The shishito pepper is a very fun pepper. Most of them are mild and bright, but every once in a while you’ll get a very spicy one, and it’s that tension that makes shishitos alluring. That, and they are excellent dippers.
Cooking shishito peppers has never been a great culinary challenge. You can broil them, torch them, grill them, or blister them in a hot pan. Once you see little charred bubbles, they’re ready to eat. But while cooking shishito peppers has never been hard, cooking them in an air fryer is almost too easy.
The dozen-ish peppers you see in the photo above took were ready just a minute and a half after my little air fryer finished heating. I tossed them in the cool, unheated basket with just enough olive oil to coat, then set the temperature to 400℉ and let them heat with the tiny convection oven. All but a couple of the peppers were wonderfully blistered a mere minute after the cooker reached its target temp, and an additional 30 seconds took care of those last two.
The speed at which I can now prepare and eat shishito peppers is almost dangerous, but luckily they are a vegetable, and it’s difficult to eat “too many” vegetables.
The really challenge lies in deciding what to dip them in. Anything with soy and ginger is good, but I like to keep something creamy and cooling nearby just in case I hit a tongue-scorcher. I’ve been making this Duke’s-style mayo with extra paprika and think it would pair with a peck of these peppers quite nicely, but I’m always welcome to more dipping sauce suggestions.
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