Short answer scotch bonnet and habanero are two types of the same pepper species, with the same heat range, so you can swap one for the other in almost any recipe. The scotch bonnet is the squat, bonnet-shaped one that West African and Caribbean cooks reach for; the habanero is the lantern-shaped one you're more likely to find in a US supermarket.

Scotch bonnet Habanero
Species Capsicum chinense Capsicum chinense
Shape Squat and flattened, with deep ridges, like a little cap Rounder and taller, like a lantern, often with a pointed tip
Heat (Scoville units) about 100,000 to 350,000 about 100,000 to 350,000 (some sources say 150,000 and up)
Where it's known Caribbean and West Africa Mexico's Yucatán and Central America
Names in Nigeria Ata rodo (Yoruba), ose oyibo (Igbo), attarugu (Hausa) Usually sold under the same names
On AFN 48 recipes 43 recipes

They're the same plant species

Both peppers belong to Capsicum chinense. Rutgers University's farm extension service calls the habanero and the scotch bonnet "the best known chiles" of that species. The name chinense means "from China", which is wrong: a Dutch botanist gave it that name in 1776, but the species comes from South America, and it spread through trade to Mexico, the Caribbean and, later, West Africa.

So the difference between them is a bit like the difference between two kinds of tomato. They're cousins, not strangers, and a cook in Lagos and a cook in Kingston are using close relatives of the same fruit.

How to tell them apart

Look at the shape first. The scotch bonnet is short and squashed, with gnarled ridges, and it's named for its likeness to a Scottish tam o' shanter cap. The habanero is fuller and more bulbous, more like a little lantern, with wavy dents rather than deep folds.

Colour doesn't help much. Both ripen from green to yellow, orange or red, and markets in the UK and US often mislabel one as the other. If the label says habanero and the pepper looks like a flat cap, it's probably a scotch bonnet.

Which one is hotter?

On paper, neither. Wikipedia and most pepper references put both at 100,000 to 350,000 Scoville heat units, and Rutgers gives habaneros 150,000 to 350,000, which it says is up to 50 times hotter than a jalapeño. America's Test Kitchen puts both in the same band and says scotch bonnets are "typically hotter".

In the pot, the honest answer is that one pod can be far hotter than the next of the same type. Growing conditions change heat a lot, so taste a tiny piece of each new batch before you decide how many to use.

Do they taste different?

Both have the fruity, almost tropical smell that makes this species special, and it's the reason West African stews use them instead of plain dried chilli. Once a pepper has been blended and fried down in palm oil or tomato, most people can't pick one from the other. If you're making a raw pepper sauce or a salad, you may notice small differences between batches, but that's the pod, not the name.

What scotch bonnet is called across Africa

This is where AFN's readers search most, so here's what we can confirm, and what we can't yet.

  • Yoruba: ata rodo (also written atarodo). It's the pepper behind obe ata, the red stew base of so much Yoruba cooking.
  • Igbo: ose oyibo.
  • Hausa: attarugu, the word for small, round, very hot chillies. Hausa has separate words for other chillies: tattasai for long, large ones and tugande for long, thin ones.

  • Ghana the small, round kpakpo shito pepper of the Ga people is a close relative of the same species and gives its name to the green pepper sauce eaten with kenkey and fried fish. It's smaller and milder than a scotch bonnet.

  • Nigeria's Nsukka yellow pepper is another relative. A 2010 study of five Nigerian peppers found it the hottest of the group, at about 147,000 Scoville units.

Do you call it something else at home? Tell us in the comments and we'll add it, with your name.

Which one should you use in West African cooking?

Whichever you can find. AFN's own cooks use both, and the recipes work either way. A few examples:

How to swap one for the other

  • One for one. Swap a scotch bonnet for a habanero of the same size, and the other way round.
  • If you can find neither, use a smaller amount of another hot fresh chilli, such as a bird's eye, and add a little red bell pepper (tatashe) for the sweetness and colour you lose. The fruity smell won't be quite the same.
  • In the UK, scotch bonnets are easy to find in African and Caribbean shops and in most large supermarkets.
  • In the US, habaneros are the easier find; Caribbean and West African grocers often stock scotch bonnets.
  • Dried or ground peppers bring heat but lose most of the fruitiness, so use them for pepper soup spice and suya rubs, not in place of fresh pepper in a stew base.

Handle with care

The heat sits mostly in the white ribs and seeds. Remove them for a milder dish, and wear gloves or wash your hands well before you touch your eyes. If a stew turns out too hot, add more tomato, red bell pepper or a spoon of palm oil, not water.

Questions people ask

Is a scotch bonnet the same as a habanero? They're the same species, Capsicum chinense, but different types of it, with different shapes. In cooking you can treat them as the same.

Which is hotter, scotch bonnet or habanero? They share the same heat range, about 100,000 to 350,000 Scoville units. Some tasters find scotch bonnets slightly hotter, but the pod in your hand matters more than the name on the label.

What is scotch bonnet called in Yoruba? Ata rodo. In Igbo it's ose oyibo, and in Hausa attarugu.

Can I use habanero instead of scotch bonnet in jollof rice? Yes, one for one. Ghanaian jollof on AFN is written with habanero and Nigerian dishes with scotch bonnet, and both work in either.

Can I freeze scotch bonnets? Yes. Freeze them whole, or blend them with onion and freeze in small portions as a ready stew base. They go soft when thawed, so use them for cooking, not raw.

Sources

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Ingredients & ProducePan-African