How to Roast Peppers (4 Ways)

Roasting Peppers – How to Roast Peppers

Roasted peppers offer a wonderful flavor and richness to many dishes. Roasting them brings out the natural sweetness of the peppers, intensifying their flavor by caramelizing the sugars.

Roasting peppers also allows you to easily remove the outer skin, which can affect the texture of your food.

Roasted chili peppers are delicious and soft, and also perfect for making stuffed pepper recipes. Traditional ways to roast peppers include roasting over an open fire, broiling, baking or grilling.

Basically, you apply a heat source, wait for the chili pepper skins to blacken, char, and loosen, then peel. The hotter the heat source, the more you will affect the actual meat of the pepper, so beware of applying too high of heat.

Here are 4 easy ways to roast peppers, including over an Open Flame, on the Grill, in the Oven, and under the Broiler.

How to Roast Chili Peppers on a Gas Stove with Open Flame

• First, produce a HIGH FLAME on your stove top.
• Place the chili pepper directly over the flame. Allow skin to blacken and bubble up. It will start to do so in about 2-3 minutes.
• Flip the chili pepper and blacken both sides. Do not allow to catch fire or turn gray and ashen.
• Add chili pepper to a plastic baggie and seal. Allow to steam in the baggie about 5 minutes to loosen the skin.
• Remove peppers from baggie and peel off the skin.

How to Roast Chili Peppers on the Grill

• Heat the grill to HIGH heat.
• Place the chili pepper directly onto the lightly oiled grates. Allow skin to blacken and bubble up. It will do so in about 2-3 minutes.
• Flip the chili pepper and blacken both sides.
• Add chili pepper to a plastic baggie and seal to steam and loosen the skins, about 5 minutes, then peel and discard the skins.

How to Roast Chili Peppers in the Oven

• Set the oven temp to 400 degrees F.
• Place whole chili peppers on a lightly oiled baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake 20-30 minutes, or until skins are thoroughly blackened, flipping occasionally to achieve even charring and roasting.
• Remove peppers from heat.
• Add the charred chili pepper to a plastic baggie and seal, or to a bowl and cover. Allow to steam in the baggie about 10 minutes to loosen the skin.
• When the skins are loosened and the chilies are cool enough to handle, peel off the skins.

How to Roast Chili Peppers in the Broiler

• Set the oven to broil.
• Place whole chili peppers on a lightly oiled baking sheet 6 inches from the broiler flame, and broil about 5-10 minutes, or until skins are thoroughly blackened, flipping every couple minutes.
• Remove peppers from heat.
• Add the charred chili pepper to a plastic baggie and seal, or to a bowl and cover. Allow to steam in the baggie about 10 minutes to loosen the skin.
• When the skins are loosened and the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel off the skins.

How to Peel Roasted Peppers

No matter how you roast your peppers, peeling them is easy once they are properly roasted.

To peel your roasted peppers, add them to a large bowl or sealable baggie. Cover them in the bowl with plastic or a towel, or simply seal the bag for 20 minutes or so.

This will allow the residual heat of the peppers to steam and loosen the skins.

Once they are cooled enough, you can peel off the skins with your fingers. You can also use a towel to gently peel them, but be careful not to rub off the skins, as you can remove the smoky flavor.

You can discard the charred skins, or dehydrate them to make a smoky seasoning.

Other Ways to Roast Chili Peppers

If you have an electric stove top and are unable to use an open flame, and also do not have access to an oven, try pan cooking the chili peppers, skin sides down, in a hot skillet or pan until the skins char and loosen from the pepper flesh.

Then let them steam in a baggie or paper bag to loosen the skins further enough to peel away.

Using Roasted Peppers

Roasted peppers are great for stuffing or adding to many other dishes. Here are some recipes that use roasted peppers:

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