Pasilla Chile, the Dried Chilaca at 1,000–2,000 SHU

A long, nearly black dried chile with a raisin skin and a smoky, fruity taste.

By the Scovidex teamUpdated Oct 18, 20268 sources

One long dried pasilla chile, nearly black, slender and wrinkled like a raisin, with a tan stem.

Short answer

1,000–2,000 SHU, mild

The dried form of the chilaca, a pod up to 10 inches long and 1 inch wide
About as hot as a poblano, but half as wide and twice as long

Heat: 1K–2K SHU¹
Species: C. annuum²
Origin: Mexico²³
Flavor: Smoky, raisin, cocoa³
Days to harvest: 80¹
Uses: Mole, sauces, stews¹³

On this page

1What fresh chile becomes a pasilla?
2How hot is a pasilla?
3How is a pasilla different from the poblanos sold under its name?
4What does a pasilla taste like?
5How do you cook with dried pasillas?
6Where does the pasilla sit among Mexico's dried chiles?
7How do you pick and store good pasillas?
8Can you grow your own chilacas to dry?
9What goes wrong with pasillas?
10What to cook with your first bag of pasillas

What fresh chile becomes a pasilla?

The chilaca. UC Master Gardeners in Ventura County describe pasilla as dried chilaca³, and the seed company that sells the Pasilla Bajio chilaca describes the same thing: a narrow, dark green pod up to 10 inches long and 1 inch wide that matures to dark brown and dries into the wrinkled pasilla¹. In Mexico, the genus monograph records both "chile pasilla" and "chile chilaca" as local names within Capsicum annuum².

From a fresh chilaca to a dried pasilla

Green chilacaNarrow pod up to 10 in long
Ripe on the plantTurns dark brown
DriedWrinkles like a raisin
PasillaLong, nearly black, smokyMild

Bars show published heat ranges. ¹

The seed company says the name means "little raisin" in Spanish, after the dark, wrinkled skin of the dried pod¹. Hold one up to the light and you'll see why: the skin is so dark it reads as black until light shines through it. The fresh pod has its own entry, the chilaca, if you're cooking it green.

How hot is a pasilla?

Mild. The Pasilla Bajio seed packet gives 1,000 to 2,000 Scoville heat units¹, the same range UF/IFAS gives for the poblano⁴. You'd need a lot of pasilla to make a dish truly hot, so cooks use it for flavor and color first.

Pasilla beside other mild and medium chiles

Anaheim1,000–5,000 SHU Pasilla1,000–2,000 SHU Poblano1,000–2,000 SHU Jalapeño2,000–8,000 SHU

Log scale; bars are published ranges.Sources for this line1. Botanical Interests (seed company's product page for its own seed)4. University of Florida IFAS Extension 5. UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions

That range comes from a seed company describing its own cultivar, not from a lab study, and we didn't find a university measurement for the dried pod. Treat it as a guide: a pasilla warms a sauce gently, about like a mild poblano, and far below a jalapeño.

How is a pasilla different from the poblanos sold under its name?

By shape, before anything else. A chilaca is long and narrow, up to 10 inches by 1 inch¹; a poblano is about 4 inches long and 2 inches wide⁴. So if a bin of fresh, wide, heart-shaped green chiles carries a "pasilla" sign, you're looking at poblanos, and the dried pods they become are anchos, which UF/IFAS gives as the name for a ripe, dried poblano⁴.

Seen from above: a long slender green chilaca, a nearly black wrinkled dried pasilla of the same shape, and a much wider glossy green poblano. — Same heat range, different pods: the pasilla keeps the chilaca's slim shape when it dries.¹⁴

Chilaca, pasilla and poblano on the traits you can check in the shop
Trait	Chilaca (fresh)	Pasilla (dried chilaca)	Poblano (fresh)
Size	Up to 10 × 1 in ¹	Long and slim, like the chilaca	About 4 × 2 in ⁴
Color	Dark green, ripening dark brown ¹	Nearly black, wrinkled	Green, ripening red ⁴
Heat	1,000–2,000 SHU ¹	1,000–2,000 SHU ¹	1,000–2,000 SHU ⁴
Dried name	Pasilla	Already dried	Ancho ⁴

If your recipe means the dried Mexican chile, buy a bag of long black pods. If it says fresh pasilla and comes from a California cookbook, it may well mean a poblano, so read the recipe's description of the pepper before you shop. The pasilla and poblano comparison goes deeper into the naming mix-up.

What does a pasilla taste like?

Dark and rich, and different from what most people expect from a chile. UC Master Gardeners list smoky, earthy and fruity flavors with notes of chocolate, raisins and sometimes tobacco³, and the seed company calls it rich and smoky¹.

You taste that depth most in a slow sauce. Toasted and blended, a pasilla gives a mole its bitter-chocolate backbone; raw and ground into a rub, it reads more like dried fruit. If you like the flavor of a good ancho but want something less sweet and more savory, you'll probably reach for pasillas more often.

Smoky
Raisin
Chocolate
Earthy

How do you cook with dried pasillas?

