Tiger skin peppers or hu pi jian jiao (虎皮尖椒) is a popular Sichuan dish. The name comes from the color of the peppers after they’ve been seared in a hot wok, which resembles a tiger’s coat. Some imagination may be required but it’s a cool name and a very tasty and addictive dish for spicy food lovers.
The first time I tried tiger skin peppers was at a Sichuan restaurant with a vegan friend of mine who loves spicy food. It was definitely love at first bite, and it reminded me very much of the Spanish tapas, pimientos de padrón, which uses the mild padrón pepper, pan-fried until blistered and served with sea salt. Funny how two cultures think alike.
Long green hot peppers are the peppers of choice for “tiger skin peppers”, along with Chinese black vinegar (we use the Chinkiang brand. Check out our ingredients glossary and scroll down to “black rice vinegar” for more information), giving you a spicy and tangy dish. Long green hot peppers are also the first choice for pinxtos, a favorite food of ours while traveling in Madrid, but that’s another story.
For this Tiger Skin Peppers dish, we removed the pepper cores and de-seeded them to tone down the spiciness. Then again, sometimes the peppers aren’t hot at all, so you can sample the peppers you are using for spice level before you prepare the dish (or just roll the dice). Either way, making the pan fried long green hot peppers at home gives you the chance to prepare it the way you like it. Every restaurant I’ve ever had this dish in leaves in the seeds and the core, which is the traditional way to prepare it.
On with the recipe! It takes just minutes to prepare once you’ve done it for the first time.
You’ll need:
- 12 long hot green peppers, de-seeded and cut in half
- 3 tablespoons warm water
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons Chinese black rice vinegar
- sea salt, to taste
- 3 tablespoons peanut or avocado oil (any oil with a high smoking point and light flavor)
Start by preparing your peppers be de-seeding them. Be sure not to touch your face or eyes before washing your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water. Deseeding and removing the core of the pepper significantly reduces the spice factor of any pepper by a lot. Alternatively, you can also use the less spicy cubano pepper or even a completely benign green bell pepper. Once de-seeded, cut the peppers in half.
Combine the water, sugar, vinegar, and a pinch of salt in a bowl and set aside.
Heat the wok over medium heat and spread the oil around the perimeter of the wok. The oil should be hot but not smoking. Add the peppers to the wok and spread them around evenly so they are all in contact with the wok surface.
After about 1 minute, start tossing the peppers with your spatula, making sure the peppers cook evenly. You know the wok is the right temperature if you gently press a pepper to the wok and you feel it searing and trying to bounce back.
Turn the temperature down if the peppers look like they are starting to burn. You do need some time for the peppers to cook through, because they should be somewhat soft in the finished dish. Continue tossing and turning the peppers for another 5 minutes to make sure all sides get a nice “tiger skin” sear.
Once the peppers have that uniform “tiger skin” look, turn the heat up to medium high and add in the vinegar mixture.
Stir fry for about 30 seconds until the sauce is reduced slightly.
Serve with a sprinkling of sea salt and if you like, drizzle a bit more Chinkiang black vinegar and enjoy!
Tiger Skin Peppers
Ingredients
- 12 long hot green peppers (de-seeded and cut in half)
- 3 tablespoons warm water
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons Chinese black rice vinegar
- sea salt (to taste)
- 3 tablespoons peanut or avocado oil (any oil with a high smoking point and light flavor)
Instructions
- Start by preparing your peppers be de-seeding them. Be sure not to touch your face or eyes before washing your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water. Once de-seeded, cut the peppers in half.
- Combine the water, sugar, vinegar, and a pinch of salt in a bowl and set aside. Heat the wok over medium heat and spread the oil around the perimeter of the wok. The oil should be hot but not smoking. Add the peppers to the wok and spread them around evenly so they are all in contact with the wok surface.
- After about 1 minute, start tossing the peppers with your spatula, making sure the peppers cook evenly. You know the wok is the right temperature if you gently press a pepper to the wok and you feel it searing and trying to bounce back. Turn the temperature down if the peppers look like they are starting to burn. Continue tossing and turning the peppers for another 5 minutes to make sure all sides get a nice "tiger skin" sear.
- Once the peppers have that uniform "tiger skin" look, turn the heat up to medium high and add in the vinegar mixture. Stir fry for about 30 seconds until the sauce is reduced slightly. Serve with a sprinkling of sea salt.
Steve says
Do you need to seed the peppers?
Bill says
Hi Steve, seeding the peppers will make the peppers less spicy so it’s a personal preference. The long hot green peppers can sometimes be shockingly spicy!
Kenneth says
Delicious recipe! Here in Europe (I’m Swedish), it’s hard to find the same peppers as in your recipe. Luckily, it’s easy to find the Turkish “Sivri pepper”, which looks like long hot green pepper, just a bit bigger, and has quite the bite. Definitely suits this recipe very well.
Bill says
Hi Kenneth, sounds great and love to see you using local ingredients for substitutions. Thanks for sharing your comments!
Joel Baldwin says
I love this kind of pepper preparation. The padrone pepper was my first experience. I cannot find tiger skin peppers where I live but I do have shishito peppers, which I highly recommend to you for a similar experience.
Judy says
Hi Joel, we like both padron peppers and shishito peppers. Just to clarify, the name of this dish is Tiger Skin Peppers, but the peppers used for this dish are just regular long hot peppers.
Liz says
I recently had these at a restaurant near Boston and was instantly hooked. I tried your recipe yesterday with great success! Thanks!
Judy says
Both thumbs up, Liz, both thumbs up!
Yanni says
Delicious side dish.
Bill says
I agree Yanni! I think this is one of our most underrated recipes!
Lei says
Wow! I can’t believe I didn’t find your website until now. Such a great source of awesome recipes! I am from Sichuan and love spicy food. So happy that you include quite some recipes for spicy food. All the pictures are very nice too. Did you take them yourselves?
Judy says
Hi Lei, welcome to our site. Our daughter Sarah takes all the photos. she gets all the credit!
Xiu Ying Wu says
Dear family,
I love your website, my compliments to all of you.
Only one thing, I miss your recipi-list with pictures, that was wonderfull.
Kind regards,
Xiu Ying Wu
Bill says
Thanks Xiu Ying Wu! Great feedback on the missing visual recipe index becase we miss it too! We had a major change to our to theme a few weeks ago and are still figuring out how to get the visual recipe index working properly again. Hang in there with us and we’ll get it working soon!
Linda says
We do that with Hatch green chiles, but we steam them and remove the skin. I leave a little of the char on because I love the flavor. I don’t think our Hatch chiles are as hot as the ones you are using. Thanks for sharing.
Wishes for tasty dishes,
Linda
Bill says
Hi Linda, I think Hatch green chiles are very close to, if not the same as these so called long hot green peppers (proper name not known). Either way, you’r right about that char flavor. Thanks for sharing!
Anj says
Woah, can’t wait to try this! I am vegan and love spicy food. Your blog is so beautiful. Love the collaboration. :)
Bill says
Thanks Anj for the kind comments. As for this recipes, it is one of my favorite pepper recipes since it is so tasty and so easy to make!