Chile Pequins are an extremely hot pepper rating above 30,000 Scoville Units. Yep…hotter than a jalapeno. I’ve grown to really love these peppers as they are tiny enough to provide a great amount of heating using just a little bit. This is the first year we ever planted a chile pequin, although we’ve tried to grow them from seed without success. We have one plant that has produced a large amount of chile pequins. You might wonder how this plant can produce such a large amount, but it is a prolific producer. Here are a few ways that we’ve used the peppers this year.
- Wash and dry a batch of peppers. Roast and dry them in the oven (preheated to 200 degrees F) until they are dry (just a few hours). Grind them up in a food processor or coffee grinder. We’ve already filled a few containers with ground peppers. Johnny’s Perpetual Pepper Pot has been replenished.
- Dice up a few peppers and place them in soups, chili, or any other dish that needs a little heat. Remember, a little goes a long way.
Here are a few ways I’m hoping to use some of the chile pequins with what I have left over:
- Chile Pequin Vinegar
- Chile Pequin Jelly (would be similar to a pepper jelly but only with chile pequins)
If you’ve never grown chile pequins and you love hot peppers, you really need to plant one of these beauties in your garden. It’s a perennial plant that returns every year to grace you with an abundance of peppers with very little effort on your part to grow.