# Homemade Chipotle Pepper Sauce



## whtplainssmoker

Finally took a shot at making my own Chipotle Pepper sauce.  On Father's Day I was firing up the WSM to smoke a 9 bone rib roast to make a smoked/grilled pork chops (Q-view in other thread) and some baby back ribs. I had travelled all around town to find dried Ancho chilies for the pork chops, and came across fresh ripened (red) jalapeno peppers at a small hispanic market.  So I grabbed a dozen and decided to make my own chipotles.

Smoked the peppers for about 6 hours in the WSM using Royal Oak charcoal and a mixture of sugar maple and apple chunks to start.  Later in the smoke, I used some hickory chunks.  I left the peppers out on a rack for a day or two while I decided whether I would make a hot sauce or dry them out to make chipotle powder.    Once I decided on the hot sauce, I used Solaryellow's basic ratios from his Hinkle Hatz Challenge post.













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__ whtplainssmoker
__ Jun 20, 2013






12 Smoked ripened (red) jalapenos

1 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 TBS kosher salt

1 TBS (just shy) light brown sugar

3-4 dashes of worcestershire sauce

juice 1/2 small lime

Sauted the onions in olive oil in a small pot.  Then added the garlic for about 1-2 minutes.

Meanwhile, removed the stems from the peppers and rough chopped them (seeds and all) and threw them into the blender with the cider vinegar, salt and brown sugar.  Blended until completely liquified then into the pot.  Probably added 1/2 cup of water to help the blending process.













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__ whtplainssmoker
__ Jun 20, 2013






Brought it to a boil, added a few dashes of worcestershire sauce to taste and to darken the color just a tad.   Gave it a a tast and decided to give it a squeeze of 1/2 lime for a slight citrus taste.  Then I let it simmer for about an hour to reduce and thicken.   Cooled for about 1/2 hour then funneled into an old Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce bottle.













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__ whtplainssmoker
__ Jun 20, 2013






Sauce ended up with a slight smokey taste and some decent spiciness.  Vinegar is a bit strong.   For a first time, it came our pretty good.  Next time, I would probably reduce the cider vinegar a little bit and smoke the peppers a little longer.

Thanks to Solaryellow for giving me the itch to try it.


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## fwismoker

My cousin n law will love this recipe...as i will also.  Copied to my recipe book. Ty


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## whtplainssmoker

For this amount of jalapenos, I think I would reduce the cider vinegar to about 1 cup or maybe 3/4 cup.  You can add some water for the blending process then reduce it down.  Oh... and I forgot I added the juice of 1/2 lime.


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## oldschoolbbq

Nice! Love that Chilpotle flavor.  I find dried Anchos and N.Mex. Chiles at Wally World in the Produce. Bags  for about $7 , enough to do a good batch of Rub...


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## whtplainssmoker

oldschoolbbq said:


> Nice! Love that Chilpotle flavor.  I find dried Anchos and N.Mex. Chiles at Wally World in the Produce. Bags  for about $7 , enough to do a good batch of Rub...


The little hispanic market had the dried ancho's (about 5 per bag) for about .99 or $1.99.  This place was a find, especially in my neck of the woods which is very white-bread when it comes to food supplies.  Trick was to ask some people in the hispanic neighborhood "where can I fnd.....?" and they were more than happy to help.  The market had porkbellies for about 2.89 lb (cheap enough for me to think about making my own bacon), pig ears, all kinds of other meats I wasnt sure of, an entire isle of goya products I had never seen.  (Did anyone know Goya made baked beans?) tamale wrappers, tons of other dried peppers (arbol, N. Mex, poblano, etc). I will be back.


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## smokinhusker

Looks great! Nice find on the market. We used to have one in Colorado Springs that was a huge Hispanic Grocery store and it closed. 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Lots of great meat and cheap enough prices. 

I haven't thought about making my own, I bought a couple jars from Penzey's


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## diggingdogfarm

Looks real good.
I make and can homemade chipotles in adobo and make the sauce out of that, it works real good.


~Martin


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## tsminil

Have you considered splitting the vinegar with apple cider?  It might cut the acidity and give the sauce a nice sweetness?


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## kathrynn

sounds and looks yummy!

Kat


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## dr k

I'm going to try your recipe with less Apple Cider Vinegar.  I'm going to try this plan for smoking the red ripe Jalapenos @ < 225* for 16 hrs. then sun dry the rest of the way if need.  I've heard about the months it takes to get the smoke smell out of the dehydrators and days out of your house if finished in the oven.  http://bbq.about.com/od/fruitandvegetables/ss/aa100607a.htm


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## lgreenberg

I"m tempted to try this soon.  How do Green Jalapenos compare with Red in this process?  The green are plentiful and cheap, the red, not so much of either it seems.


