Ancho chile (dried poblano)

Flavour and aroma

raisin, sweet, cocoa, mild. Sweet, raisin-like and slightly bitter-cocoa, with mild heat.

Heat

Very mild

Forms

whole, dried, powder

How to use it

• toast · Toasting technique

  Wipe clean, remove stem and seeds, flatten, and press onto a dry pan or comal over medium heat for 10–20 seconds per side until fragrant and pliable. Burnt patches make the sauce bitter.

• soak

  Cover toasted chillies with hot water and soak 15–30 minutes until soft, then blend with fresh water or stock; taste the soaking water before using it, as it can be bitter.

• grind · Dry grinding technique

  For powder, dry the seeded pods in a low oven until crisp, cool, then grind.

• Mole poblano and other moles
• Red enchilada and adobo sauces
• Chile con carne and chili powder blends
• Braised meats and pozole
• Ground into rubs

Identifying good quality

Broad, flat, heart-shaped dried pods, 8–12 cm long, deep mahogany to brick red against the light, wrinkled but supple. Brittle pods that crack when bent are old.

• Not to be confused with Guajillo chile: Guajillo is long, smooth and shiny red; ancho is broad and wrinkled.
• Not to be confused with Dried whole chillies: In parts of the US anchos are sometimes mislabelled 'pasilla'; true pasilla (chilaca) is long, thin and black-brown.

Origin and history

Origin: Mexico (Puebla and the central highlands); the fresh form is the poblano.. Grown and used: Grown in Mexico and the United States; used in Mexican, Tex-Mex and American cooking..

Chillies were domesticated in Mexico thousands of years before European contact, and drying was a traditional way to store them. Ancho is one of the three chillies of the classic mole poblano, alongside mulato and pasilla, and is the usual base of American chili powder.

Well documented