# Makin' Chipotles



## ak1 (Jun 28, 2010)

Has anyone tried to make their own chipotle peppers?


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## richoso1 (Jun 29, 2010)

How do you plan to use them? For use in a rub, or in an adobo? Red or green? Just remember, a chipotle is any type of chile pod that has been smoked and dried. Most folks just use jalapeno, but is is not limited to that type of chile.


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## ak1 (Jun 29, 2010)

I had some green jalapeno's My plan was to make chipotle powder.


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## richoso1 (Jun 29, 2010)

AK1 said:


> I had some green jalapeno's My plan was to make chipotle powder.


You can cut them in half and remove the stem, seeds, and placenta (membrane), then smoke them using a little mesquite for about 3-4 hours. Let them cool and then put them in a dehydrator at around 110°-120° until they are dry. Let them air out for a few days, then you can grind them into a powder. They must really be dry to grind, or the grinder will gum up on you. It takes quite a bit of fresh pods to make a decent amount of powder, This is for green chipotle powder, if you want red, you'll have to wait until the japs are red on the plant before starting out. but have fun.


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## ak1 (Jun 29, 2010)

I don't have a dehydrator. Can I use the oven, or leave them to air dry?

Here's a pic of some I threw on the smoker last night while I was making ribs.


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## richoso1 (Jun 29, 2010)

AK1 said:


> I don't have a dehydrator. Can I use the oven, or leave them to air dry?
> 
> Here's a pic of some I threw on the smoker last night while I was making ribs.


Yes you can use the oven, keep the temp on the low side, and maybe crack the door open if needed, You can let them air dry, but it will take longer. Sounds good.


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## ak1 (Jun 29, 2010)

Thank you.

Oh, how long should I keep them in the oven?


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## richoso1 (Jun 29, 2010)

AK1 said:


> Thank you.
> 
> Oh, how long should I keep them in the oven?


About 4-6 hrs., or until they break or crack in between your fingers.


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## ak1 (Jun 29, 2010)

Will do, thanks.

BTW, lowest temp on my ovens is 170. Is that ok?


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## richoso1 (Jun 29, 2010)

AK1 said:


> Will do, thanks.
> 
> BTW, lowest temp on my ovens is 170. Is that ok?


Let it fly, just don't let them burn.


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## mballi3011 (Jun 29, 2010)

Now AK1 you should do everything that Rich tells you for he is a residant chili Guru here.


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## jirodriguez (Jun 29, 2010)

I am definately going to have to try this! I love the smokey flavor you get from chipoltle powder, but for some reason it is hard to find in the stores around here. I have smoked jalapeno's in the past for use in salsa's and BBQ sauces and they always taste great!


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## mco (Jun 29, 2010)

AK1 if your not in a hurry for them , just sty them together ( make a rista) and let them air dry.


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## squirrel (Jun 29, 2010)

I dried some cayenne peppers last year in the oven and my lowest setting is 170F. I kept the door cracked, it took a long time, I can't remember how long, but I would pick one up and tap it, if I could hear the seeds rattling around then it was dry. I still have a few and they are so pretty! I just bought a dehydrator and have a mix of peppers in it, it is too loud!


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## chefrob (Jun 30, 2010)

when i make chipotles, after smoking them i make a puree and freeze them in ice cube trays and then seal-a-meal them for future use.


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## solaryellow (Jun 30, 2010)

Is mesquite what they are traditionally smoked with? Once my jalapenos ripen (turn red), I was wanting to make some chipotle powder from them but wasn't sure which wood to smoke with.


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## chefrob (Jun 30, 2010)

solaryellow said:


> Is mesquite what they are traditionally smoked with? Once my jalapenos ripen (turn red), I was wanting to make some chipotle powder from them but wasn't sure which wood to smoke with.


you can use what ever you like........i use pecan cuz it is what i usually have.


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## solaryellow (Jul 1, 2010)

Thanks Rob!


