomatoes, a splash of black or cider vinegar, a few star anise, and a handful of thai chiles. These Thai chili peppers are probably one of the few that don't necessarily...

Use a generous handful to offer height and drama – a brilliant nest that takes a dish over the top. The heat is rather mild. A few silvers as garnish offers a modern, geometric appearance making a dish more chic.

In fact, it's considered one of the most flavorful chiles of all and one that likes to stand in the spotlight of a recipe. Is it a fresh green chile to be stuffed or a dried dark chile to be toasted?

Gruff and bawdy, it's a chile's chile who won't take any lip from anyone. Brown chipotles can be used anywhere you use a morita chipotle, this one just offers a huskier flavor with a lot more smoke.

A medium-hot pepper with lots of fruity flavors – particularly that of banana, raisin, and lemon. A few chefs have even begun to swirl them into classic sauces such as bechamel for an Old World meets New World flavor.