Jalapeño Scoville, 2,000–8,000 SHU and Chipotle

On this page

1. 1How hot is a jalapeño?
2. 2Why is one jalapeño hotter than the next?
3. 3What happens when a jalapeño turns red?
4. 4Which jalapeño should you pick?
5. 5What does a jalapeño taste like?
6. 6Where does the jalapeño come from?
7. 7How do you pick and store jalapeños?
8. 8How do you pickle jalapeños?
9. 9Is a red jalapeño hotter than a green one?
10. 10Can you freeze jalapeños or turn them into chipotles?
11. 11What goes wrong with jalapeños?
12. 12Is a habanero or a poblano a better match?
13. 13Can you grow jalapeños or bottle them?

How hot is a jalapeño?

A jalapeño rates 2,000 to 8,000 Scoville heat units, with an average of about 5,000, according to UF/IFAS Extension¹. That puts it in the medium band of the index, and it is the pepper most "times hotter" questions start from: when you read that a ghost pepper is about 200 times hotter (1,001,304 ÷ 5,000)⁵, the jalapeño is the yardstick.

MildMediumHotExtra-hotSuper-hot

Poblano1,000–2,000 SHUJalapeño2,000–8,000 SHUSerrano10,000–25,000 SHUCayenne25,000–50,000 SHU

01K10K100K1M3M

MildMediumHotExtra-hotSuper-hot

Log scale; bars are published ranges.¹

Other careful sources print slightly different numbers, so you'll see more than one figure. None of them is wrong; each one describes a different set of pods.

Published jalapeño heat figures and what kind of number each one is

Figure	Kind of figure
2,000–8,000 SHU	Range, average about 5,000
2,000–8,000 SHU	Range on the extension's Scoville list
3,500–4,500 SHU	Average heat level
around 3,000–8,000 SHU	Rounded range

If a recipe just says "one jalapeño", plan for anything from mild to four times that heat. The top of the UF/IFAS range is four times its bottom: 8,000 ÷ 2,000 = 4.

Why is one jalapeño hotter than the next?

The plant and the season both move the number. The New Mexico team behind the 2007 ghost pepper study notes that growing conditions change a cultivar's heat⁵, so two pods from the same seed packet can taste different.

Where you cut matters more to you than which pod you buy. A capsaicin review puts about 89 % of a chile's capsaicin in the placenta and only 5–6 % in the outer flesh⁶.

1White ribs (placenta): about 89 % of the capsaicin⁶2Green flesh: about 5–6 %⁶3Seeds: little heat of their own in most chiles²

1. White ribs (placenta): about 89 % of the capsaicin⁶
2. Green flesh: about 5–6 %⁶
3. Seeds: little heat of their own in most chiles²

Scrape out the ribs with a teaspoon and you remove most of the capsaicin in the pod. Leave them in when you want your salsa to have the full kick.

What happens when a jalapeño turns red?

It keeps ripening on your plant. Jalapeños start green and turn red after maturity¹, and growers usually pick them green: Texas AgriLife sets the harvest stage at firm green pods 2 to 2.5 inches long³.

One jalapeño plant, three things you can buy

Stage	What it is
Green jalapeño	Picked fully grown but unripe, firm, 2–2.5 inches long
Red jalapeño	The same pod left on the plant until ripe
Chipotle	A red jalapeño dried over smoke

Growers wait on purpose, and so can you in your garden. Texas AgriLife advises holding the first harvest until 5 to 10 % of the fruit shows red, because picking too early cuts the yield³. The smoky dried version has its own entry: what a chipotle is and how hot it gets.

Which jalapeño varieties are hotter, bigger or a different color?

New Mexico State University has bred seven jalapeños and published a heat figure for each. NuMex Orange Spice is the hottest at 79,000 SHU, and NuMex Jalmundo is the jumbo one its breeders call perfect for poppers⁷.

NMSU jalapeño releases with their published heat, size and ripe color

Variety	Released	Heat	What sets it apart
NuMex Primavera	1998	8,500–9,000 SHU	Uniformly mild; pods 2 inches long, 1 inch wide
NuMex Jalmundo	2010	17,000 SHU	Jumbo pods 3.7 by 1.4 inches, green to red; bred for poppers
NuMex Pumpkin Spice	2015	22,000 SHU	Ripens pumpkin orange; longer pods than Early Jalapeño
NuMex Lemon Spice	2015	25,000 SHU	Ripens yellow
NuMex Vaquero	1997	25,000–30,000 SHU	Pods 2.5 inches, green without purple blotches
NuMex Piñata	1998	45,000–50,000 SHU	Light green, then yellow, orange and finally red
NuMex Orange Spice	2015	79,000 SHU	Ripens orange; corky lines on the skin

Those numbers run well above the 2,000 to 8,000 SHU fresh range because NMSU measures dried pods, on a dry weight basis. In the same three-year trial, the ordinary Early Jalapeño came out at 30,388 SHU that way⁸, so compare the varieties with each other, not with a fresh pod from the store.

The yellow, orange and pumpkin-orange colors came from a 1995 cross between a Permagreen bell pepper and Early Jalapeño; before these three, every jalapeño cultivar ripened green to red⁸. For Texas, AgriLife lists Delicias, Firenza, Grande, Mucho Nacho, Sonora, TAM Jalapeño, Telica, Tula and TAM Vera Cruz, without heat figures³. We found no primary source for purple jalapeños, so that row stays out.

Which jalapeño should you pick?

Start from what you're making. Poppers want size, a family dinner wants a steady mild pod, and a sauce can take the hot, colored ones. The tree below uses the NMSU figures from the table above, so compare the heat numbers with each other only⁷⁸.

