Smoked Jalapenos = Chilpotle?

WooDoggies · December 2001

Howdy Y'all,
I was given a few pounds of fresh jalapeno peppers and was hoping someone here has had some experience smoking them.
It is my understanding that a chilpotle pepper is nothing more than a smoked jalapeno.
However, how does one end up with a deep-red-flavor-bomb of a dried/smoked chili... starting from a fresh, juicy green pepper?[p]I sure would appreciate some thoughts on this. I love the uncanned variety of chilpotles but they can get a bit pricey. Would be nice to create my own.[p]Thanks and happy Friday.
WD

RhumAndJerk · December 2001

WooDoggies,
Chipoltes are easy to make in the egg. Just split the peppers and clean out the seeds and smoke the peppers at 200 or lower over indirect heat for about six to eight hours. When you done, let them cool and store in a jar. I use a perforated grill wok over a pizza stone and just stir the peppers every hour. I use Pecan for smoking wood.[p]If you leave the seeds in the peppers, poke a hole in the pepper to allow the steam to escape. Also the resulting Chipolte will be very hot. [p]The red color only comes when you start with Red Jalapenos, which is really the ripe stage of the fruit. It has been my experience that when making Chipoltes with both red and green peppers that the green ones seem to finish about an hour or so before the red ones.[p]Hope this helps,
RhumAndJerk[p]

WooDoggies · December 2001

RhumAndJerk,[p]Thanks for your insights.[p]What color does the green jalapeno turn after a 6-8 hour smoke and what texture do you look for?
Do you still get a good pepper flavor after such a long smoke?[p]I like your choice of wood. Pecan has been a favorite of mine for some time now.[p]Thanks again,
WD

RhumAndJerk · December 2001

Woodoggies,
Green peppers basically become black. The red ones turn a very very deep dark shade of red, almost black.[p]The idea is to really dehydrate the pepper without cooking it. You will have a mellow smoked chipotle flavor rather than a green pepper flavor.[p]Have fun. I think that maybe some beef jerky is in store for Sunday. That should be good to go with a Browns win over the Patsies and their bumbling head coach.[p]Happy Smoking,
RhumAndJerk[p]

KennyG · December 2001

Woodoggies,[p]I do chipotles on the Egg upon occasion and second R&J's good advice. Red jalapenos are hard to come by around here and I've done a bunch with green ones. They will turn out blackish brown and still have a rich flavor. I made the mistake of not seeding them the first time and could not believe how potent they turned out.

J Appledog · December 2001

KennyG, Nice to "see" you! [p]When I seed the jalapeños I wear rubber gloves and work outside. I use a woodcutting tool that I still have from college art classes to seed them.[p]JCA

DTM · December 2001

WooDoggies,
A little chipotle background. In the vast chili fields of Northern Mexico the red, ripe chilies used to be a waste product and were fed to chickens. Then the chipotle craze cranked up and now you see these short concrete block structures all over that are any where form 10 ft to 50 ft square. The roof is supported heavy hardware cloth and around the base every 5 ft or so a base block is removed and a sm. fire pit area is added. The red jalapenos are mounded a ft. deep on the roof/screen. Small smoldering mesquite fires are burned in the fire pits and a kid turns and rakes the chilies every day. After a couple of weeks the ripe chiles are dry and red brown and ready for market. Sorry for the rambling but I found the process facinating. Now pasilla de Oaxaca chilies are a whole other story.
DTM

WooDoggies · December 2001

DTM,
Thanks for the background on chilpolte. Good read and one for the memory banks. Over the past couple of years those little hotties have managed to work their way into many a dish. Good for imparting heat, pepper flavor and a hint of that mesquite you were talking about. Yum.

So what about those Oaxacan pasillas? You got me curious.
Are they the ones used to make the black mole?[p]WD

DTM · December 2001

WooDoggies,
Hey WD,
Black mole know as mole poblano is usually made with a mix of chilies including ancho, mulato, pasilla (a cayenne type different from pasilla de Oaxaca), and maybe a chipotle. There are as many different versions as there are cooks in Mexico. In most mercados you can buy a recado for the different moles which is all the spices, herbs and chilies ground and mixed together. They are sold in ziploc bags and it looks like a big black lump and it always piques the US customs interest.
The pasilla de Oaxaca is a guajillo type only fleshier. They are smoked over a tropical hardwood related to allspice. The chilies are layered onto a frame made of sticks and the frames are stacked up and then covered with damp thatch. A few coals are placed underneath at regular intervals until the chilies are dry. An entirely different taste from chipotles and not quite as hot. Great base for a smokey hot BBQ sauce.
DTM

Smoked Jalapenos = Chilpotle?

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