Learn how to make these oven Roasted Shishito Peppers perfectly blistered and charred in under 15 minutes. Make this popular restaurant-style appetizer at home with just three ingredients.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- What it is: Whole shishito peppers roasted in the oven until blistered, tender, lightly charred, and smoky.
- Time & yield: 15 minutes start to finish, serves 4.
- Taste & texture: Sweet and smoky, soft inside, with charred and blistered skin.
- Heat level: 🌶Mild, but about 1 in 10 peppers can be spicy.
- How to make: Toss with oil, spread on a pan, bake at 450°F, flip once.
Why I Love This Recipe
Hello! I first tried shishito peppers as an appetizer at an Asian restaurant and spent a few batches at home getting them right. Now they are a regular in our house. The skin chars and blisters in the oven, while the inside stays soft and a little sweet.
These roasted shishito peppers are an easy appetizer for parties, game days, or casual dinners. Serve them hot as a starter, snack, or side dish for family and guests(like these stuffed shishito peppers).
Enjoy them with grilled chicken, steak, salmon, burgers, or tacos, or add them to a snack board with cheese and crackers. A dipping sauce makes them even better.
What Are Shishito Peppers and How Hot Are They?
Shishito peppers are slim green peppers from Japan, usually 3 to 4 inches long with glossy, wrinkled, thin skin.
Are Shishito Peppers Hot? Mostly no. These peppers usually taste sweet and mild, at around 50-200 Scoville units (for reference, a bell pepper has 0, and a jalapeño has about 5,000 Scoville units).
But roughly 1 in 10 can have real heat; every pepper is different, even from the same plant.
Where to get? Wegmans here in central Pennsylvania carries them through the summer, and sometimes in winter too. You can also find them at Trader Joe's, Costco, most Asian markets, and farmers' markets in late summer.
Ingredients
- Shishito peppers. Choose peppers that are firm and bright green. Just rinse the peppers; no chopping or seeding is needed. You can also try Spanish Padron peppers, with the same results.
- Avocado oil. This is most suitable because it can withstand high heat. You can also use grapeseed or vegetable oil.
- Kosher salt. Salt right before roasting, then again after for that crunch you get at restaurants. Sea salt or flaky salt both work.
How To Make Oven Roasted Shishito Peppers?
- Step 1. Prep and dry. Preheat the oven to 450°F with the rack in the middle. Rinse the peppers, then pat them completely dry with paper towels. Wet peppers steam instead of char.
- Step 2. Toss and season. Put the peppers in a bowl, drizzle with avocado oil, and toss until every pepper is coated. Sprinkle with kosher salt and toss again.
- Step 3. Roast and flip. Spread the peppers on the sheet pan in a single layer with space between them. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, flipping once at the halfway mark. Start checking at 7 minutes.
- Step 4. Salt and serve. Pull them out when the skins are blistered and browned in spots. Move them to a plate right away, add a pinch more salt, and serve hot with dipping sauce.
♨️How To Adjust The Heat?
These oven-roasted shishito peppers taste mild. And you can adjust the heat by choosing the right dipping sauce.
- For Mild Heat. Use plain mayonnaise with a squeeze of lemon as a dipping sauce.
- For Medium Heat. Pick one of my spicy dips.
- For Extra Heat. Sprinkle red pepper flakes, and serve with the hot and spicy sauce.
Expert Tips For Best Results
- Skip the parchment paper. It sits between the pepper and the hot pan, softening the char. Bare metal gives you better spots.
- They will deflate. Serve as soon as made. Puffed peppers flatten as they sit, and that is just what they do.
How To Serve?
- As an appetizer, these are good on their own but even better with a dipping sauce. My go-to shishito pepper sauce is a quick mix of mayonnaise, Sriracha, garlic powder, minced garlic, and red pepper flakes (full amounts in the recipe notes).
- As a side, next to steak, grilled chicken, salmon, or barbecued meat. A drizzle of Chinese black pepper sauce over the steak pulls the dinner plate together.
- As a topping, chopped over burgers, tacos, or a bowl of rice. Cold leftovers are good in a salad like this shrimp summer salad.
- On a snack board, with cheese, crackers, and grapes.
Storage & Meal Prepping Ideas
- Refrigerator. These are best straight from the oven, but leftovers keep 3 days in a sealed container. They lose the crisp skin and go soft.
- Freezer. I do not freeze these. The thin skin turns to mush on thawing.
- Reheating. Skip the microwave. Toss them in a hot dry skillet for 1 to 2 minutes to bring back some of the char.
- Meal prep. The dipping sauce keeps 5 days in the fridge and gets better on day two. Make the sauce ahead, then roast the peppers fresh when people arrive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Almost always a crowded pan. When peppers touch, they trap steam and cook each other instead of charring. Spread them in a single layer with space between. Wet peppers cause the same problem, so dry them well first.
Your oven may run cool, or the peppers went in wet. Try preheating the sheet pan, give them the full 15 minutes, and check that your rack is in the middle. If they still look pale, add a minute at a time.
📖 Recipe
Roasted Shishito Peppers (Blistered & Charred in the Oven)
Ingredients
- 1 lb Shishito peppers
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt /sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F with the rack in the middle. Rinse the peppers and pat them completely dry.
- Place the peppers in a mixing bowl. Drizzle with avocado oil and toss until evenly coated. Sprinkle with kosher salt and toss again.
- Spread the peppers on the sheet pan in a single layer, leaving space between them. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, flipping once halfway through. Start checking at 7 minutes.
- Move the peppers to a plate as soon as they come out. Sprinkle with a little more salt and serve hot with the dipping sauce(quick recipe in the notes section).
Notes
- For the shishito pepper sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together ½ cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon Sriracha, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, 1 minced garlic clove, and ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes until smooth.
- Use grapeseed or vegetable oil instead of avocado oil. Padron peppers also work well in this recipe.
- Adjust the heat with your dipping sauce: use lemon juice for mild, shishito dipping sauce for medium, or red pepper flakes and hot sauce for more heat.
- Roast on a bare metal sheet pan for better blistering and charring. Avoid parchment paper.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. They will soften, but you can reheat them in a hot dry skillet for 1-2 minutes.
