Every year, I grow outrageous amounts of peppers, and every year I have to come up with some way of using them all up. This year, I decided to make my own chipotle spice, and I was thrilled with how it turned out. It has a beautiful deep smoky flavor with a slow heat that builds over time. You may go looking for chipotle peppers and get confused when you keep coming up with jalapeño varieties, but that is because Chipotle is not a variety of that name; rather, it is a red ripe jalapeño that has been smoked & dried.
I had 4 jalapeño plants producing over 100 peppers in two successions, meaning we picked them once and the plant had time to produce a second crop. I cheated and did not have all red jalapeños, but I am still calling this chipotle powder. Let it be known that technically chipotle comes from RED jalapeños.
All my guides come with the preface that this is a guide and not an exact recipe. I don't measure very often and use what I have from the kitchen. I have a very common-sense approach to cooking and preserving based on reading, workshops, and courses. Preserving can be dangerous if not done properly, so I encourage you to do the work and learn about the subject before diving in headfirst.
Things you'll need
Jalapenos | Dehydrator |
|---|---|
Rubber gloves | Air Tight Container |
Coffee Grinder | Salt |
Smoker |
start buy picking and washing your jalapenos however many you have is fine.
set up the smoker, we set our smoked to about 200degrees and used presoaked applewood as your smoking medium
add whole jalapeños to smoker for 4-6 hours
remove from smoker and transfer to dehydrator
dehydrate for as long as it takes to be COMPLETELY dry (peppers should not bend, they should snap) This took 48 hours for us.
remove form dehydrator and snap off stems ( this will be easy if dried properly)
at this point you can choose to grind into a powder like I have done or store in airtight containers whole. You can re-hydrate and use in sauces or you can grind to a powder as I have done. Continue to see how I ground into a fine powder.
add peppers to food processor in batches to chop up
to get very fine powder consistency we used a electric coffee grind to grind them up completely again done in batches.
add 1 tablespoon of salt for every 1/2 cup of ground powder to keep from spoiling.
store in an air tight container for up to 6 months
Tips
use gloves if you are unable to keep form touching your face while making as the oils from the peppers can burn skin or eyes easily.
wash your hands thoroughly and often through the process if you chose not to wear gloves
when grinding up peppers be cautious as powder can be inhaled or become airborn and get in your eyes.
If you give this a try I hope this guide helps you and gives you a starting point to creating your own homemade chipotle spice.
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