Types of Chili Peppers: The ChiliStation Field Guide

There are thousands of chili peppers in the world, but a working cook only needs to know a couple dozen — and which job each one does. This is ChiliStation's field guide to the chiles that matter: the mild, smoky dried chiles that build a chili's base; the fresh roasting peppers behind green chili; the bright, clean-heat chiles for salsas; the fruity-hot Caribbean peppers; and the record-breaking superhots you measure in grains, not pods. Heat is only half the story. A pepper's flavor, its fresh or dried form, and the role it plays in the pot matter just as much as where it lands on the Scoville scale. Use the table below to sort by heat or by use, then dig into any pepper for its flavor, substitutes, and how we actually cook with it.