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## pandemonium (Jul 3, 2010)

can someone tell me exactly what the adobo sauce is? i bought a can of chipotles in adobo sauce awhile back for Wutangs sausage recipe

and i couldn't tell if it was the chipoltle that was hot or the adobo?


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## bratrules (Jul 5, 2010)

adobo is a tomato based chili sauce its not spicy on its own cause it uses new Mexico chilies or ancho chilies am going to be make a batch of chipotles this week some time ill post the recipe when i do along with some pics.


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## ak1 (Jul 5, 2010)

I used maple to smoke mine. Then stuck 'em on the gasser nice and low to dry them out.

Put them through the spice grinder today. End result;


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## solaryellow (Jul 5, 2010)

Looks good AK1! I did a couple in mesquite this weekend just for the fun of it and really liked the way they turned out.


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## diesel (Jul 7, 2010)

that looks great.. will try this weekend.  Last year I had a few different chilies growing in the garden.  I would put them in the smoker w/ said meat.  The next day I would add all to a crock pot and let them cook all day.  Oh.. and also tomatoes for the garden.  The combination was really good and made great burrito contents. 

good work.  got to do this soon.


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## cycle1667 (Jul 9, 2010)

I love this thread, I moved from Tucson to the Midwest and have been feeling mighty lonely.

Nobody seems to have sonoran style cooking out here.  Or baja for that matter.

____________________

cycle1667

Cincinnati Dining


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## gatorfan316 (Aug 10, 2010)

I will try to make my own chipoltle powder at some point but until then does anyone have a site I can order it from? You absolutely can not find it in Florida.


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## rowdyrawhide (Aug 10, 2010)

Here is a site I just ordered a bunch of spices from earlier tonight, sure wish I would have seen this thread earlier cause I would have added this to the order.

http://spicebarn.com/chipotle_pepper,_ground.htm


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## solaryellow (Aug 10, 2010)

Gatorfan316 said:


> I will try to make my own chipoltle powder at some point but until then does anyone have a site I can order it from? You absolutely can not find it in Florida.


I get most of my spices from Butcher Packer. Great prices and very good service. http://www.butcher-packer.com/index...id=783&zenid=1dbc5a81fc275c93d712e5318bd55078


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## solaryellow (Aug 10, 2010)

Finished up my first batch this past weekend. A gallon bag of ripe jalapenos yielded 1/2 of a small ziploc bag of powder. It smells and tastes incredible. Batch #2 has been smoked and is dehydrating in my plywood smoker. Batch #3 is in my garage fridge waiting for batch #2 to finish drying.


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## ak1 (Aug 11, 2010)

solaryellow said:


> Finished up my first batch this past weekend. A gallon bag of ripe jalapenos yielded 1/2 of a small ziploc bag of powder. It smells and tastes incredible. Batch #2 has been smoked and is dehydrating in my plywood smoker. Batch #3 is in my garage fridge waiting for batch #2 to finish drying.


Hopefully it all works out.  It's amazing how nice it smells. Initially, my wife was questioning the effort I was putting into this, but once it was finished, she was totally agreeable to the effort put into it.


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## solaryellow (Aug 11, 2010)

AK1 said:


> Hopefully it all works out.  It's amazing how nice it smells. Initially, my wife was questioning the effort I was putting into this, but once it was finished, she was totally agreeable to the effort put into it.


I made my wife undergo a blind taste test of store bought chipotle and the stuff I made. She was all for my chipotle and thought the store bought was a cheap imatation. I will also say that making my own has opened a whole new relm of possibilities. It is very different than store bought and the flavor is much fuller. I am planning on making a batch of beer and chipotle summer sausages that would not be possible with the flavor of the crap I get from the store.


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## gatorfan316 (Aug 11, 2010)

So when doing your own do you leave the seeds in or take them out? I know the seeds and veins are what gives a pepper most of it's kick.


