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Blistered Shishito Peppers are fast, easy, and delicious. They make a great side dish or appetizer. Shishito Peppers are a thin skinned, usually mild pepper.
This post was originally published on August 14th, 2015. It was updated on July 3rd, 2023 with new photos and text.
Shishito peppers have been VERY popular at our house this summer. They are ridiculously easy to make, and totally addictive. We served them as an appetizer at a few barbecues we hosted and they were a hit. And they have started to appear regularly on the menu at our frequent “happy hour at home” nights.
How Spicy is a Shishito Pepper
Don’t be afraid of these little peppers – they are mostly very mild – although they say that every one in ten peppers has a spicy kick. Once you tell this to everyone at your party, they love it when they get the spicy one. Shishito Peppers are 50-200 Scoville Heat Units (SHU) on the Scoville Scale. This is what measures the capsicum in peppers (that is what makes them spicy!). By comparison, jalapenos are about 5000 SHUs and bell peppers are 0.
How to make Blistered Shishito Peppers
There are several ways to prepare the peppers, but I think the key factor here is to use a cast iron skillet if you can. You want your skillet to be blazing hot to get the peppers nice and charred. I have made these in the oven, on the stove top and on the grill. They always turn out great, but I think that on the grill or in the oven turns out just slightly better than on the stove top.
What is the best dipping sauce for blistered shishito peppers
I make a super quick and easy yogurt dipping sauce to serve with these. The yogurt compliments the spice of the peppers nicely. For something different, try my Thai Peanut Sauce or a sriracha aioli.
How to Grill Shishito Peppers
This recipe includes directions for oven roasting, but as I mentioned above, you can also make them on the grill or on your stove top. For the grill, just heat your cast iron skillet on the grill until very hot and then follow the same method below. I have a small, rectangular cast iron skillet like this one that works perfectly on the grill, but you can also just use a regular cast iron skillet. For the stove top, heat your skillet over high heat until very hot and follow the same method.
Do you eat the whole shishito Pepper?
The entire pepper can be eaten, except for the stem. Use the stem as a little handle for dipping. If you want, you can remove the stems before cooking but then these are no longer finger foods and require utensils. I always serve mine with the stem on.
Blistered Shishito Peppers with Garlic Lemon Yogurt Dip
Ingredients
For The Peppers
- 6 ounces shishito peppers
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- kosher salt
For The Dip
- 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice (about half a lemon)
- 1 small clove of garlic grated or use garlic press
Instructions
For The Dipping Sauce:
- Very finely mince or grate 1 small garlic clove (I used my garlic press).
- Mix the minced garlic with the lemon juice, and allow to sit for at least 10 minutes. This tempers the harshness of the garlic.
- Mix the garlic and lemon into the yogurt
For The Peppers:
- Move the rack in your oven to the top position, just under the broiler. Place your skillet in the oven and turn on the broiler to heat up the skillet.
- In a bowl, toss the peppers with canola oil and salt to taste (I used 1/2-1 teaspoon)
- When the skillet is very hot, carefully remove from the oven and pour the peppers into the skillet. Put the skillet back into the oven and allow the peppers to roast without moving them for about three minutes. When they have started to take on a nice char, stir the peppers. Continue cooking and stiring about every one to two minutes until they are blistered, for a total cooking time of about six minutes.
- Remove from oven, transfer to a serving dish, sprinkle with more salt if desired and serve with dipping sauce.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe adapted from The Kitchn
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Outstanding!
so happy to hear that!
This will only allow me to highlight 4 stars!
Anyway, this sounds highly worth trying & the pictures are so artistic, I felt I may be able to grab one off the screen!
Thank you!