Toast the Chili Peppers Before Cooking for a Smoky, Spicy Flavor
Fresh chili peppers are delicious, but when roasted they take on a whole new flavor that’s perfect for a variety of dishes. In this video, America’s Test Kitchen explains how easy it is to roast large chili peppers like poblanos and anaheim, or even a ton of chili at the same time.
The videos here tell a story, but they start with the old school chili-frying method – light the gas burner and just pour in the chili until it’s charred on all sides. Sure, this method works well for smaller chilis, or one or two at a time, but is useless if you need to fry a ton for a large pot of chili, salsa, or even use in a marinade or large fried. …
Use a foil-lined baking sheet instead. Smaller chillies may lie whole on the sheet, but you’ll want to cut the larger one once and flatten them into strips, as shown in this step-by-step guide . Line the strip (s) on the baking sheet and place in the oven under a preheated roasting pan at the highest rack height. They char well in just a few minutes, and you’ll need to turn them over from time to time to keep them cooking evenly. Once charred, place them in a bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap so that the skins can be easily removed with your hands or a paper towel (although ATK notes correctly, don’t rinse them out, you will rinse out.Lots of flavor!)
Once the chili is fried, peeled and completely seedless, it is ready to use in almost any dish. Grind them in sauce, dice them for chili or nacho, cut into strips for fajitas or vegetable mixture as you like.
Roast and chili toast for maximum flavor | America’s Test Kitchen (YouTube)