Blistered Shishito Peppers with Dipping Sauce

An easy and flavorful Shishito Peppers recipe of pan-fried blistered Shishitos with soy-sesame glaze and cooling Sour Cream dipping sauce. A restaurant-style appetizer you can prepare in 15 minutes, at home! Serve as appetizer or on the side of favorite Asian meal. Shishito Peppers are healthy, full of vitamins with sweet flavor to make an exceptional summer side dish! 

Oh, also sharing tips to pick correct size shishito peppers, how to cook peppers perfectly every time. (read on to know more)

If you have never tried Shishito Peppers?! I highly recommend trying this recipe once. I bet you will love the flavors. Let's give potatoes and lettuce some break.. give these delicious healthy Shishito Peppers a chance on dinner table. :-) Thank you for listening.

What are Shishito Peppers?

Shishito are small green peppers, mostly grown in East Asia. These have slender shape and wrinkly bright green screen. Not at all spicy, Shishito are actually slightly sweet. In sweetness and pepper flavor, you can relate these to capsicum (green bell pepper) family.

Shishito Peppers are sweet, not hot or spicy. In other words, there is chili flavor but heat almost non existent.  Plus, cooking also reduces the heat. And my soy-sesame sugar glaze further make peppers not spicy and very flavorful to eat as appetizer. 

Shishito peppers are very popular in East Asian cooking. Here in US, I tried these first time in California Pizza Kitchen. I was surprised at the sweetness of pepper and that amazing pepper flavor. Seriously, otherwise I can't imagine myself eating a bowl of chilies. ;) Since then, whenever Shishito are in season, we buy these regularly with groceries.

BTW, you don't have to go East Asia to try Shishito. Most grocery stores in US sell Shishito packed in small boxes in fresh vegetable section with other peppers such as Jalapeno, Serrano. I often buy these from Whole Foods. Whole Foods sell small package of Shashito, about 3.5 ounce by weight. So I buy two-three boxes. Two box, i.e. 7 ounce make a perfect bowl of shishito for munching for group of four, as appetizer or on side of grilled meat or an Asian-style dinner such as Teriyaki Chicken and Rice Bowls.

Fresh bought pack of Shishito lasts easily 2-3 weeks in refrigerator. So you can buy once and cook fresh for dinner twice. Recipe takes only 15 minutes. 

Note: Other than Whole Foods, Shishito Peppers are easily available in many local Grocery Stores such as Costco, Albertson, Traders Joe's, Walmart, Kroger Stores, Sprout's Farmer Market etc.

Shishito Peppers Dipping Sauce

To serve as appetizer, I have also included a Sour Cream Dip recipe. This dipping sauce is easy to make and our favorite with charred Shishito Peppers. It balances the flavor of peppers and make great dip-and-eat complete appetizer.

Did you see another red sauce that I have served on side of Shishito Peppers? It is a BBQ Sauce that I make from marinade of my Huli Huli Chicken recipe. It is sweet and sour with Asian flavors of soy and sesame. This is another dipping sauce that I love pairing with Shishito Peppers. I decided to not include this recipe here. Instead grab it from my Huli Huli Chicken Sauce Marinade recipe. Look in Recipe Card notes of Huli Huli Chicken. 

Oh, if in hurry, you can also serve any good quality BBQ sauce for dipping. All sweet and sour flavors work great with Blistered Shishito Peppers.

Do they look tempting delcious or what?!

Shishito Pepper Cooking Tips

Over the years, I have become picky about buying Shishito Peppers. This has to do with my frequent cooking of Shishitos and learning what and how peppers cook and taste the best. 

Let me share in details:

1. For even cooking, pick Shishito Peppers which are not very large and not very small but all same size. Whenever a box of peppers has uneven size of peppers, a few will not cook properly especially when cooking in pan. Peppers should cook al dente, have a bite but not raw.
2. If you end up with box of odd size peppers, cook in two batches, pairing similar size together. Start with bigger size peppers, cook, then add smaller ones.
3. Shishito peppers are kind of peppers which you can eat whole with seeds. But when buying Shishito Peppers, avoid buying very large, hefty peppers as those are over ripe and have bigger seeds (hard to eat).
4. To cook peppers evenly and for perfect char, use a heavy bottom pan that evenly distributes heat. Such as cast iron pan, a wok, or heavy bottom Dutch oven.
5. Perfectly cooked Shishito Peppers should cook al dente, blistered at multiple places, have a bite but should not be raw. When ready, color of peppers change from bright green to pale green.
   Note: See in the picture above, a raw pepper on the side of cooked peppers. Notice the color difference.

I'm certain you have all ingredients you need to cook Shishito Pepper. In next trip for groceries, garb a box of Shishito Peppers and enjoy a healthy different appetizer this summer.

Stay Safe and Happy Cooking! -Savita