Chipotle peppers are an important ingredient in Mexican cooking. So important, in fact, that they have transcended their origins. Chipotles are now used in recipes from barbecue and chili to jams, marinades and braises. Making Chipotles from jalapeños is really quite easy, and you get a more robust-flavored chipotle.
If you are like me, you planted jalapeño peppers with visions of yummy salsa dancing in your head. And the summer salsa has been fantastic. But now at the end of the season, you find yourself with WAY too many jalapeños. Now you are searching around the internet trying to find recipes that will use up your jalapeño peppers so they don’t go to waste. If I’ve guessed right, you have come to the right page.
What are chipotles?
First of all, what exactly ARE chipotles? Chipotles are ripe (red) jalapeño peppers which are smoked and dried. Chipotles are not any other pepper except jalapeños. Normally we use jalapeños in recipes and salsas when they are still green. But this is actually considered un-ripe. If you leave the green Jalapeño on the plant until later in the growing season, it will ripen to a lovely rich red color. This is what you want to use for chipotles.
If you are growing your own jalapeños, you can actually determine how hot your peppers (and therefore also the chipotles) will be by how you grow them. If you want hotter jalapeños, you need to spare the water in the last stage of growing. This tricks the peppers into producing more of the capsaicin which is the primary ingredient which makes them hot. Read all about adjusting the heat of your peppers here
Making Chipotle from Jalapeños
Step 1 – Preparing the peppers.
Start out with ripe, red jalapeños. If you are growing jalapeños, you’ll want to leave the peppers on the vine until they turn red. If you acquired some from a farmers market, do not put them in the refrigerator. Just leave them on the counter and they will ripen as they age. (if they were in a refrigerated section at the store, they may not ripen) Unfortunately, peppers will not increase their heat once picked, so it is better to pick them red to get the full robust chipotle flavor from a ‘vine-ripened’ jalapeno.
You can decide to cut the stem off or leave it on. I like to leave it on, as it gives a handle with which to transfer the peppers without touching the skin. Many people will choose to remove the stem and use gloves. Arrange your peppers whole – with or without stems – on your smoker grate or tray.
Step 2 – Smoke the peppers
Put your tray or grate of peppers in the cold smoker. Pecan wood is the traditional wood for chipotles, but many people use hickory or applewood, since they are widely available. Set your smoker at its lowest setting. Best if you can set it under 200 degrees. The goal here is to bring the smoker and peppers up to temperature – slowly – at the same time. You do not want to cook your peppers.
Smoke the peppers for several hours. The peppers should start to shrivel and turn dark. When the desired smoke level is achieved, take the peppers out of the smoker.
Step 3 – Finish drying the peppers
After you take your peppers out of the smoker, test them to see if they are fully dehydrated. If you have left the peppers in the smoker for 8 or more hours, they are likely fully dry. If you only smoked the peppers for 2 or 3 hours, they likely need to be dried further for storage. Jalapenos are meatier peppers than many chilis, so they need more time drying than the thinner peppers, such as habaneros, serranos, Thai or cayenne peppers.
The easiest method of drying the peppers for storage after smoking is to use a dehydrator. Just put the peppers in overnight until they are fully dry. If you do not have a dehydrator, best to leave the peppers in the smoker at the lowest temperature until they are fully dry.
Step 4 – Storage of your chipotles
You’ll want to store your chipotle peppers in an airtight jar – a mason jar or preserving jar are fine. Whole peppers look great in one of these jars! However, they do take a lot of space.
You can also grind the peppers down into a powder using an old but cleaned out coffee grinder. Put a half dozen chipotles in one jar for your shelf, and then make chipotle powder out of the rest for easy storage.
Now you can use the powder in recipes like chili, barbecue, meat rubs, chocolate, jams, and of course, adobo sauce.
