Pasilla Chile

Pair ground turkey with white beans and a robust dried chile purée for a bowl of winter comfort with major body and richness.

If you can spread peanut butter on bread, you can make these homemade tamales filled with pork slathered in a bright red chile purée. 

If boning the whole chicken legs isn’t your thing, just use eight skin-on, boneless chicken thighs instead.

Think of this as a chile-laced peanut butter you’ll want to put on everything, from tacos to fried eggs. It’s delicious and not at all as intimidating as it sounds.

Make a big pot of this rich, meaty chili, a side of cornbread, and then never leave the couch.

We modified Contramar’s whole-fish method with individual fillets, which are easier to handle—but the flavor is the same!

The key to this adobo is truly burning the chiles and spices. Not browned, not toasted—burned. Try this at home; just open the windows and turn on the fan first.

If we had to give this salsa a heat index rating, it would get three out of five chiles.

Chef Seamus Mullen serves these robustly flavored meatballs as a shared plate at El Colmado, his New York City tapas bar, but they’re also a great main.

The only slow cooker chili recipe you need. This recipe can also be easily doubled.

Chilhuacle negro chiles give this mole its traditional flavor and should not be substituted. They’re difficult to find in the U.S., but you can find them—and the other chiles you’ll need—at spicetrekkers.com.

A warming beef chili gets serious depth from toasted chiles and a touch of sweetness from squash.

This tortilla soup has everything you want: chicken, corn, and, of course, chiles.

Garnishes make tortilla soup special (and famous)—top each bowl of sopa de tortilla with a combination of crispy tortillas and creamy avocado chunks.

The scent of homemade salsa roja always takes me back to my childhood. The aroma of rehydrating dried chiles mingling with fresh serrano chiles or jalapeños, tomatoes, onion, and garlic was a weekly occurrence in our household. It was always too spicy for my young palate, but I never got sick of the smell wafting through the house. Though I’ve grown into a heat-seeker as my palate has evolved, this version doesn’t have to be spicy at all. Adding a single serrano chile to the mix gives this mild .…

I use these creamy black beans in my breakfast burritos, but they can be enjoyed in many other dishes too. Make extra for bean and cheese tacos, or use them as a side dish with roast chicken. These black beans can also be used in tamales, sopes, or simply spread on a tostada with salsa. The possibilities are endless.

Menudo is typically served on weekends (whether that means family reunions, dressed in your Sunday best—or as an ideal hangover cure). The earthiness of the hominy and smoky chiles makes this dish one you’ll crave for weekends to come. Dried snow mushrooms are easy to find online and at many East Asian grocery stores. Their frilly, honeycomb-like texture provides a similar look and bite to the pancita—a.k.a. beef stomach—used in traditional menudo, making this dish accessible to almost anyone. W.…

Enchiladas are my comfort food: warm corn tortillas bathed in a slightly sweet, spicy, and bright sauce of chiles and tomato, wrapped around either a quick sauté of whatever veggies I have hanging out in the fridge or the creamy potato mash used here.

If you can’t find ají amarillo chiles for this grilled squid recipe, substitute with the paste, which is more widely available. Add 2 tsp. paste to dressing before adding the oil.

If we had to give this salsa a heat index rating, it would get three out of five chiles.