Anaheim Pepper

Anaheim pepper is the mild, long green chile that anchors California-Mexican cooking — a member of the New Mexican pod family within Capsicum annuum, brought to Anaheim around 1894 by Emilio Ortega from a New Mexican landrace and named for the city that adopted it. It sits at the gentle end of the green-chile spectrum at roughly 500 to 2,500 Scoville units, mild enough to eat by the forkful in a relleno but assertive enough to flavor a whole pot of stew. Most of what you find in a North American supermarket is the TMR 23 strain; pods labeled Hatch or New Mexico green chile are botanically close enough to cook measure for measure.

Physically, an Anaheim is a tapered, slightly curved pod, usually 15 to 20 cm long with a faintly hooked tip, light to medium green ripening to a deep red. Its walls are medium-thick — meatier than a jalapeño, thinner than a poblano — which is what makes it forgiving to roast, peel, and stuff. Raw, it reads grassy and faintly sweet; over fire, the sugars caramelize and the pod takes on the smoky, slightly fruity depth that defines any good green-chile sauce. That transformation is the entire reason the pepper exists in a cook's kitchen.

Cooks tend to think of Anaheim less as a raw ingredient than as a vehicle for char. The defining workflow — blacken the skin over flame or broiler, rest under cover to steam, then peel — turns a humble green pod into the soft, smoky flesh that goes into salsa verde, pozole, pork stews, and chiles rellenos. Once you accept that the steam-rest after charring is non-negotiable, the pepper becomes one of the easiest and most rewarding chiles in the produce aisle.