Chipotle peppers

[large1]

Has anyone tried to smoke their own chipotles? If so what is the procedure? I am interested in trying it out. Any help is greatly appreciated

[Shaymus]

[Harry Nutczak]

I do them fairly often becuase a friend of mine is the produce manager at a local grocery store, he brings me the peppers when they start getting ugly and can't sell them anymore. Ugly to a grocery store means when the wrinkles start.

the most important thing is to remove the stem, it turns into a material stronger then the Kevlar & carbon fiber material used in bullet proof vests when it is dried.

They will dry faster if they are split, but they have less of a smoky flavor from my own experiments.

I will try to run my stumps as near as 145-150 as I can with heavy smoke the first 2 hours and keep them at that temp until they are dry.
I use a "Mr. Coffee" coffee grinder as my spice grinder to powder the concoction.

If you have a VOC respirator, WEAR IT! you do not want to do these in the house if anyone is sensitive to peppers. when you give ground chipotle peppers as a gift, tell them not to stick their noses in the bag and take a big whiff, they will be injured! I have seen it happen several times.
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Just remember that the toes you may step on during your climb to the top will also be attached to the a$$es you'll be forced to kiss on your way back down!

[jess]

Should have been at my house the day I decided to saute a large skillet of japs.,tabasco, and habeneros for a sauce I was making..hot !6" cast iron skillet, olive oil, then add peppers... 3 min. later- wife, kids, & dog are GONE.. Turn off the burner, move pan from heat & I barely made it out the door before collapsing.. It took3 hours before anyone could go in the house...

[necron 99]

You've got a pretty good deal going Harry turning food that would otherwise be tossed out into something useful and savory!

I haven't smoked red jalapenos to make chipotles yet, but I've smoked some of my home grown scotch bonnet type peppers this year in the same Bar-B-Chef I cook meats in. I bought some of those really inexpensive little disposable grills at Wal-Mart (they were $0.99 each IIRC) for putting the peppers on, and then laid that grill on a clean section of the food grate. I'd split the peppers in halves (or more for the rocotillos because of their shape) and removed the stems and seeds. They got about 90 minutes in there around 225 F with pecan wood and Rancher charcoal, at the same time meat was in there, but they were positioned closer to the firebox than the meat was ("upstream" of the meat in the smoke stream).

The closest ones to the firebox crisped a little, it would have worked better if I'd rotated the disposable grill they sat on halfway through and gave them about 15 minutes less. i put them in a food dehydrator after they cooled, and let it run for several days. I then I ground them to powder with a small mortar and pestle - going slow to minimize dust dispersion. They came out fine in terms of flavor. The rocotillos worked best since they were thicker fleshed, some of the scotch bonnets were downright papery / lacy and didn't grind as easily in the mortar & pestle.
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[large1]

Thanks for all the info. I will try them as soon as I can get some peppers.

[chefmichaelhayes]

In the early 1990's I studied under a Master Chef in Mexico and his secret was smoking over banana leaves...

They were awesome...

Roast and skin the jalapenos, remove the stem...skinning was optional...removing the stem was not, it added a bitter flavor...

Soak the banana leaves, roast the jalapenos, preferably large ones, the small ones don't take as long and you need to spend closer attention to them or they get too far gone for dehydration.

Smoke them until they are limp all the way through....

Have a drip pan that catches all the juices...this works great with emulsification with an infused oil...Pepper juice, a little garlic and shallot in a food processor then emulsify with a scented oil....don't use olive oil, it adds a freaky flavor...

After they are limp (depends on how hot your smoke is, we used a cold smoke and it took about six hours) dehydrate them either in the smoker or in an electric dehydrator (what we used)

Dry them....and then you can reconstitute them in a tomato-cumin base or in a stock of whatever you are using them in...if you use water, they lose a lot of the smoke and potency...wine is awesome if you are using it for the acid in your emulsion...and other acids like lemon, lime, apple really rocks my world....

Freaking fun stuff...

Peace, Hugs and Tobacco Peeepers...
Cheffy

[crashpilot]

[doug]

[jess]

Another real treat is grating fresh horseradish in a small area. Sinuses-what sinuses??

[mark8086]

I did a similar idiotic move when I decided to make some Habanero Sausa. I threw the habs in a blender and set it on Liquify. Everything was fine until I removed the top and immediately stuck my face in to see if they were chopped up yet. I fell backwards to the floor. Literally. Laid out. I just wish I'd "passed out" because the pain is like nothing I have ever experienced. Needless to say I won't do that again.

Mark

[magnumpiinohio]

I have a tendency now to bring my own Habanero sauce for wings or a mix of my special dust (ground chilies, maybe chipoltles, maybe Habaneros) if we might be eating some pseudo barbeque or whatever. I just can't get enough pepper as I typically take the lid off of the table shaker. Anyway on this occasion we were eating at a fairly large table with relatives, I had ordered an Italian sub sandwich and it was summer time. The reason I mention that it was summer time is because the AC was on high. Because of where I was sitting, when my sandwich came I put some of my dust on my sandwich and the wind from the AC set everyone downstream sneezing. It carried six settings down. Luckily no one got hurt but you should hear six people sneezing simultaneously!
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Magnum

[Luu]

I cut the ends off and slice the peppers length wise and place them on the smoker. Furthest from the heat.
I'll smoke them low and slow until what ever I happen to be smoking it with is done.( That’s been up to eight hours)
I’ll pull them off the smoker and finish them off in the oven at 200.I’ll do the squeeze test to determine when their ready to pull. They won’t be completely hard but they should be looking like a prune by now.
I’ll take them out of the oven and let them set overnight to completely harden.
I’ll grind them with a coffee grinder I only use for this process. It’s great for cooking with and of course rubs. Be careful! They can be hot.
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“We pray God Bless Texas. God Bless the U.S.A. God bless us all!"

[Smokin Hank]

One time, thank God it was only once, I was cooking some habs in water to soften them and the steam coming off of the pot cooked my sinuses for about a week. I was walking around talking like a cross between Silvyster Stalone and Daffy Duck. Now I cook them outside on a hot plate, great sauce though.

[BlueRooster]

My pepper gassing happened when I was doing ABT's...

We were doing 80 peppers for a New Year's Day event and I halved them all and pulled the guts out... I had a decent size bowl of jalapeno seeds and whites. Thinking I was doing something smart by not putting them in the garbage and getting someone later when they opened that cabinet, I proceeded to put them in the disposal....

Big mistake. I essentially pepper sprayed the house. I coughed and cried for at least 45 minutes and the whole family ended up our in the yard for an hour or two. Mom and dad were in town and it caused her to come down with a bad case of bronchitis...

Mental note to self... no peppers in the disposal....

[Dougie]

Man, I am GLAD I read this thread, because I am also intending at some point to make some chipotle and also some poblano chipotle that won't be quite as hot as jalapeno.

I will very much adhere to the DON'T DOs in this thread!!

Can we say OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES here?
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Traeger Lil' Tex

Pre-owner Weber Char Q (if they ever become available!)

[Harry Nutczak]

Poblano chiptle??

Wouldn't that be an Ancho pepper?
Ancho is smoked poblano from my understanding
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Just remember that the toes you may step on during your climb to the top will also be attached to the a$$es you'll be forced to kiss on your way back down!