That's How It Happened

Over the weekend I was kindly gifted two Dorset Naga Chillis. This variety were bred by a couple from Dorset, from Naga Jolokia peppers, and unexpectedly were found to be the world's hottest chillis. I didn't actually intend to cook with them, but thought it would be fun to grow the seeds. By chance though, the GF used one in a chicken marinade, mistaking it for a home grown Serenade pepper. Serenades are a type of New Mexico pepper, scoring 500-1000 on the Scoville Scale, whereas Dorset Nagas score up to 1,600,000. So the Dorset Naga is potentially 3200 times hotter. The mistake was only discovered after the chicken went into the pan. The whole flat filled with acrid choking aerosolised chilli fumes, forcing us to open all the doors and windows. Once the air cleared, the chicken turned out to be surprisingly edible, albeit in a nose-running-sweat-from-every-pore-gasping-for-water kind of way. If you'd like to replicate this experience you can buy your own Nagas direct from Peppers By Post.