What are you making?Pick the branch that matches the dish

• Stuffed poppersYou need room for the filling
  • NuMex JalmundoJumbo pods 3.7 by 1.4 inches, 17,000 SHU dry weight
• Salsa or nachos for a crowdYou want the same heat in every pod
  • NuMex PrimaveraBred to be uniformly mild, 8,500–9,000 SHU dry weight
• A bright sauce or pickle jarYou want color and more heat
  • warm
    NuMex Lemon SpiceRipens yellow, 25,000 SHU dry weight
  • hottest
    NuMex Orange SpiceRipens orange, the hottest at 79,000 SHU dry weight

⁷⁸

At a grocery store you rarely get a variety name, so pick by size and feel instead: firm, glossy, heavy pods with green caps. If your recipe needs a mild result, buy one extra pod and taste a sliver from each before you chop the batch.

What does a jalapeño taste like?

UF/IFAS sums it up as spicy but not overwhelming, which is why so many people like it¹. You taste the green pepper first and the heat a second later. The UC Master Gardeners of Ventura County call the flavor vibrant and grassy⁹.

You'll find it in fresh salads, in salsa and all through Mexican cooking¹. When the store is out, the jalapeño swap list gives replacements with amounts.

• Spicy
• Not overwhelming

Where does the jalapeño come from?

The jalapeño belongs to Capsicum annuum, the same species as your bell pepper; the genus monograph lists "Pimenta-jalapeño" among the common names of C. annuum var. annuum². The same monograph says research puts the start of that species' domestication in central-east Mexico over 6,500 years ago².

How do you pick and store jalapeños?

Choose fully grown, firm, solid green pods about 2 to 2.5 inches long, the stage Texas AgriLife gives growers for harvest³. A soft pod or a wrinkled skin means it has lost water and won't keep.

Your fridge runs colder than that range, so keep jalapeños in the crisper drawer, dry and in a loose bag, and use them within about two weeks. Red pods are simply older green ones; if a few redden in the bag, use them first, since they are further along.

How do you pickle jalapeños?

Use a tested recipe if you want jars that keep on the shelf. The National Center for Home Food Preservation's pickled hot pepper recipe makes about 9 pints from 4 pounds of hot peppers and 3 pounds of sweet ones, with 5 cups of 5 % vinegar, 1 cup of water, 4 teaspoons of pickling salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar¹⁰.

1. 1

   Put gloves on and prep the pods

   The center tells you to wear rubber gloves or wash your hands with soap and water before you touch your face. Slash small whole peppers 2 to 4 times and quarter large ones.¹⁰

2. 2

   Blister and peel

   Blister the skins in a 400°F oven or broiler for 6 to 8 minutes, cool the peppers, peel them and flatten the small ones.¹⁰

3. 3

   Pack and pour

   Pack the jars with 1/2 inch of headspace. Boil the vinegar, water, salt and sugar with 2 garlic cloves, simmer 10 minutes, take out the garlic and pour the hot liquid over the peppers, keeping 1/2 inch headspace.¹⁰

4. 4

   Process in a boiling-water canner

   Half-pints or pints: 10 minutes up to 1,000 feet, 15 minutes from 1,001 to 6,000 feet, 20 minutes above 6,000 feet.¹⁰

For fridge pickles you plan to eat within a few weeks, you can skip the canner, but the tested times are what make a pantry jar safe.

Is a red jalapeño hotter than a green one?

No primary source we read measured green and red pods from the same plants, so we can't give you a number for the difference. What the sources do settle is that red is the same pod, left on the plant after it matures¹, and that heat varies from pod to pod with the growing conditions⁵.

In your kitchen, treat a red jalapeño as the same heat range, 2,000 to 8,000 SHU¹, and taste before you commit the whole pod. The color change tells you about ripeness, not about the burn.

Can you freeze jalapeños or turn them into chipotles?

Yes to both. New Mexico State University's chile guide says you can freeze chiles whole and unpeeled, pack them flat in containers no deeper than 2 inches, and keep them up to 12 months¹¹. A thawed jalapeño goes soft, so save frozen ones for cooked salsa, chili and cornbread rather than poppers.

A chipotle is a red jalapeño dried over smoke⁴, which is why growers who want chipotles leave the pods on the plant until they redden. Smoking at home takes a smoker and most of a day; drying red pods in an oven or dehydrator gets you a dried red jalapeño without the smoke, using the oven or dehydrator methods. Grind a few into flakes and you have a mild red pepper for your pizza.

What goes wrong with jalapeños?

Most jalapeño trouble shows up on your hands or in the garden, not on the plate.

The weather a jalapeño likes is hot days of 85 to 95°F with nights of 65 to 70°F³, so a June heat wave can pause your plants for a few weeks without anything being wrong with them.

Is a habanero or a poblano a better match?

Neither is close. A habanero runs 100,000 to 350,000 SHU, about 20 to 70 times an average jalapeño¹, and the habanero and jalapeño side by side works through those numbers.

A poblano at 1,000 to 2,000 SHU sits below it¹; the poblano against the jalapeño covers size and flavor too.

If you want the next step up, the serrano looks similar and runs 10,000 to 25,000 SHU¹.

Can you grow jalapeños or bottle them?

Yes, and you get a crop fast. Transplants bear in 75 to 85 days, against 110 to 120 days if you sow seed straight in the ground³. Spacing, soil and watering are in the guide to growing jalapeño plants.

If your harvest is big, it often ends up in a bottle. The steps, ratios and safety numbers are in the recipe for jalapeño hot sauce at home.