What is Capsaicin? Plus 20 Spicy Food Recipes

Capsaicin is an ingredient in chili peppers that gives them their powerful burning sensation when you eat them. Whether you love their fiery side effects or not, this dynamic compound has major health benefits. Here are 20 recipes to help you get more capsaicin in your diet.

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Do you love all things spicy? If you’re like me, the older I get the more I crave a bit of fire with every meal.

If you shy away from ever eating spicy food, it is actually capsaicin that is to blame. Effects of capsaicin are the tingling (sometimes uncomfortably) sensation when it hits the mucous membranes of your mouth. But get this—what if I told you it has been scientifically proven to do everything from provide pain relief from many types of pain to be the secret to heart health?

Keep reading to find out more, plus twenty delicious recipes that will add more spice to your life!

What is Capsaicin?

A wood box full of jalapeno chiles sitting on the grass.

Capsaicin is not only the part of chiles that causes you to sweat when you bite into them. Topical capsaicin such as capsaicin creams and capsaicin patches are used to relieve pain from diabetic neuropathy, rheumatoid arthritis, postherpetic neuralgia and other nerve pain.

This mighty ingredient is responsible for anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects on the body. It is so effective at maintaining long term health that studies have shown eating capsaicin lowers your risk of death from all causes.

Ready to get that high dose of capsaicin your body craves? Keep scrolling to find your new favorite spicy recipe.

20 Recipes Full of Capsaicin

1. Pork Albóndigas with Árbol Chile Tomato Sauce

An easy main dish, perfect for a quick meal. Tender meatballs made with lots of fresh herbs and ground pork in a slightly spicy, delicate tomato sauce. Serve with Coconut-Cilantro Rice and Garlicky Broccolini for a super tasty dinner.

A blue bowl full of meatballs in a tomato sauce with sprigs of cilantro on top and a spoon in the bowl.

2. Avocado Jalapeño Salsa

If you’ve been hunting for an easy Avocado Salsa recipe, look no further! Ripe avocado, fresh cilantro, and lots of spicy jalapeños make this completely irresistible. This avocado salsa is as perfect on a tortilla chip as it is over a piece of grilled salmon.

A white bowl of avocado salsa sitting on a metal baking dish that has pirogues and chicken on it plus some vegetables.

3. Shrimp Aguachile Verde

One of Mexico’s most delicious seafood dishes. This no-cook appetizer takes raw shrimp and marinates them in a spicy mixture of serrano peppers, lime juice, and cucumber. Serve with tostadas for a refreshing summertime recipe.

A white dish with shrimp aguachile in it and a metal spoon sticking in the bowl. There is raw shrimp in a green sauce.

4. Pickled Jalapeños Stuffed with Goat Cheese

Take ripe jalapeños and pickle them with vinegar and spices, then stuff them with creamy goat cheese.

A small wood cutting board with a jalapeno stuffed with goat cheese on it and a pickled carrot slice and 2 cloves of pickled garlic.

5. Easy Chamoy Sauce

Homemade Chamoy sauce is a thing of beauty. This sweet, salty, sour, spicy sauce is an explosion of flavor and completely addictive. Drizzle over fresh fruit, rim your cocktail glass, heck, eat it with a spoon! I guarantee you’ll find a million and one reasons to make this sauce. Vegan and gluten-free!

A white plate with slices of mango on it and Chamoy Sauce on top. There is a lime half that has been squeezed off to one side.

6. Spicy Salsa Macha

Spicy Salsa Macha with chiles de arbol, black sesame seeds, peanuts, and garlic. Completely adaptable, this oil-based Mexican salsa is rich, flavorful, tangy, spicy, perfect for drizzling over everything from avocado toast to eggs to popcorn!

A small white plate with a spoonful of Salsa Macha on it. There is a slick of oil that surrounds the salsa and several peanuts.

7. Instant Pot Beef and Chipotle Chili

This Instant Pot Beef and Chipotle Chili is the quickest way to get fiery, soul-satisfying beef and bean chili into your belly. Recipe includes stove top instructions too!

A bowl of chili with beans, radish slices, red onions slices, serrano Chile slices, and a crumbling of white cheese on top.

8. Apple Jalapeño Jelly

Homemade Apple Jalapeño Jelly makes the most delicious gifts not to mention it is the perfect balance of sweet and spicy. Get step-by-step instructions on how to make this obsessively good homemade jalapeno jelly at home. Try with cheddar pie crackers!

6 jars of Jalapeno jelly sitting on a white and red kitchen towel that is sitting on a wood table.

9. Mango Cucumber Salad with Cayenne Dressing

This mango cucumber salad is perfect for summer barbecues and picnics! The spicy cayenne dressing is delicious with the sweet mango and crisp cucumber.

