Which Is the Best Place to Buy Dried Chiles Online?

Dried chiles are the backbone of red Mexican cooking: enchilada sauce, pozole rojo, birria, adobo, mole and most table salsas start with a handful of them. Outside the Southwest, though, the supermarket often has one dusty bag of something labeled “California chiles”, and nothing else. That is why so many home cooks end up buying them online.

Buying online works well, as long as you know what you are looking at. A good bag of dried chiles is soft and pliable, deep in color, clearly labeled by variety and sealed so it stays that way. This guide explains where to buy, what to check on a listing, which sizes make sense for a home kitchen, and which bags on Amazon are worth ordering for the chiles most recipes call for.

Julia’s earns a commission on purchases made through links on this page, at no cost to you. Recommendations are based on what a restaurant kitchen looks for in dried chiles, the sellers’ own product information and published cooking references, which we name.

Quick verdict: where to buy dried chiles, and which bag

Specialist spice shops and Mexican grocers also sell dried chiles online, and a good local Mexican market is hard to beat if you have one. The picks below are the Amazon bags we would point a home cook to first.

Five dried chile buys at a glance

Our five standout picks side by side, one for each kind of cook. All eight bags are reviewed in full below; heat descriptions are the sellers’ own.

Product images from Amazon. Sizes, heat and claims are as each seller lists them; crops vary from season to season, so check the bag you receive.

Eight bags of dried chiles worth ordering

These eight cover the choices a home cook actually faces: a starter pack, a wider sampler, a pack with heat, a pound each of the two workhorse chiles, and single bags of pasilla, árbol and chipotle morita. All come from sellers who name their brand on the bag, and all were in stock on Amazon when we checked.

Is Amazon the best place to buy dried chiles online?

For most home cooks, it is the most practical one. Several established chile sellers list there, the range covers every common Mexican chile, sizes run from a 4-ounce bag to a 2-pound sack, and you can order several chiles from different sellers in one basket. The trade-off is that listings are written by the sellers themselves, so you have to read them carefully: a vague listing is a reason to buy elsewhere.

Specialist spice shops and Mexican grocers that sell online are worth a look if you want unusual chiles, such as chilhuacle, costeño or meco chipotle, or if you care about the region and harvest a chile comes from. A busy Mexican market near you is better still, because you can feel the chiles before you buy. For the everyday chiles in this guide, though, a well-labeled Amazon bag from a named seller does the job.

What good dried chiles look and feel like

A dried chile is still a crop, and quality varies from bag to bag. When the bag arrives, check four things:

• They bend. Good dried chiles are leathery and pliable. Cook’s Illustrated advises choosing chiles that are pliable and smell slightly fruity, and avoiding ones that feel hard or crack when bent. A brittle chile is old and will taste dusty.
• The color is deep and even. Guajillos should be a glossy, translucent red, anchos a deep mahogany, pasillas almost black. Pale, faded or patchy pods have sat in the light.
• They smell of something. Open the bag and you should smell fruit, raisin, tobacco or smoke, depending on the chile. A musty smell, visible mold or a lot of dust and broken pieces are reasons to complain to the seller.
• They are whole. A few cracked pods are normal; a bag of fragments is not. Whole pods keep their aroma far longer than broken or ground ones.

Before cooking, wipe each chile with a damp cloth or paper towel to remove dust, as Cook’s Illustrated suggests, then stem and seed it, toast it for a few seconds on a dry comal, and soak it in hot water. Our guide to Mexican chiles explains what each chile adds to a dish.

How to read a dried chile listing

The listing is the only label you get before the bag arrives, so read it for these details:

The variety, named plainly

Look for ancho, guajillo, pasilla, árbol, morita and so on, not just “dried red chiles” or “Mexican chili peppers”. Watch for pasilla in particular: because fresh poblanos are often sold as “pasilla” in the United States, some dried bags labeled pasilla hold anchos. A listing that says chilaca, as El Molcajete’s does, is the real pasilla.

Whole, stemless or ground

Whole pods keep best. Stemless bags (“descolados”) save trimming when you cook in quantity, and the stems are not eaten anyway. Ground chile is convenient but loses aroma much faster; buy it in small amounts, or grind your own from whole pods.

