How to de-skin a chile pepper

When using peppers such as Poblano, Pasilla, Anaheim or even a green pepper its best to remove the thin outer skin prior to eating. Sounds easier said than done, right? Not the case. Its actually quite easily done by roasting the pepper.


There are a couple ways you can roast the peppers. 1- high heat on the BBQ grill. 2- medium/high heat on your oven broiler or 3- the flame on your gas cook top using a steaming basket.


I prefer the first option because its less mess, but have done it all 3 ways in the past.


So here is how you do it:

• Wash and dry chiles





• Get your heat source ready. Fire up the BBQ or preheat the broiler.





• Place chile on (or under) heat, turning every minute or so until the skin is blackened. Your end result should be 60% to 75% of the chile being blackened. If you think it looks like you're burning the chile, you're doing id right!





• Remove from heat (tongs are a great tool for this) and place in a plastic bag. Seal bag and let chiles sweat for about 10 minutes. This process allows the chiles to continue to cook, and will make it much easier to peel skins. My dad puts the bag in the fridge- which I have found this is useful when on a time crunch and I need the peppers to cool quickly so I can touch them to remove the skin.





• Carefully remove skins one at a time by rubbing the skins with your fingers. I do this over my sink since removing charred skins tends to make a bit of a mess. Try to avoid running chiles under water in as much as that lessens the flavor by removing oils.

For those of us who are unfamiliar with chiles and peppers here is a great visual guide.