Chile de árbol

Chile de árbol is a long, thin chile, green when fresh and red when ripe, used mostly dried. It is the backbone of the hot red table salsas served in taquerías.

Description

Larousse describes chile de árbol as elongated and slender, averaging about 7 cm long and 1 cm wide, green when fresh and turning red as it ripens. Both stages are sold at the vegetable stands of Mexican markets, but it is most often used dried.

Culinary use

Dried árbol chiles season many guisos and are very commonly used for table salsa. Taquería salsas blend them with tomato, onion and garlic or with roasted tomatillo; they also go into Veracruz's fried peanut salsa. Rick Bayless's tomatillo-árbol salsa uses about 16 of them for under two cups of sauce.

Handling

Cooks toast árbol chiles only briefly, since overcooked chiles turn bitter, a point stressed in Mexican Food Journal's salsa taquera.

Reviews

See also

• Salsa taquera
• Salsa de chile de árbol
• Salsa macha
• Salsa de cacahuate
• Salsa roja

References

1. "Chile de árbol". Larousse Cocina (Diccionario enciclopédico de la Gastronomía Mexicana). Retrieved 2026-10-10.
2. "Tomatillo Arbol Chile Salsa". Rick Bayless. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
3. "Salsa Taquera". Mexican Food Journal. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
4. "Salsa de cacahuate". Larousse Cocina (Diccionario enciclopédico de la Gastronomía Mexicana). Retrieved 2026-10-10.