Bird’s Eye Chilli

Heat 7.5/10

100.000 to 250,000 on the Scoville scale

The bird eye chilli pepper, or Thai pepper is a pepper, a cultivar of the species Capsicum annuum, present in Southeast Asia.

This chilli is sometimes confused with a similar pepper of the species Capsicum frutescens, the cultivar “siling labuyo”.

This chilli is also present in India, in Meghalaya, Assam and Kerala, it is also found in many dishes of Kerala cuisine.

It is also found in rural areas of Sri Lanka, where it sometimes replaces green pepper. It is used in the gastronomies of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The bird's eye chilli plant is a perennial with small, tapering fruits, often two or three, at a node.

The fruits are very pungent.

In Vietnamese cuisine, these chillies are used in soups, salads, and stir-fried dishes.

They are also put in a wide variety of sauces, Indonesian sambals, and marinades, used as a condiment or eaten raw, both fresh and dried.

In Thai cuisine, these chillies are highly valued for their fruity taste and extreme spiciness.

They are extensively used in many Thai dishes, such as in Thai curries and in Thai salads, green as well as the ripe red chillies; or they can just be eaten raw on the side, with for instance, “khao kha mu” (stewed pork trotter served with rice).