HOMEMADE CHIPOTLES!

SoupGuy · April 06, 2005, 08:05:49 PM

Do you know what a "Chipotle" is?

It is nothing more than a SMOKED JALAPENO PEPPER (okay, Lots of smoked jalapeno peppers).

Have a smoker? A 12 pack of beer? Let's make some!

Go to your favorite Mexican grocer (Mercado), or wherever you can aquire good quality FRESH jalapeno pepers. (Super Walmart?)

HINT: RED (or at least partialy red) jalapenos make the best chipotle! But GREEN jalapeno peppers work good too.

ANOTHER HINT: Jalapeno peppers are really NOT especially HOT compared to many other peppers. But SOME ARE!

HERE IS HOW to determine a jalapeno's HEAT Level:
-- wood grain. Examine the peppers. The ones with a wood-grain in them are going to be hotter than those that are simply plain shiny-green.

LAST HINT: If you are lucky enough to find a bunch of RED jalapenos, use Hickory wood instead of mesquite.

For the rest of us:

Take about 5 LBS Jalapeno peppers and split them using a sharp knife from the (non-stemmed) tip about halfway up. Leave the stem on- it makes a good handle later. Not splitting them makes it take WAY longer!

Smoke-cook them for @ 12-14 hours at 140 AMERICAN degrees (F) using mesquite or hickory wood.

By now, they should be quite 'limp' and have turned a dark color (colour for those so inclined/challenged).

If you have a dehydrator, put them in at @ 145 for about 4 hours, or until 'Dry'. Otherwise, use your oven or smoker (no more smoke) to dry them out.

Chopped they're great in chile, powdered (coffee grinder) they go great in all sorts of food (pizza, jerky, enchilada's, scrambled eggs... etc)

Enjoy!

** Is a second-hand smoker dangerous?

Best know not for soup, but rather smoked meats...

JJC · April 07, 2005, 02:57:30 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by SoupNazi
 
Do you know what a "Chipotle" is?

It is nothing more than a SMOKED JALAPENO PEPPER (okay, Lots of smoked jalapeno peppers).

Have a smoker? A 12 pack of beer? Let's make some!

Go to your favorite Mexican grocer (Mercado), or wherever you can aquire good quality FRESH jalapeno pepers. (Super Walmart?)

HINT: RED (or at least partialy red) jalapenos make the best chipotle! But GREEN jalapeno peppers work good too.

ANOTHER HINT: Jalapeno peppers are really NOT especially HOT compared to many other peppers. But SOME ARE!

HERE IS HOW to determine a jalapeno's HEAT Level:
-- wood grain. Examine the peppers. The ones with a wood-grain in them are going to be hotter than those that are simply plain shiny-green.

LAST HINT: If you are lucky enough to find a bunch of RED jalapenos, use Hickory wood instead of mesquite.

For the rest of us:

Take about 5 LBS Jalapeno peppers and split them using a sharp knife from the (non-stemmed) tip about halfway up. Leave the stem on- it makes a good handle later. Not splitting them makes it take WAY longer!

Smoke-cook them for @ 12-14 hours at 140 AMERICAN degrees (F) using mesquite or hickory wood.

By now, they should be quite 'limp' and have turned a dark color (colour for those so inclined/challenged).

If you have a dehydrator, put them in at @ 145 for about 4 hours, or until 'Dry'. Otherwise, use your oven or smoker (no more smoke) to dry them out.

Chopped they're great in chile, powdered (coffee grinder) they go great in all sorts of food (pizza, jerky, enchilada's, scrambled eggs... etc)

Enjoy!

** Is a second-hand smoker dangerous?

Best know not for soup, but rather smoked meats...
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Again, thanks for the recipe, SN. Please add it to the Recipe section of the FAQ Forum as suggested by Oldman in his recent topic in the Original Bradley Smoker Forum.

