• The ribs hold the heat, not the seeds. In a fresh chile, the spicy part is the pale, soft inner ribs. The seeds just sit against them and pick some up. Scrape out the ribs and seeds for a milder dish, or leave them in for full heat.
• Cook chile in a little oil first. Chile heat and flavor dissolve into oil, not water. Stir chile flakes or chile powder into oil at the start of cooking and the heat spreads through the whole dish evenly.
  
• Add heat early for warmth, late for a kick. Chile cooked in from the start melts into an even, all-over warmth. The same chile added at the end, or sprinkled raw on top, tastes sharper and hits right away.
  
• To cool a dish down, reach for dairy, not water. Water just spreads the heat around. A spoonful of yogurt, sour cream, or coconut milk calms it, and a squeeze of lime or a pinch of sugar takes off the edge.
  
• If it is too hot, stretch it. Spiciness does not cook away, so you cannot simmer it out. Add more of everything else instead: more broth, rice, beans, or tomatoes. Spreading the same heat across more food is the surest fix.
  
• Taste at serving temperature. Food tastes less spicy cold than hot, so go a little heavier on the chile in cold dishes like salsa or slaw. Spicy food also gets hotter as it sits, so anything made a day ahead will have more bite.
  
• Start low, then build. When a recipe gives a range for a spice, start at the low end, taste, and add more. You can always add heat. You cannot take it back out.

None of it is complicated, and all of it applies to any spicy dish. Put it to work on the recipes below.