Packaging

A resealable bag, or a separate bag for each chile in a variety pack, keeps air and moisture out after opening. If the listing does not mention resealing, plan to move the chiles into a jar or zip-top bag.

Untoasted, not pre-toasted

Pre-toasted chiles save a step but leave you with no control over how dark they go, and a burnt chile makes a bitter sauce. Buy them plain and toast them yourself for a few seconds per side.

Origin and heat

Few listings state where the chiles are grown, and none of the sellers here offers a harvest date. A stated origin and a Scoville range, as on the ancho, guajillo and árbol bags above, are signs of a seller who knows the product.

Which sizes make sense for a home kitchen

Whole dried chiles kept airtight in a cool, dark cupboard hold their flavor for many months, and longer in the freezer. Our guajillo guide puts it at six months to a year. Buy accordingly:

• 4 ounces of each chile is right for a cook who makes a red sauce or pozole once or twice a month.
• 8 ounces suits a chile you use often but a few at a time, such as pasilla, morita or árbol.
• 1 pound makes sense only for the chile you use most, usually guajillo or ancho, and only with freezer space for the surplus.

Freezing is the easiest way to keep a bulk bag fresh: press the air out of a freezer bag and take out what you need. The chiles stay supple.

Which chiles to buy first

Most home cooking needs only a few chiles. Guajillo for color and tang, ancho for sweetness and body, and pasilla for depth cover enchilada sauce, pozole, birria, adobo and most moles. Add árbol when you want heat and chipotle morita when you want smoke. Beyond that, cascabel, mulato and pasilla de Oaxaca are worth exploring once you know the basics. Our guide to mole shows how several chiles are layered in one sauce, and the guide to enchilada sauces shows how to build a red sauce from them.

How we chose these eight bags

We looked for what a Mexican kitchen wants from dried chiles: the right variety, clearly named, in whole pods, packed to stay fresh, in a size a household can use. We searched Amazon US for each of the common chiles and for variety packs, kept only listings from sellers who put a brand name on the bag, and checked that each one was in stock when we wrote this guide. We avoided generic sellers, pre-toasted chiles and listings whose details contradicted each other. Every size, heat rating and claim comes from the seller’s own listing, and we say so where something is not stated. Buying advice comes from Cook’s Illustrated and from our own published guides. We have not cooked with each of these bags; flavor descriptions are the sellers’ own.

Dried chile buying questions, answered

Where is the best place to buy dried chiles?

A busy Mexican market, where you can see and feel the chiles, is ideal. Online, Amazon is the most practical choice for the common chiles, with several established chile sellers and sizes from 4 ounces to a pound or more. Specialist spice shops are better for rare varieties.

How can I tell if dried chiles are fresh?

They bend without cracking, have deep, even color and smell fruity, smoky or raisin-like when you open the bag. Brittle, pale or dusty chiles with little smell are old.

How long do dried chiles last?

Kept airtight in a cool, dark place, whole dried chiles hold their flavor for many months, roughly six months to a year, and longer in the freezer. Ground chile loses its aroma faster.

Should I buy a variety pack or single bags?

A variety pack is the best way to start, because most recipes use two or three chiles together. Once you know which chile you use most, buy that one in a larger single bag.

Are whole chiles better than chile powder?

For flavor and shelf life, yes. Whole chiles keep their aroma longer and make smoother, deeper sauces when soaked and blended. Grind small amounts of powder from whole pods as you need it.

Our pick for a first chile order

If you are ordering dried chiles online for the first time, buy the Amazing Chiles & Spices ancho, guajillo and pasilla pack and you can cook most red Mexican sauces. Add El Molcajete’s four-pack if you want heat and smoke, and move to a pound of guajillo or ancho once you know which you reach for most. Check every bag when it arrives, store it airtight, and freeze what you will not use within a few months.

Related guide: Guajillo vs ancho chile.

Related guide: Ancho chile substitute.

Dried chiles are one shelf of a well-stocked kitchen; our guide to Mexican pantry staples covers the masa, spices and cans that go with them. And if you would rather someone else made the enchilada sauce tonight, see the menu or call to order.