Add This Ingredient To Your Chicken Vindaloo For An Extra Kick

Indian cuisine is known for its pleasantly aromatic, satisfyingly spicy dishes. Its rich culinary history includes a vast menu of flavorful dishes that can be enjoyed around the world, including chana masala, naan, kofta, curry, and so much more. The food varies by region, but most meals are strategically simple, with recipes that call for hearty meats, potatoes, fragrant herbs and spices, bread, dairy products like cheeses and yogurts, and lots of veggies (per MasterClass).

One particularly popular and delicious Indian dish is called vindaloo. The hot, tangy, heavily spiced red curry was first served 500 years ago in Goa, a state on the western coast of the country, according to India Times. Still today, vindaloo is traditionally made with chicken, pork, fish, or potatoes and eaten with poee, a chewy, hollow bun made with wheat and white flours (per Cook with Val). The marinade, which is often considered the flavor star of the plate, is a medley of vinegar, red chiles, cumin, mustard seed, cardamom, clove, turmeric, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, tomato paste, sliced onion, and garam masala (per The Spruce Eats). And if you want your vindaloo to have a bonus blast of spiciness, keep reading to learn what ingredient you can add to this already extraordinary recipe.

If you've ever tasted vindaloo, you're well-aware that it's already got one heck of a bite. In fact, it's typically among the spiciest menu items and likely not for the faint of heart. Several Redditors have weighed in on the dish with comments such as, "In UK Indian restaurants, [vindaloo] just means usually 'the spiciest dish on the menu'" and "Vindaloo can go up to stupid hot." But, as with most dishes, vindaloo's perceived pepperiness "Depends where you were eating, who was cooking, and what you think is spicy," another user chimed in.

The blend of potent spices that coats the tender chunks of meat offers a pungent palate worth remembering. For those daring eaters who prefer their foods on the spicier end of the spectrum (or at least claim to), there's a supplemental ingredient you can incorporate into your vindaloo sauce to reach the desired heat level. Mike Hultquist, self-proclaimed "chilihead," cookbook author, and blogger behind Chili Pepper Madness, suggests infusing some ghost pepper chili flakes to amp up the heat factor of your chicken vindaloo. Keep in mind that ghost pepper ranks at a whopping 1,041,427 SHU on the Scoville scale (per PepperHead), and a little bit goes a very long way. Hultquist recommends using classic crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper if the mere thought of ghost peppers makes your mouth feel like it's on fire.