These cast iron blistered shishito peppers, with a soy garlic sauce, will have you skipping them on restaurant menus and making them at home instead! Quick and easy blistered shishito pepper recipe, perfect for a snack or appetizer!
Do you ever go to a restaurant and always have a go-to appetizer that you know will be good? Shishito peppers are that app for me, they are so simple and so full of flavor. Surprisingly, I’ve never made them at home and not sure why because they are so quick and easy to make!
What are shishito peppers?
Shishito peppers are a mild green pepper from East Asia. They say that about 1 in every 10 shishito peppers are hot, but I typically never encounter spicy ones. Although you can eat shishito peppers raw, my favorite way to enjoy them is blistered in a skillet.
Cooking shishito peppers
The high evenly dispersed heat in a cast iron is the quickest way to achieve the perfect blistered char on shishitos. If you don’t have a cast iron, a regular skillet will work too.
Add the sesame oil and allow them to cook over medium/high heat for 10 minutes. Leave them undisturbed for the first 2 minutes then start pushing them around to blister on all sides. Careful while tending to them, they will start to pop as they heat up and release juices. The ones who haven’t popped after the 10 minutes, take a knife and poke them.
Soy Garlic Sauce
While shishito’s are perfectly delicious on their own with a little sesame oil, I like to add a sauce. For the soy garlic sauce, whisk together: 2 cloves of garlic, sesame oil, low sodium soy sauce, huy fong garlic chili sauce, and a touch of honey.
Once the shishito peppers are done blistering, remove the cast iron from the heat and pour the sauce in. Removing it from the heat before pouring the soy garlic sauce will prevent the garlic and honey from burning. It will steam, proceed to toss the shishito’s in the sauce until coated.
Garnish the shishito peppers with toasted sesame seeds and serve! They are best enjoyed right away while they are warm. To eat, grab them by the stem and eat the entire pepper, tossing the stem out.
These soy garlic blistered shishito pepper’s are the quick and easy snack/appetizer for any day of the week!
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Shishito Peppers with Soy Garlic Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 ounces Shishito Peppers
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 ½ teaspoons low sodium soy sauce
- ¾ teaspoon Huy Fong chili garlic sauce
- ½ teaspoon honey
- Garnish: toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- In a small bowl whisk together: 1 tsp toasted sesame oil, minced garlic, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, and honey. Set aside.
- In a cast iron skillet over medium/high heat, add 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil. Add the shishito peppers and cook for 10 minutes, allowing them to blister/brown on each side. Caution: they will pop as they cook, if they have not popped by the end of the cook time take a knife and carefully pierce to pop.
- Remove from heat and add the soy garlic sauce, toss/mix the Shishito’s in the sauce for one minute in the pan.
- Move shishito peppers and sauce into a bowl and top with toasted sesame seeds. To eat: grab by the stem and eat pepper, discarding the stem. Enjoy!
Notes
- You can double the shishitos and soy garlic sauce ingredients for more servings
- Shishito peppers are best enjoyed right away while warm
Wendle
My kids fight over who gets more!
Holl
These are awesome. Yes they’re great warm but use the leftover to top a salad!
So good!!!!
Stephanie
Such a great idea for leftovers Holl! Thanks!
Karen
Love this recipe! It’s easy to make and everyone loves it! Thanks!
Matt
This is my go-to recipe for a perfect app for a dinner party. Guests love it, they have fun watching, and it’s not too heavy to alter appetites for dinner. I’ve tried a few and my spouse says this is better than what we get at restaurants. Great recipe!
Stephanie
Matt I’m so glad you all loved the recipe! Thank you so much for making it!
Tyler White
Thanks for this awesome recipe Stephanie, best shishito recipe I’ve had (and I’ve tried a few). The key is taking the pan off the heat before adding your delicious sauce mixture, like you indicated. With other recipes, I’ve burned the soy sauce.
Stephanie
I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe Tyler! I too have burnt many sauces leaving it on the heat haha
Connie T.
Second time I made these and absolutely love them. So easy to make and so much flavor!!!
Stephanie
I’m so glad you loved them Connie!
Doug Comstock
Looks great – don’t have any huy fung garlic chilli sauce though.
Stephanie
Hi Doug, you can just omit the chili sauce
Deb
Easy to make and so good!
Deb
These were amazing and so easy to make!
Stephanie
I’m so glad you enjoyed them Deb!
Michele
These look delicious. Thank you.