Toast, soak, blend. UC Master Gardeners name sauces, rubs and stews as its uses³, and the seed company points to mole and adobo¹. The steps below are kitchen practice, so adjust times to your pods.

1
Wipe and stem
Wipe the pods with a damp cloth, snap off the stems and shake out most of the seeds.
2
Toast briefly
Press each pod flat in a dry pan over medium heat until it smells sweet and turns a shade lighter, a few seconds per side.
3
Soak
Cover the toasted pods with hot water or stock and leave them until soft and pliable.
4
Blend
Blend the soft pods with garlic, onion and some soaking liquid into a smooth paste.
5
Fry the paste
Cook the paste in a little oil until it darkens, then thin it into your sauce or stew.

For a pot of sauce for four, start with three or four pods and taste before adding more. You can always soak one more pod while the sauce simmers, so there's no need to guess high on your first try. Wear gloves if you seed a big batch; even mild chiles leave capsaicin on your skin, and Poison Control lists warm water, vegetable oil or a diluted vinegar soak for skin that stings⁶.

Two long, slim, nearly black dried pasillas pressed flat in a cast-iron pan, with a third pod softening in a bowl of steaming water. — Dried pasillas go into sauces, rubs and stews, toasted briefly and soaked soft first.³

A worked example: a quick pasilla table salsa

Here's how those steps play out in a small batch you can make tonight. Toast and soak three pasillas, then blend them with two roasted tomatoes, one clove of garlic, a quarter of an onion, a pinch of salt and about half a cup of the soaking water. Taste it. If you want it brighter, add a squeeze of lime; if you want more heat, blend in a small piece of a hotter dried chile, since the pasillas alone stay mild.

You'll end up with about a cup and a half of dark, smoky salsa that keeps a few days in your fridge. Spoon it over eggs, grilled meat or beans. These quantities are a kitchen starting point rather than a tested recipe, so adjust them to your pods and your taste; older, drier pasillas need a longer soak and give a slightly more bitter salsa.

Where does the pasilla sit among Mexico's dried chiles?

Next to the ancho and the guajillo, the three you'll see together in many Mexican recipes. Each brings a different job to the pot.

Three dried Mexican chiles side by side, from the sources read today
Chile	Made from	Flavor notes
Pasilla	Dried chilaca ³	Smoky, earthy, fruity, chocolate, raisin ³
Ancho	Ripe, dried poblano ⁴	Rich melon flavor in the fresh poblano ⁴
Guajillo	Dried mirasol ³	Sweet, fruity, slightly smoky ³

Many cooks blend two or three of them, using pasilla for depth, guajillo for brightness and ancho for sweetness. The ancho and guajillo entries give each one's own data.

For head-to-heads, the ancho against pasilla page and the guajillo against pasilla page set them side by side.

Don't confuse any of these with the pasilla de Oaxaca, a different chile despite the shared name; it has its own pasilla de Oaxaca entry. If a recipe from Oaxaca asks for pasilla, check which one it means before you buy, because swapping one for the other changes the dish.

How do you pick and store good pasillas?

Choose pods you can bend. A good dried pasilla should flex like a soft leather strap rather than crack, smell of dried fruit when you open the bag, and show no pale fuzzy patches. If you're buying fresh chilacas to cook or dry yourself, NMSU's chile guide gives the same rules it uses for green chile: pick mature pods that feel heavy for their size, smooth and crisp, and skip any with shriveled skin, mold, soft spots or bruises⁷.

At home, keep dried pods in a sealed jar or a zip bag with the air pressed out, away from the stove and out of the sun. Heat and light fade the color and dull the smell over the months. If your pods start to feel brittle, use them soon in a long-simmered sauce, where soaking brings them back. Buying a smaller bag more often gives you better pods than one big bag that sits in your cupboard for a year.

Can you grow your own chilacas to dry?

Yes, with a long warm season and some patience at the end. The Pasilla Bajio seed packet gives these numbers¹:

8–10weeksindoors before transplanting¹

80daysfrom transplanting to harvest¹

over 24 inplant height¹

Leave the pods on the plant until they turn dark brown, then dry them somewhere warm, dry and airy. A tall plant loaded with 10-inch pods leans, so a stake saves you a broken stem in late summer. For seed starting and transplanting step by step, the poblano grow guide walks you through a similar long, warm season.

What goes wrong with pasillas?

Most problems you'll hit come from heat in your pan, not heat in the pod.

Problems and fixes

Your sauce tastes bitter: you toasted the pods too long. Toast for seconds, until fragrant, and throw out any pod that blackens.
Pods snap and crumble: they're old and over-dry. Soak them anyway; they'll still flavor a sauce, but buy pliable pods next time.
The dish is milder than expected: pasilla runs 1,000–2,000 SHU, so add a hotter dried chile for heat.¹
You came home with wide fresh peppers: those are poblanos sold as pasilla. Use them fresh, or dry ripe ones into anchos.⁴

What to cook with your first bag of pasillas

Make a small pot of sauce this week: toast and soak four pods, blend them with garlic and stock, and simmer it with chicken or beans. If your shop is out of pasillas, the pasilla swap list gives you other dried chiles and how much of each to use.