The Spice of the Caribbean: How to Make Aji Chombo Sauce like a Panamanian!

The Caribbean coast of Panama is a relaxed place, a gentle place. But it’s also home to a titan of the Central American culinary scene, the Aji Chombo. We’re going to break down why this gnarled up, bright red (or yellow) chili pepper has cemented such an esteemed place for itself in the best flavors Panama has to offer, as well as the best way to make a premier hot sauce – the Aku Restaurant Way!

Aji Chombo is THE top tier flavor ingredient in a large part of Panamanian cooking. If you pass a little hole-in-the-wall kitchen on the street, you’ll see bottles of hot sauce and ripe ajis just sitting there looking sweltering. Visit a Panamanian supermarket and you’ll see dozens of variations on a them, from gummy red liquids to bright orange chunky salsas. They’re in every home, especially on the Caribbean coast of Panama.

Aji Chombo Peppers grown in Panama.

This is a country that doesn’t normally celebrate spiciness. Most food, particularly on the Pacific, is gentle and flavorful but lacking that certain distinct punch you get from a distinctive chili. Let’s explain a little of the history of this famous mouth-melter to see how it became so ubiquitous in the local cuisine here.

Numbers can help you get a grasp of the scotch bonnet family, described as “exceptionally hot” at 100,000 to 350,000 on the Scoville Scale of capsicum heat. Compare this to the tame Jalapeno at just 3500 on the same scale and you have the potential for adding serious spice to any dish. What has stood the Aji Chombo in excellent stead though has been its flavor, with the delicate sweetness adding immeasurably to curries, salsas, and rubs. For instance, it gives the famous Jamaican Jerk sauce its jerk.

Drifting into Panama from the Caribbean in the 19th century the pepper became a staple amongst the communities sheltering on a calm Caribbean coast, from the ports of Colon to the island towns of the archipelago Guna Yala. Ubiquitous and affordable, the chili is such a staple that you can see Caribeños liberally apply it to everything from salty, delicious patacones to salchichas in red sauce. These are people unafraid of the challenge of spice and it shows in piquant, challenging dishes from traditional goat curry, spicy pickled pigs feet, pickled eggs with aji, and many more daily staples. It brings with it all the taste of the Caribbean islands and African cuisines – a complex, earthy, hearty history of dishes. Cheaper hot sauces made from aji chombo use xanthan gum and sodium benzoate to add texture but superior sauces wisely discard these non-essential ingredients.

One of the dishes we use aji chombo peppers in – boneless chicken bites!

We love using this ingredient, although we normally dial the spiciness back a few notches – even Panamanians aren’t always fully ready for the bracing bit of the chili Aji Chombo. As a note of flavor in our boneless chicken wings, or mellowed out as a finely ground paste inside our cheeseburger, this ingredient helps our chefs to provide that little extra something to the flavor and send our guests home happy.

So, what do YOU need to make your own delicious aji chombo sauce? Well, you start by making it distinctly Panamanian by adding a dry English Mustard. This is unique to Panamanian hot sauce and helps maintain the thick, slightly sloppy looking orange sauce sold in so many glass bottles at various mercados on the isthmus. Want to know how to make this visually arresting and moreish salsa? We popped our recipe onto paper and invite you to make your own – share it with us on our facebook page too if you’re really proud of how it came out!

Aji Chombo Salsa al Estilo Panameño

3 large Aji Chombo peppers (red or yellow)

A white onion

A large red pepper (use 10 mini aji dulce in season – they have all the flavor of aji chombo without the spice)

A small handful of jalapeno peppers

One medium sized but juicy lime

1/2 a cup of water

1 teaspoon English Mustard

2 teaspoons of salt
NO GARLIIC ?
NO CURCUM ?
NO CUMIN
NO GOYA ?
WTF
NO PAPAYA ?