Are you looking for a tasty addition to your garden and your meals? Then the Serrano Pepper is the answer to your problems! This pepper variety is a popular ingredient in many dishes and is relatively easy to grow.
Keep reading to learn more about this type of pepper!
Characteristics of Serrano Peppers
The Serrano Pepper is a variety of Mexican chili pepper. It’s named after the mountains in Puebla and Hidalgo, an area in Mexico where this variety of pepper originated.
This type of pepper is generally about a half-inch wide and one to four inches long. Unripe Serrano Peppers are usually a green color, and they’re often very similar looking to the jalapeño.
However, as these peppers mature, they become red, orange, brown, or yellow. This particular type of pepper can be hot, but its spiciness is not too bad compared to other pepper varieties.
Their heat varies depending on the individual pepper. It can have a Scoville Rating anywhere between 10,000 and 23,000 SHU.
Serrano Pepper Health Benefits
Peppers are full of vitamins and other nutrients that make them a healthy choice for your diet!
For example, peppers are high in Vitamin C, which is an essential vitamin for keeping your immune system strong.
They also contain a lot of fiber, so consuming peppers can keep you regular and help your digestive system function well.
In addition, Serrano Peppers have lots of capsaicin, a substance which has been found to help lower cholesterol.
Serrano Pepper Recipes
Serrano Peppers can spice up any dish! Their unique flavor profile makes them a great ingredient in a wide variety of food and drinks.
Cranberry-Serrano Relish
If you want to put a twist on a Thanksgiving classic, give this recipe for Cranberry-Serrano Relish a try! It’s sure to please even the pickiest of dinner guests.
As an added plus, this dish only takes 25 minutes to prepare from beginning to end, so it’s delicious and fast!
Smoky Serrano-Mint Margarita
For people looking to add some fun to happy hour, try making a Smoky Serrano-Mint Margarita! This cocktail is packed with fresh, citrus flavors, and the pepper serves as a great complement.
To incorporate even more of the pepper into this drink, try adding some leftover pieces of pepper to the rim as a garnish!
Serrano Chile-Rubbed Roast Chicken
Finally, here’s a recipe that will add some excitement to your weekly meal prep schedule! This Serrano Chile-Rubbed Roast Chicken is a fresh and flavorful meal that’s great to prepare for any occasion.
This dish tastes fantastic on its own as the centerpiece of any dinner. However, if you have leftovers or just want to mix things up, try shredding your chicken and using it on top of nachos or in tacos instead!
Planting and Growing Serrano Peppers
Importantly, peppers need a warm climate to grow successfully, ideally one with a temperature above 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you don’t live in an area that’s this warm all year round, you can start growing your pepper seeds indoors for a couple months and then move the plants to an outdoor garden.
Because of their love of warmer weather, make sure to plant your seeds after the last frost of the winter. Two or three weeks after the last frost is generally the best timeframe.
If you plan on growing multiple pepper plants, you should plant them one-to-two feet apart from one another in rows that are two-to-three feet apart.
Pepper plants thrive in a sunny environment, so be sure to plant them in an area that receives direct sunlight. These plants also need a lot of water, so you should water them at least three times per week. One pepper plant can grow one- to one-and-a-half feet tall and can produce up to 50 peppers once it’s fully grown.
It’s fairly rare, but sometimes a Serrano Pepper plant will grow all the way up to five feet tall!
Harvesting Serrano Peppers
Once your peppers are completely grown, it’s time to harvest them! Keep in mind that if you wait too long to harvest, the peppers will become overripe and fall off the pepper plants. Accordingly, it makes sense to pick your peppers while they’re still green or right after they’ve turned a different color.
One cool thing about Serrano Peppers is that the flavor of each individual pepper will change depending on how long it’s left on the plant!
Therefore, you could try picking some peppers earlier and others later in the growing season if you want peppers with different flavor profiles. Luckily, peppers are fairly easy to pick! Just give the pepper a gentle pull, and it should come right off the plant.
Storing Serrano Peppers
If you already have a recipe in mind, you can eat your harvested peppers right away! However, you can also successfully refrigerate or freeze the peppers if you’d rather save them for another day.
For example, if you put the harvested Serrano Peppers in a plastic bag or other container and keep them in the fridge, they’ll stay fresh for up to two weeks.
Another easy option is to freeze your peppers! If you’re going to freeze the peppers, it may be easier to cut them up first and then store them in a plastic bag.
Once you stick them in the freezer, they’ll keep for up to three months.
If you want to get a little more adventurous with your storage methods, you can even try drying, canning or pickling your harvested peppers!
These methods will allow you to keep your peppers for longer without having to put them in the fridge or freezer.
Where to Buy Serrano Pepper Seeds
This seed variety is pretty easy to find! You can buy seeds online or in a gardening supply store near you.
For example, you can find Serrano Pepper seeds at Hoss Tools. Here, you can buy them in packets of 30 seeds each.
Trying the Serrano Pepper
The Serrano Pepper will spice up your garden and kitchen this growing season! Now that you know everything about growing, planting, and preparing it, give this colorful and delicious pepper variety a try.
If you liked learning all about this variety of pepper, check out the Peppers section of our website to find out more about other pepper types!