By now I imagine you’ve heard of a bhut jolokia chili pepper, also known as a ghost pepper or naga jolokia–the world’s hottest chili pepper. These peppers are hotter than Beelzebub’s spit. From what I understand, the bhut jolokia is native to Eastern India, which doesn’t surprise me. Those Indians can eat some crazy hot curry foods without batting an eye. I, on the other hand, cannot. Just the thought of eating a jalapeño makes my eyes water. In short, I’m a wuss. Okay, I said it.
I admit that it’s a little strange to be giving away a bag of dried bhut jolokia peppers, and in the future, my giveaways will be a little more useful, but I couldn’t help myself. Just the thought of having a bag full of the world’s hottest peppers and playing with the idea of actually trying it out gives me a foodie high–sort of like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. I’m not sure I’d survive either scenario. For some of you pepper heads out there, this ought to be the ultimate challenge.
Wrap your mind around how hot the bhut jolokia is: A jalapeño pepper on the Scoville heat scale is 2,500-8,000 SHU. A habanero chili is 100,000-350,000 SHU, nearly 43x hotter than a jalapeño. The bhut jolokia is 855,000-1,050,000 SHU. That’s an average of 181x hotter than a jalapeño and average of 4x hotter than a habanero. When I lived in Guatemala, I ate a Chiltepin Pepper (50,000-100,000 SHU) and it was so hot I vowed I’d never eat anything like it again. I cannot even fathom having my taste buds seared off by the atomic bonfire these bhut jolokia peppers would create.
So, how do you enter in this suicidal giveaway? In the comments below, tell me what you’re going to do with these peppers if you win, like concocting a killer salsa and setting it out at work alongside a bag of tortilla chips… whoa… for a second there I thought about canceling the giveaway. No double dipping–er–commenting, and you must leave your email address in the email field when leaving your comment. I will randomly select a winner on November 19th. The winner will receive 1 bag of dried bhut jolokia peppers (~15 peppers), re-hydrating instructions, and 4 or so to-die-for ghost pepper recipes.
And now strictly for your enjoyment, out of the dozens of YouTube videos showing people eating these crazy things and torturing themselves, I’ve posted my favorite torture video below. Hey, just because I won’t eat one doesn’t mean I can’t laugh with at those who will. I have nothing but the highest respects for this guy. Enjoy.
Contest Winner!
And the Bhut Jolokia winner, a.k.a. Harbinger of Death, emerges. The random winning entry is:
Christopher Chambers. Hello, I’m currently a student at Mississippi State University. My major is Culinary Arts and I just love cooking new things. For our final (in December) we are allowed to cook whatever we want, and I know for a fact that my professor has a huge hot tooth. If I won these peppers, I either make him some kind of salsa, a curry and rice mixture, or some kind of Bhut Jolokia and sesame grilled chicken. Anyway, I’m sure those pepper would help me pass my class. Thanks for reading mine.
Congratulations, Christopher. If torchering your professor is what gives you a passing grade, go for it, more power to you! Send me an email by Sunday night to claim your prize.
Speaking for all of us, we’d love to see the end product of your bhut jolokia chili pepper dinner; so if you remember, please send in some pictures or a YouTube video so I can post it later. Thanks, and happy cooking.
For the interested, here are some recipes that you can use for the pepper: Bhut-Jolokia-Recipes
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I’m almost afraid to enter. I wouldn’t actually know what to do with them. Their usefulness is not as a food, but as a weapon…
A weapon sounds reasonable…but actually, I’m thinking of having some fun with these by making some hot salsa and doing a challenge at work, with rewards for the person who shows the least reaction or something. We’ll only use a small amount, though.
My husband likes hot stuff. We have some hot chili peppers in a jar that we bought from California and everytime a new missionary comes to our house to eat we offer them one. So…. I would probably offer them to the missionaries and anybody else who came in our house that would brave one. After watching that movie though, I don’t think I could ever attempt to eat one.
My sister LOVES hot things. She is always looking for a better hotter jalapeno burger. If I got these I would make her one “special” burger. 🙂
I think they would be very nice in some homemade chicken qorma. The curry used in the recipe just screams for some really really hot chili to go with -and there´s always plenty of coconut-rolled-bananas and cucumber raita to cool the burn afterwards…
My husband has a hard time finding things that are hot enough for him. We have heard of these peppers but haven’t really seen them anywhere to try them. I think that I would probably use them first in the hot-pickles eggs recipe, since my husband says they aren’t hot enough.
I am trying to get in good with my girlfriends Dad. He’s obsessed with hot chilis, but has never experienced these weaponized chilis (nor have I). I feel that these peppers would create a memorable bonding experience.
My friend and I just love a typical German food called Curry Sausage, which is basically a sausage with curry ketchup, but there are really really spicy versions of this. Since we are kind of competing against each other, we ate very hot foods and nobody ever won or neither of us has experienced their limits, so with this atomic burner, I would make a memorable curry sausage for us. I would probably use the rest for normal cooking in small portions.
Hello, I’m currently a student at Mississippi State University. My major is Culinary Arts and I just love cooking new things. For our final (in December) we are allowed to cook whatever we want, and I know for a fact that my professor has a huge hot tooth. If I won these peppers, I either make him some kind of salsa, a curry and rice mixture, or some kind of Bhut Jolokia and sesame grilled chicken. Anyway, I’m sure those pepper would help me pass my class. Thanks for reading mine.
I love spicy sooper hot food and I can certainly use Bhut Jolokia to make my spicy indian curries even spicier 😛
Well…my friend and I are currently attempting a long distance weight loss partnership. We check in each night with each other and send a writing what we ate that day, and what we want to do better tomorrow. And well she absolutely loves jalapenos, so I’m thinking…hmmm this might make her lose that weight and give her a good inside cleaning….
I’ve been watching videos of people eating these for the past few hours and while I love a good spicy hot sauce or pepper filled dish I don’t think I would personally brave one of these…however I am on staff of a church college group with a load of “tough” guys who are always looking to prove themselves. If I win we’d probably see who might be brave enough to take one down 🙂 Of course the cameras will be rolling
My friends and I will put them on/in all sorts of stuff, from hotdogs to burgers to baked beans to stuffed pork chops, and would make a few different sauces with them. We have been looking for them at local stores and markets (San Diego County) and cannot find them anywhere. A couple of my friends might even eat one straight.
I am going to use the Bhut Jolokia to flavor my famous Ghost Halloween Chili. I use it along with serrano, jalapeno, and habanero. Just one or two ghosts chilis is all it takes. It’s a subtle heat and smoky flavor. I remove the chili before I serve just in case. My 16 yeard old son loves it.