Tuesday, September 30, 2008

HOT! habanero chile

chopping an habanero
harvest of chiles and green beans habanero wings

I finally got the courage to try one on my garden habanero chiles - described as the hottest chile in the world.

I was warned to wear gloves, but I thought I'd try without first. I sliced the orange chile open and touched the cut edge with my finger and then tasted just a little bit, very carefully, only on the tip of my tongue. Well.... after scrubbing my hands several times with soap, drinking lots of water and washing it down with cheese and bread (and wine), I put baggies on my hands (since I didn't have any gloves) and even wrapped a towel over my face. Those are HOT!!! I will agree - wear gloves!

I was nervous about using them in our dinner. But went ahead and tried.

Recipe for chicken wings with chiles: Put 2 lbs of chicken wings in the oven at 375F for 2 hours uncovered in a thick cast iron pan. Add chopped chiles (I used 1 habanero and 1/2 Anaheim chile) and some barbecue sauce (I used Bulls Eye regular). Cook covered 30 min in oven. Pour off oil. Add more sauce. Cook uncovered another 30 min.

They were really delicious. But surprisingly, not very hot. I think I could have used at least twice the number of chiles, or added Tabasco or Frank's hot sauce as I usually do. My Anaheims are mild, and this one had a bug problem so I could only use half of it. For both chiles I threw away the seeds.

chile and bell peppers (Capsicum)

Skippy's vegetable recipes

7 comments:

TYRA Hallsénius Lindhe said...

Fjohoo! that's looks great, I just love chicken wings. Thank you for the recipe. Habanero they sure are hot and I like that but I grow them because I just think they are so very pretty! Delicate and dangerous on the same time. LOL Tyra

kathy said...

Yes! Delicate and dangerous!

They are very productive too. I have lots of chiles on one plant.

Sandy said...

Yum! I'll have to try that recipe. I planted several jalapeno and cayenne pepper plants and they too are loaded! My freezer is stuffed (you can only use so many at one time!) Anyway, I too second the rain challenges -- I'm down in Rehoboth -- in the small amount of time I've been able to escape to the garden I was nearly carried away mosquitos! Love your blog. thanks, sandy

kathy said...

My husband is telling me the heat of the chiles went into the oil that I poured off. If you want hotter wings, pour off the oil before you add the chiles!

Ditto on the mosquitoes, sandy. They were fierce after here too the rain ended today!

Anonymous said...

Suriname and Indonesia, both former Dutch colonies, use a lot of habañeros in their cooking. That means there's a lot of food around Amsterdam cooked with the peppers. They are hot for sure, but well made habañero salsa tastes really good and is not overwhelming.

There's a similar pepper called Madame Jeanette, that's also used to make salsa.

Surinamese food is often served with a kind of flat bread called roti (it's different from the Indian bread with the same name), and the trick usually is to put the very hot salsa on the bread, meaning when you've had enough you can still enjoy the rest of your meal without having to eat it with chili peppers added.

kathy said...

Hi Patrick!

I loved seeing posts on the recent bloggers' gathering you organized! Wish I were there!

I don't quite know the best thing to do with a lot of the vegetables I grow. Habaneros are one. Thanks for the suggestion to try a salsa. We had a nice baked flat bread with dinner tonight (an Armenian lavash baked with a bit of oil and cheese). I bet this would be good with hot salsa. As would fried tortillas. Yummy....

I have lots more habaneros to try in a salsa. With luck, maybe I'll even find a ripe tomato in my garden this weekend. Thanks!

Sandy said...

Gonna cook the chix recipe today and saw your comment about tomatoes. Since it's been cold and rainy here, I've hung my remaining tomato plants upside down in my garage which helps them to ripen w/o getting damaged by the cool weather. Even since yesterday there has been good progress on the remaining green ones. -Sandy