BTW, when I make ABTs, I really love to use jalapenos because after they smoke for a few hours they have that great chipotle taste [:p]

John
Newton MA

MallardWacker · April 07, 2005, 02:08:34 PM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">HERE IS HOW to determine a jalapeno's HEAT Level:
-- wood grain. Examine the peppers. The ones with a wood-grain in them are going to be hotter than those that are simply plain shiny-green.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Thanks for the hint.
<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Jalapeno peppers are really NOT especially HOT compared to many other peppers. But SOME ARE!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Now thats a understatement.

Just my observations here and I have nothing to back this up with. I ussually buy my peppers at Sams, 2lbs at a time. I have noticed that when the are FAT and STUBBY they seem to be much milder, but when they LONGER and SKINNIER they can be quite HOT. This is not a hard an fast rule but it seems a good direction anyway.

SmokeOn,

mski
Perryville, Arkansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie

If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know. But...

whitetailfan · April 07, 2005, 06:25:13 PM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by SoupNazi
 
Smoke-cook them for @ 12-14 hours at 140 AMERICAN degrees (F) using mesquite or hickory wood...
By now, they should be quite 'limp' and have turned a dark color (colour for those so inclined/challenged).
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Hmmm...I thought fahrenheit was fahrenheit everywhere.
I'm trying real hard to see the usefullness of your adjectives and comments, but I'm failing miserably. Maybe I'm just having a bad day?

whitetailfan
"Nice Rack"
Lethbridge, AB

oguard · April 07, 2005, 07:48:10 PM

It sruck me the wrong way to WTF[V]

KEEP ON SMOKIN
Mike
maybe just another Canuck having a bad day[;)]

Catch it,Kill it,Smoke it

MWS · April 08, 2005, 05:55:04 AM

I think you use CANADIAN degrees Fahrenheit when you are smoking back bacon [;)][:(!]

Just a little new member humour (or humor for those inclined [:0]).[:D] I'm desperately trying to get to Junior status [^]

MWS - Mike

whitetailfan · April 08, 2005, 03:56:12 PM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by mws
 I think you use CANADIAN degrees Fahrenheit when you are smoking back bacon [;)][:(!]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
[:D][:D][:D] Good one Mike[;)]

whitetailfan
"Nice Rack"
Lethbridge, AB

Curtis Jackson · April 11, 2005, 03:34:38 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by SoupNazi
 
LAST HINT: If you are lucky enough to find a bunch of RED jalapenos, use Hickory wood instead of mesquite.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

To make a real traditional chipotle as made for centuries going back to Aztec times, the pepper MUST be completely red. The flavor is radically different than with green peppers. But, as you say, not many people are lucky enough to be able to get red ones, so that is a corner that some folks must cut.

But the choice of wood is one place where you don't need to stray from the traditional recipe. Until very very recently, chipotles were smoked with pecan wood and only pecan wood. Now some people are branching out to different woods such as mesquite or hickory, which is fine, but it won't yield the same chipotle that you buy already smoked in a Mexican grocery.

I'm not trying to discourage the use of other woods. I'm just saying that a North Carolina smoked pork butt, for example, is smoked using hickory, and if you chose to smoke it using alder wood or oak then what you'd get may be great, but it isn't the real McCoy.

As for the question of heat, you are very correct that the heat of jalapenos varies, more so in my experience than any other pepper. If I remember correctly that is determined by 3 major factors, in decreasing order of importance: the "blood line" of the plant (were its ancestors hot?), the acidity of the soil (more acid equals hotter peppers; some folks mulch with pine needles to kick up the acidity of the soil), and the amount of dry heat while the plant was growing (a hotter climate produces a hotter pepper). I don't know of any physical tell-tale that would indicate the heat (but that doesn't mean one doesn't exist). The best way I know of is to ask the grocer if you can test one, then slice it open and taste the white membrane as close to the stem end of the pepper as possible. That is going to be both the hottest part of the pepper, and the most consistent indicator.

