Are Red Peppercorns The Same As Pink Peppercorns?

Asked by TacoTuesday. Answered on 8th January 2022

Full question

Are red peppercorns, as mentioned in the recipe for Nigella's My Mother's Praised Chicken, the same thing as pink peppercorns? I'm in the US and I've never seen or heard of red peppercorns, and even a search online yields me pink peppercorns.

My Mother's Praised Chicken

By Nigella

Our answer

Nigella's My Mother's Praised Chicken (from KITCHEN) poaches chicken with vegetables. The cooking liquid has added aromatics, including parsley stalks and red peppercorns.

Red peppercorns are peppercorns that have been allowed to ripen fully, so that they turn red. Usually they are harvested and dried and then become black peppercorns. Sometimes the black skin is then removed to make white peppercorns. So they can be more difficult to find as most are used for black and white pepper. Pink peppercorns are from a different family, from a shrub that is part of the cashew family. Pink peppercorns are milder and sweeter than regular peppercorns but look similar, hence the name. So we would not necessarily substitute pink peppercorns for red peppercorns and for the chicken dish we suggest using black peppercorns as an alternative.