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## solaryellow (Aug 12, 2010)

Gatorfan316 said:


> So when doing your own do you leave the seeds in or take them out? I know the seeds and veins are what gives a pepper most of it's kick.


I happen to like a little bit of kick so I purposely don't do a "great" job of deveining and leave a little in there along with a few seeds from time to time. Not a lot, just enough to make me happy.


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## ttosmoker (Aug 12, 2010)

Gatorfan316 said:


> I will try to make my own chipoltle powder at some point but until then does anyone have a site I can order it from? You absolutely can not find it in Florida.


Another good site is Pendery's in Dallas

http://www.penderys.com/

I buy a lot of their anchos and smoked serrano pods, as well as some others.  The pods are so fresh that you can bend them in half without having them crack or split.  And they smell heavenly.  I haven't actually ordered powders from them (I use mostly pods in my cooking), but I will the next time I need some.

And, hey, thanks all for the good info on making homemade chipotles.  I'd do it if I could get some decent fresh peppers.  They seem to be neutered here in the DC area -- I made a salsa with 16 jalapenos with seeds and 4 tomatoes (plus other flavorings of course).  It tasted good, but no real heat.  That's why I've gotta turn to the pods.


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## ak1 (Aug 13, 2010)

I left everything in but the stems. I like the heat.


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## scubadoo97 (Aug 13, 2010)

Gatorfan316 said:


> I will try to make my own chipoltle powder at some point but until then does anyone have a site I can order it from? You absolutely can not find it in Florida.


GO GATORS!

Gatorfan you should be able to walk into any Mexican market in our state and find dried chipotles.  More often than not they will have the little red moritas over the longer green jalapeno chipotles.  I like the moritas better.  Take them and grind them in a coffee/spice grinder to yield some very potent chpotle powder.  This stuff will cloud up your eyes if you get too close so be careful.  You can reconstitue the peppers if you want to cook with them or if you want to make your own chipotle in adobo.  I use to always bring these back from Mexico DF but now they are easy to find locally.  I'm in Pinellas county.   I like to take a combination of several dried chiles, smoke them and grind them to make a smoked chile powder.   You can certainly make them from scratch if you want to.


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## tender loins (Aug 13, 2010)

I got a late start this year but here's some I did last year, I think with pecan, about 6 varieties:


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## dale5351 (Aug 16, 2010)

I got some red jalapenos from the grocery this past week, and tried to make chipolte out of them.  Couple of things went wrong -- call it lessons learned.

I started out with my MES30 and pecan chips in the chip box.  Set the temp control to 140.  After an hour, I checked and was getting hardly any smoke.  Upped the temp to 180F, but still got very little smoke.  I could peek through the hole and see that the wood chips were hardly even scorched.  This is consistent with my friend's experience with a newer model of MES30.  I'd thought that since I have a full chip tray and not the dumbed down half sized version that I might get smoke at lower temps  NOT SO.

So -- out came my new A-MAZE-N smoker.  Filled it with hickory, lit two ends and let it go for another six hours.  Turned off the heat after about an hour, but the box maintained temps of 110 or higher until the end.

Oh, and I should say that I started with split and seeded peppers -- except for one whole one.

What I ended up with were curled up red pepper halves, fairly brittle, but not looking at all like the pictures of the smoked jalapenos in this thread.  I've been finishing the drying in the oven, a few hours at at time.  We've tasted them, and they taste good -- but I'm not sure how close to chipoltes they are.

One other lesson learned -- I started out trying to put them on a round pizza pan wire mess grate.  Turned out it was about 1/4 inch too big, and when I latched the door I sprung it.  It had a small gap at the top where you could see in, and smoke came out.  Today I managed to get it pushed back into good closure -- but that was scary for a while.  Don't try this at home!


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## canaz (Mar 20, 2012)

Tried the first recipe posted at top of the thread.  Kept the seeds and all else involved, turned out great!  Can't wait to try other types of peppers.


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