A typical serrano pepper is smaller than a typical jalapeno pepper, similar in color. They generally grow between 1 – 4 inches long and about 1/2 inch wide though they have been known to grow longer. They typically range from 5,000 to 23,000 Scoville Heat Units, though the NuMex CaJohns Serrano has been selectively bred to be longer and wider, and at the milder end of the SHU range. Learn more about the Scoville Scale here. He is greatly appreciated in the chilehead community. CaJohn provided the photo of the NuMex CaJohns Serrano, taken beside the fork for scale. They are quite huge! Thanks, CaJohn! He also provided me with this information from the Chile Pepper Institute, which I’ve shared below. In 2006 John and Sue visited the CPI to tour and visit its annual Teaching Garden and decided that they wanted to create a hot sauce for the Institute with the newly discovered Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper), the first chile pepper to reach 1 million SHU. The hot sauce was a huge success and several other products followed, including barbecue sauce, salsa, taco sauce, and spicy rubs. All of these products have helped raise money for the endowed chair for chile pepper research at NMSU. Serrano chile peppers are extremely popular in Mexican and New Mexican cuisines. Serrano chile peppers are used in salsa, sauce and pico de gallo. Jumbo size pods in chile pepper varieties have become increasingly popular over the last five years and have created a higher value market which provides opportunities for small-scale farmers to transition from traditional low-value commodities toward products with greater value. Seeds are available online at cpi.nmsu.edu, though not until 2020.