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## whtplainssmoker

My brother tried dehydrating jalapeños in a food dehydrator (not smoked) and his basement. He went down there and his eyes just burned up. :) he said next time he would plug it in in the garage.

This was my first time with the sauce so next time I would probably use less vinegar or a different kind. I lik the idea of just using some apple cider instead of all apple cider vinegar.

As for the green vs red... I dont know how it would work.  The red jalapeños were cheap 1.99 per lb. but it was also he only place I had ever seen them. I bet if you found a Spanish market you could find them.


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## whtplainssmoker

Updated links to my Smoked and Grilled chop thread and Solar Yellow's Hinkle Hatz thread.


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## ak1

There seems to be a bit of confusion in this thread.

Chipotle peppers are smoked and dried ripe Jalapeno peppers

Ancho's are dried poblano peppers.

Guajillos are dried Mirasol peppers.


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## whtplainssmoker

AK1 said:


> There seems to be a bit of confusion in this thread.
> 
> Chipotle peppers are smoked and dried ripe Jalapeno peppers
> 
> Ancho's are dried poblano peppers.
> 
> Guajillos are dried Mirasol peppers.


AK1

Any confusion I caused was unintentional.  I was looking for anchos for another recipe.  Couldn't find them until I hit that hispanic market.  While I was there I saw the ripe jalepenos and knew that I could smoke them to make "chipotle" peppers. So I bought those too.   The sauce was made by smoking the ripened jalepenos and cooking them as decribed above.  Hope that clears up any confusion.

-Mike


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## gm sd

I smoke my jalapenos like this as well...using Apple. I got a round  electric smoker, but removed  the heating element and simply set the round smoker on top of the Weber Grill lid, and the vent and the wood inside is the smoke source....never gets too hot (my main error on past attempts) and is really controllable, and goes for hours.   Chefs who have tasted it said to add more salt, as it is both a spice and a seasoning, I also add real maple syrup and brown sugar and no water, only cider vinegar.    The smokiness seems to vary and I can't get a handle on how to control this!  The longer the peppers smoke does not seem to change or add smokiness...8 yrs ago  I had an incredible smoke flavor and do not know how it happened, and I used the weber with coals and wood chips/chunks and smoked the peppers right on the grill with the closed lid...  help? I saute the smoked whole garden jalapeno peppers and sometimes a few other varieties for fun, salt, garlic sugar and syrup (no onion...today is the first fall sauce day so I may add onion as most seem to include it) with cider vinegar on the largest cast iron skillet Cabelas sells (it just fits inside of the weber grill  Then put in a large food processor while relatively hot and blend the heck out of it, adding cider vinegar to get it about the consistency of really runny mustard, and adding salt to get it right to taste.   The sugar, salt, garlic smoke and heat all seem to pull you in. 

I press the mash mixture in a cone jam press/strainer with a pointed wooden pestle, still  adding cider vinegar to desired consistency and keep it flowing.   These cone presses are in antique shops, pawn shops and garage sales or Cabelas has a stainless steel one...mine are aluminum from garage sales...in the midwest jam is still a county fair and farm Grandma art form, so easy to find.  I put the sauce  in used Siracha bottles for use, (w/ 18 yr old twin boys 4 quarts might make it to January!) and can the rest in pint and quart jars.  Do this all outside on a weber grill, elmwood fire, so house remains unblemished by my antics.  Wife hates the smell.  To her, smoke=dirt= poverty=we are headed there=?  and all the other psycho-emotional things women tend to hook to things.( No prob, that's not why I married her and she does not object as long as I "do it outside")  

The remaining "mash" of seeds and solid bits is freezable and is a fantastic base for a meat barbeque rub.  Wear gloves.

BTW another smoked pepper victory by almost accident.  Grew about 5 of those firecracker sized Thai pepper plants...Summer and water were just right for them so they really fruited....peppers were crazy hot so I just hung the whole plants in the shed and forgot about them til spring.  Read about smoked paprika:   So out they came, smoked the dried peppers for about 4 hours, and ground them in a coffee bean grinder.   Incredible powder....the boys and I put it in/on everything, from fish to steak to chicken to sandwiches to tomatoes to salads.   You know the jar is open in the kitchen when you hear a sneeze.  It is potent, but in powder form totally controllable.   Caution!!!....as I was grinding and putting the powder into a jar at my outdoor cooking setup, one son strode by and said "don't get it in your eyes".  The next puff of a breeze did exactly that, and I was flat out for at least 15 mins, ice and wet towels on my eyes and surrounding skin, wife with "that look" whenever I do things like this not helping much.   The danger of a terminal degree or a job where you are the "smart one" at work is that you often arrogantly forget you do not know everything.   Wear goggles..my glasses did not help.GM in SD


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