Blistered Shishitos

You can make that classic shishito appetizer right at home with just 3 ingredients, a cast-iron skillet, and 15 minutes! Pretty soon you'll be calling for blistered shishito peppers every week.

This recipe is perfect for nights when you want to feel like you're in a restaurant but want to stay home, because that restaurant flavor is easy to recreate in this dish.

And, it's a pretty healthy snack!

Blistered Shishito Ingredients

You only need 3 ingredients: shishito peppers, extra virgin olive oil, and flaky sea salt. That's it!

Shishito Peppers

Most shishito peppers are green and mild.

Because of their low rating on the Scoville Scale which is the relative heat scale, they are a great snack or appetizer and quite pleasant even for the most spice adverse. For comparison, they are about 100 times milder than a jalapeno.

However, every once in a while you will get a hot one or a red one, and not necessarily at the same time. About 1 in 10 are on the hotter side, but still less hot than a jalapeno, fresno, or serrano.

Growing Shishitos

Shishitos grow pretty easily and produce quite a few peppers per plant! It's a pepper we've been growing for the last several years and have never had problems with yield!

If you grow shishitos in your garden, you might want to double up on plants next season so you can have this all the time. It's easy, fresh, savory, and fun to eat!

Are they Charred or Blistered?

Good question! Both of those terms seem to just mean that they are blackened or burnt. From all of my reading, it seems that they are really quite similar.

Per the Real Simple and Life Hackers, charred tends to mean through indirect heat like a skillet while charred means direct flames like a broiler, hand torch, or open flame stove or grill.

So I'm calling these blistered shishitos instead of charred shishitos, but really either term shoudl get the point across.

Making the Blistered Shishito Peppers

Make sure the shishitos are dry!

If they are wet the peppers will have a soggy texture, not a crisp blistered texture.

Heat a cast iron to high heat

Heat the cast iron on medium-high heat until the cast iron will sizzle water or just barely starts to smoke.

This heat will help remove extra moisture from the peppers, leaving them crispy, not soggy! It will also help to caramelize the outside and give that delicious crunchy bite!

Let the peppers sit untouched evenly on the bottom of the skillet for better blistering

Every pepper should touch the bottom of the skillet. If this isn't happening, make multiple batches. Touching the hot skillet is the only way to get that blackened char or blistered effect.

Let the peppers sit untouched for about 5 minutes. This helps to caramelize the skins.

Drizzle with oil and flaky sea salt

Once they are done, add some olive oil and flaky sea salt over top and these babies are ready to enjoy!

Try serving these with Mezcal Lime Margaritas.