Many people love spicy-hot Tex Mex foods. That “hot and spicy” often comes courtesy of the judicious use of chili peppers.

Chili peppers, in fact, can be added to many “regular” Tex Mex dishes or even those everyday meals of scrambled eggs at breakfast, hamburgers, soups, and more.

Take a look below for some ideas as to how you can add that all-important “heat” to some of your favorite foods – whether they’re of Tex Mex in origin or not – with the chili pepper.

A variety of chopped chili peppers.

The go-to chili pepper for many people is the jalapeno pepper. It’s a medium/large-sized chili pepper that gets its name from the town of Xalapa, Veracruz (Xalapa is pronounced with the X as an “H” sound). Probably the most common of peppers in the U.S. and Mexico, the jalapeno comes to us from the Aztecs, who historians say smoked the chilis.

As an easy way to kick your first meal of the day, chop up some jalapenos (removing the skin and seeds) and simply throw them into scrambled eggs. We recommend that you go easy on the amount of jalapenos you throw in until you have an idea as to how many peppers will make the dish too hot. After all, it’s much easier to add chili peppers to a dish than it is to remove them.

Many people add bread crumbs or other ingredients to their ground chuck when making up hamburger patties. That said, it’s also very easy to add some chopped jalapenos to the ground chuck as you shape the patties (with or without the bread crumbs). As mentioned above, go easy on the amount of jalapenos you add until you feel you’ve found your burger “hot spot.” This may entail having to try adding jalapenos a few times with your burgers, so if you feel one batch isn’t hot enough, you can always add tabasco or another hot sauce atop the cooked patties as you eat the hamburgers.

Remember that if you feel the peppers as nature made them are too hot, but you still want to add some spiceness to your dishes, you can use jalapeno pepper jelly in many recipes. For example, spice up the old standard peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some jalapeno pepper jelly! Take your vinaigrette salad dressing to another “hot” level by whisking pepper jelly in with your red wine vinegar, olive oil and mustard.

Love stir fry? Season your sautéed chicken and vegetables with crushed red pepper teriyaki sauce and then swirl in some jalapeno pepper jelly until it all melts together.

Here at Mattito’s, we understand that not everyone loves hot and spicy Tex Mex cuisine. That’s why, if you do like your food spicy, let us know so that we can make sure we can accommodate your taste buds. Stop by soon at the Mattito’s location nearest you.

Image courtesy of Piyachok Thawommat/FreeDigitalPhotos.net