|
Chipotles |
Originally
posted: 08/01/2003
Last updated:
01/08/2008 |
Chipotles are red (sometimes green) jalapeņo chile peppers that are dried at low
temperature in the presence of smoke. The
Scoville Heat
Unit (SHU) rating of chipotles is said to be in the range of 5,000-20,000 SHUs,
making them medium hot. Sometimes, other pepper varieties are sometimes
used, but when most people talk about chipotles, they're talking about
dried jalapeņos.
At the time of this writing,
chipotle is a trendy flavor ingredient in all sorts of commercial
products, including salad dressings, salsas, dipping sauces, flavored
mayonnaise, and even a new variety of Tabasco sauce. You can make your own
chipotles in the Weber Bullet, then grind them into a fine powder using a
spice mill or coffee grinder. They add a smokey zing to any recipe.
Here are some photos from
when I made chipotles using the WSM on July 4, 2003.
As always...click on any
of the pictures to
view a larger image.
 |
Prepping The Peppers
Buy fresh, red jalapeņo peppers
of good size and color. Rinse under cold water and pat dry.
Unless you have cast iron
hands, now is the time to put on a pair of disposable food service gloves
to protect your hands while cutting and handling the peppers. Also, do not touch
your eyes, nose, or face while working with the peppers, or you'll regret it!
Cut off the top of each pepper
to remove the stem, then cut in half lengthwise. This promotes faster drying
in the cooker.
If you want to retain all of
the pepper's heat in the finished product, leave the ribs and seeds
intact; if not, remove them now using a paring knife.
Spray the cooking grates with non-stick spray and arrange the peppers cut-side up.
|
|
|
 |
Setting Up The WSM For Smoke
Drying
I smoked these jalapeņos using
the hot plate method described in the Smoke-Dried
Tomatoes topic.
Put an electric
hot plate and 8" cast iron skillet on the charcoal grate. Set the hot plate
to "High". Put 1 small chunk of dry oak or pecan smoke wood in the skillet and place a
perforated disposable pie tin over the skillet as a lid. The pie tin protects
the skillet from drips and ensures that the wood does not burst
into flames.
Put the middle cooking section
in place and run the electrical cord out the access door opening. Fasten the door
upside down so the cord exits at the bottom of the opening (Picture 3).
Do not put the water pan in the
cooker. Put the peppers in the cooker and replace the WSM lid.
Set all vents, top and bottom,
to 100% open. Plug in the hot plate and
within a few minutes you'll have smoke and 150-160°F temperatures in the cooker.
Depending on weather conditions, the
amount of food being smoke-dried, and the heat output of the hot plate, you may
need to adjust the hot plate to a lower setting to maintain the 150-160°F
temperature that's ideal for smoke drying peppers. If the cooker runs a bit
hotter than this range, that's OK. If it gets over 200°F, just unplug the hot
plate, let the cooker cool down, then adjust the hot plate temperature setting.
About once an hour, open the
access door and add a small chunk of smoke wood to the skillet. Five or six
applications of smoke wood should be enough. |
|
|
 |
Smoke Drying The Jalapeņos
For these jalapeņos, I used 5
small chunks of oak smoke wood, each one applied about an hour apart. After
burning all 5 pieces, I just let the hot plate finish the drying process.
I started smoke drying the
peppers at 12:35pm, and they were finished at 7:20pm, as shown in Picture 1.
After smoke drying, let the chipotles air-dry for
1-2 days to make sure they're good and dry. Place in an air-tight
container and store in a cool, dark location with the rest of your spices.
Click on these photos for a
larger view of the finished product.
|
Back to Cooking Topics |
