Choricero Pepper substitute

Best substitute

Guajillo Chiles

Use 1 large guajillo for every choricero

Best for vizcaina sauce

Close match

Guajillo chiles are the best substitute for choricero peppers, roughly one large guajillo per choricero, because they share the same brick-red color and dried-berry sweetness. Nora peppers swap 1:1 and are used interchangeably in Spain. Ancho chiles work at about three quarters the amount but taste smokier and darker. If you only have paprika, use 1 teaspoon of sweet pimenton plus a quarter cup of jarred roasted red pepper per choricero, because paprika alone gives color and sweetness but none of the pulp that makes a vizcaina sauce thick.

Other choricero pepper substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Nora Peppers
Close match
Use the same amount
The other Spanish drying pepper.
What changes
It is round rather than long and a touch more tannic and raisiny, so a sauce made with it tastes marginally fruitier and less savory. Spanish cooks swap the two freely and no Basque recipe collapses because you used noras.
Best for
vizcaina sauce, romesco, arroz negro and rice dishes, fish stews
Noras are smaller, so if you are weighing rather than counting, use roughly the same weight of pepper flesh, which usually means two noras per choricero.
3Jarred Choricero Pulp (carne de pimiento choricero)
Close match
Use 1 tablespoon pulp for every whole pepper
Not really a substitute but a shortcut, and the single best thing to buy if you cook Basque food more than once a year.
What changes
It is the scraped flesh of the same pepper, already soaked and smooth, so the flavor is identical and you skip toasting, soaking and scraping entirely.
Best for
vizcaina sauce, marmitako, any recipe calling for soaked choriceros, quick weeknight versions of Basque dishes
Freezes well in ice-cube trays, one tablespoon per cube. Keeps for weeks in the fridge once opened.
4Ancho Chiles
Different taste
¾ the amount
Sweet, mild and very pulpy, so mechanically it works well.
What changes
The catch is flavor and color: ancho is markedly smokier and more prune-like and much darker, so a vizcaina sauce made with it comes out brown rather than red and tastes richer and slightly mole-like. Still a good sauce, just not a Basque-tasting one.
Best for
stews and braises, bean dishes, sauces where color matters less, pastes and rubs
Use a little less than the choricero count since ancho is larger and stronger. Do not use it in a delicate white fish dish where the darker color will look muddy.
5Dried New Mexico or California Chiles
Different taste
Use the same amount
Mild and red and in most big supermarkets.
What changes
They taste more earthy and vegetal and less sweet than choricero, so the sauce comes out flatter and less fruity, but the color and the body are right and the texture of the finished sauce is close.
Best for
fish and potato stews, bean dishes, large batches, budget cooking
Add 1/2 teaspoon of sweet pimenton per pepper to push the flavor toward Spain. Toast lightly and soak as you would a choricero.
6Sweet Paprika plus Jarred Roasted Red Pepper
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 teaspoon sweet paprika plus ¼ cup jarred piquillo or roasted red pepper for every choricero
The honest emergency answer.
What changes
Blended together they give the right color and a reasonable amount of the sweetness, and no soaking is needed. What they do not give is concentration, so the sauce tastes fresher and thinner, and you must be clear that paprika on its own will not make a vizcaina sauce, because the sauce depends on the pepper's pulp for its texture.
Best for
quick vizcaina-style sauce, rice dishes, sofrito, when no dried chiles are available
Drain the jarred peppers well and thicken with a slice of bread fried in olive oil or a tablespoon of ground almonds. Use sweet pimenton, not smoked, unless the recipe already wants smoke.

What is Choricero Pepper?

Choricero Pepper is a long, dark-red Spanish pepper dried whole until it is leathery, sweet and effectively heatless, sold as pimiento choricero and also as a jarred pulp called carne de pimiento choricero, and used to give Basque sauces their deep red color and their body.

Cooking tips

Never let dried peppers smoke while toasting. Thirty seconds in a dry pan until they puff and smell fragrant is the whole job, and a scorched choricero turns the entire sauce bitter in a way you cannot correct with sugar, salt or more pepper.
Soak in hot but not boiling water for twenty to thirty minutes, then scrape the softened flesh from the skin with the back of a knife and discard the skin. This is the step that separates a silky vizcaina from a gritty one, and it matters more than what blender you own.
Choricero is mild, so a vizcaina sauce should taste sweet, deep and gently savory, not hot. If your version tastes spicy you have used the wrong chile, most likely something in the arbol or cayenne family.
The sweetness of choricero only shows up against slowly caramelized onion. Give the onions thirty to forty minutes over low heat before the pepper pulp goes in; rushed onions make a sauce that tastes sharp and thin no matter which pepper you used.
Make more pulp than you need and freeze it in one-tablespoon portions. It thaws in minutes and turns a Basque dish that needs a specialty ingredient into a weeknight option.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave choricero peppers out?

Not really, if the dish is built on them. In a vizcaina sauce or a marmitako, the choricero supplies the color, the sweetness and much of the body, so leaving it out gives you a pale onion sauce. In a bean stew or a rice dish where it is one flavor among several, you can skip it and add a teaspoon of sweet paprika instead, and the dish will be respectable if less deep.

What is the difference between choricero and nora peppers?

Both are Spanish drying peppers used the same way, rehydrated and scraped for their pulp. Choriceros are long and flat and lean savory; noras are small and round and lean more raisiny and slightly tannic. Spanish cooks treat them as near-equivalents, so if a recipe names one and your shop has the other, buy it without hesitation.

Is choricero the same as paprika?

They are closely related in spirit but not the same thing. Paprika is a dried sweet pepper ground to powder, and Spanish pimenton is often made from similar varieties, so the flavors overlap. The practical difference is that a whole choricero gives you pulp, which thickens a sauce and gives it a silky body, while powder gives you flavor and color only. That is why paprika alone makes a thin vizcaina.

Where do I buy choricero peppers or their pulp?

Spanish and Basque specialty grocers, Spanish sections of large supermarkets in Europe, and online importers. The jarred pulp travels better and keeps longer than the dried peppers, so if you can only get one, get the pulp. Outside Spain, dried guajillos from a Latin grocery are the most reliable everyday stand-in and cost very little.

Do I need to remove the seeds?

Yes, take out the stem and the seed cluster before soaking. The seeds do not soften and will grit up the sauce, and in a large old pepper they can taste slightly bitter. You do not need to obsess over every last seed, but shake out the bulk of them.

Related substitutes

More peppers substitutes

Choricero Pepper substitute

Other choricero pepper substitutes

2Nora Peppers

3Jarred Choricero Pulp (carne de pimiento choricero)

4Ancho Chiles

5Dried New Mexico or California Chiles

6Sweet Paprika plus Jarred Roasted Red Pepper