De arbol pepper plants
The dried red chile in the salsa packet, as a living plant.
By Debra Austin
Species: Capsicum annuum
Chile de arbol
De arbol means from the tree. The plant is a Capsicum annuum that gets woody, and the pod is slender, curved, and bright red. In Mexican cooking it is almost always used dried: toasted, soaked, and blended into salsa. The fresh pod is the same pepper a week earlier.
We list one plant, De Arbol. It is not a cayenne, though both are long and red when ripe. De arbol is thinner and, on our table, a bit hotter.
How hot de arbol is
Ours is listed at 15,000 to 65,000 SHU. That range is wide because the variety is. A pod at the low end is a firm medium. A pod at the high end outruns a serrano. Taste the batch you grew. Do not trust a single number printed on a jar of someone else's salsa.
Fresh pod or dried
Dry them if you want the pantry chile. Split or leave whole, keep the air moving, and toast lightly before they go into a salsa roja. Fresh, they are sharper and greener in flavor. Guajillo is the other dried Mexican chile people confuse with it. Guajillo is broader, milder, and fruitier. We do not currently list a guajillo plant.
Growing de arbol
It wants a long season and it becomes a small woody bush if you keep it. Five gallons, sun, and a stake once the pods pull the branches down. Bring it in and it will fruit again. The name is not a joke about the size. An old plant looks like a little tree.
The De Arbol we grow
Questions people ask
How hot is a chile de arbol?
The plant we grow is listed at 15,000 to 65,000 SHU. Hotter than a typical jalapeno.
Is de arbol the same as cayenne?
No. Both are slender red annuums. De arbol is the Mexican dried-salsa chile. Cayenne is the one that becomes the powder in a spice jar. Our cayennes happen to be gold and lilac, not red.
Can I dry them at home?
Yes. That is the ordinary use. Ripe red pods, dry air, then a light toast before they go into a sauce.
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