Me, I don't care; I love habaneros. I eat what seems like gallons of chipotle puree, but if you want to do something *wonderful* to a pot or bowl of chile, smoke some habaneros (best wood is probably something sweet like apple or cherry) exactly like your method for smoking jalapenos, dry them, and powder them. Use *very* sparingly. WARNING! If you do this, *always* wear gloves when dealing with the habs, *always* dehydrate them outside (or your whole family will be choking and crying), and *always* wear a cheap wood-worker's mouth-and-nose mask and some kind of glasses when you are powdering the result in the coffee grinder. I have separately made each of the 3 mistakes above (not heeding those pieces of advice), and regretted it immensely. I will never forget the time I was powdering dried habs and accidentally coughed and blew powder up into my eyes. If you've seen the eye-popping scene in the movie "Total Recall", you've got some idea of what it was like. ;-)

Curtis Jackson
[email protected]

Habanero Smoker · April 11, 2005, 11:28:56 AM

Welcome back Curtis. I haven't seen you post in a while. You are right about the soil and climate conditions, this will also create a difference in "heat" within the same varieties. I thought that the "wood grain" on a pepper was caused by too much direct sunlight to the plant (not enough leaves on the plant to protect the pepper), but it could also be a way to tell which peppers are hotter.

I'm going to have to try the smoked habaneros. How much smoke do you apply. I always wanted to make my own Jerk powder, and using smoked habaneros (or scotch bonnets) would give it a unique taste.

nsxbill · April 11, 2005, 12:14:33 PM

Thanks to all! Lots of good information. Here we are radically changing the the quality of what we smoke, and forgetting the basics...the spice...Making your own.

Bill

There is room on earth for all God's creatures....on my plate next to the mashed potatoes.

Oldman · April 11, 2005, 01:12:53 PM

Dry lines are not a blemish. They are signs of a mature pepper and indicate hotness.

Green jalapenos are best in the late summer, while red jalapenos appear in the fall.

Substitutes are the following: cuaresmeno (very similar) OR Fresno chile OR guero chile OR malagueta (hotter) OR serrano pepper OR yellow wax chile pepper OR fresh cayenne pepper.

The one that looks like a jalapeno is the Fresno pepper. It is green in the summer and red in the fall. However, the walls are a little thinner.

Growing jalapeno peppers is really easy. Over in Tampa there is a house next to the water where it never freezes and they have a hedge of jalapeno plants. Not to mention they have a lot of peppers!

Just for your information here is a Scoville Chile Heat Chart

*EDIT ON 06.11.05 to reflect new address for image.*
Olds

http://rminor.com

MallardWacker · April 11, 2005, 01:46:49 PM

Olds,

That might explain what I saw In Sams this weekend. They had a box of 3 colored chile's . Red , yellow and green. All looked like Jalepenos. The only thing the label said was that they were "colored" chili's.

SmokeOn,

mski
Perryville, Arkansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie

If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know. But...

Oldman · April 11, 2005, 03:28:57 PM

Just a foot note. There are hybrid Jalepenos that on the Scoville Chile Heat Chart would fall into the Zero heat level. Just like a green sweet bell pepper. I grew some one year and they had a taste that was sorta like Jalepenos, but no heat at all!

One year I got a couple of really funky looking peppers. [:0] What had happened was I had two types of peppers too close together. Generally I only grow open pollinating and not hybrids. Thus cross-pollination is very possible.

I grow each year a tomato that came to this country with my Grandfather from Polish in the early 1900s! I keep it far away from any other tomato plants--like in the front yard. It's not the best tomato I've grown, but what a keep-sake.[^]

My daughter could not grow a plastic plant. So I'm hopeing for a grand child that will inherent my blackened knees [:)]

Olds

http://rminor.com

JJC · April 12, 2005, 03:02:16 AM

Hi Olds,

Can you post the Scoville chart in the FAQ Forum--it's a really useful reference.

John
Newton MA

Oldman · April 12, 2005, 04:12:16 AM

Sure.... tomarrow too tired now. Just spent 3 hours on Paul Woods (manxman)project and still got a bunch more to do with it before nsxbill can edit it.

Olds

http://rminor.com