A large plate of mango and cucumber salad sitting on a wood table with a big spoon sticking out of one side and basil leaves.

10. Habanero Tomatillo Salsa

If you like spicy, this salsa is for you. This habanero salsa is not for wimps made with charred habanero chiles, onions, and tomatillos it will warm you from the inside out.

A metal serving bowl filled with habanero salsa with a spoon sticking out of one side. The bowl is sitting on a plate.

11. Raspberry Jalapeño Margaritas

This Spicy Raspberry Jalapeño Margarita is a fruity, fiery blend of sweet raspberries, fresh jalapeños, tequila, and lime juice that can easily be made into a boozy, big-batch cocktail for any celebration.

Two pink margaritas sitting on a wood table with slices of jalapeno, fresh raspberries, and ice floating in the glasses.

12. Spicy Vegan Enchiladas Recipe

This fiery vegan enchilada recipe is filled with Hodo Adobo Mexican Crumbles and smothered in a spicy Tomatillo Red Chili Salsa. Moreover, this authentic Mexican enchilada method omits the baking, meaning you can be sitting down to a delicious plate of enchiladas in under an hour! Additionally, they are vegan and gluten-free!

A white plate with four enchiladas on it. Avocado and onion slices top the enchiladas with a bunch of cilantro behind it.

13. Chile de Arbol Salsa

Homemade Chile de Arbol Salsa using dried chile de árbol peppers, onion, garlic, and tomatoes. This spicy Mexican salsa is not only simple and easy but also makes a fiery dip or a topping for everything from tacos to eggs.

A glass jar of arbol Chile salsa sitting on a wood cutting board with a spoon sticking in the jar and several tortilla chips.

14. The Best Spicy Pickled Jalapeño Michelada

This is the best Spicy Jalapeño Michelada you will ever try, due to flavors from fiery pickling liquid from the peppers and a whole pile of jalapeños and lime.

Two glasses of micheladas with the one in front being poured into from a cocktail shaker on a wood table with ice.

15. Candied Cayenne Pecans

These spicy-sweet fried pecans are perfect for folding into Mexican dessert recipes or tossing into salads. Above all, they make awesome hostess gifts!

A metal baking sheet with candied pecans on it sitting on a wood table with a blue and white kitchen towel next to it.

16. Spicy Honey Goat Cheese Toasts

Soft goat cheese on crisp toasted bread, drizzled with spicy arbol chile honey, a few ripe pear slices, and a sprinkling of toasted almond slices.

Several toasts smeared with goat cheese and topped with slices of pear, sliced almonds and honey on a wood table.

17. Mangonada

If you’ve ever had this sweet, sour, salty mango slushy than you know how perfect it is on a hot day. Layers of frozen mango smoothie, Chamoy sauce and Tajin. In other words, super easy and so satisfying.

Two glasses of mangonada with chunks of mango and red Chamoy Sauce on to and yellow straws sticking out of the glasses.

18. Chili Lime Roasted Peanuts

These chili lime roasted peanuts are tossed in an addictive mixture of chili, fresh lime zest, turbinado sugar, and salt then roasted to a golden brown.

A white bowl of roasted peanuts sitting on a white tablecloth with a glass of beer next to it and a bottle of beer.

19. Spicy Marinated Olives with Roasted Garlic and Herbs

This quick recipe for Spicy Marinated Olives is an easy and elegant appetizer with pan-roasted cloves of garlic, arbol chiles, and loads of fresh herbs.

A green baking dish with green and black olives in it and a sprig of rosemary and arbol Chile with two slices of bread.

20. Chicken Soup with Jalapeño and Lime

A spicy jalapeño and shredded chicken soup bright with lime juice and spices like ground cumin, coriander, and smoked paprika. In addition, chopped kale and cannellini beans make it filling without being too heavy.

A red stock pot with soup in it sitting on a wood table with jars of spices behind it and a ladle sticking out of one side.

Explore More Mexican Ingredients!

Apply Capsaicin Several Times A Day

Although I prefer to take my capsicum frutescens in enchilada form. However you get your daily dose, be sure to share it with me! Snap a pic and tag me on Instagram @holajalapeno and #holajalapeno so I can see or leave me a comment below (don’t forget to leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating) ! Also, make sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter, lots of good stuff there too!

Resources

Capsaicin from University of Michigan Health
Capsaicin’s Connection to Heart Health from Mayo Clinic
People Who Eat Chili Peppers May Live Longer from Cleveland Clinic

What is Capsaicin? Plus 20 Spicy Food Recipes

What is Capsaicin?

20 Recipes Full of Capsaicin