Smoked/Dried Peppers – Kellis Kitchen
I thought that if I could smoke Cheese I could smoke some chile peppers and sure enough, I did! It was sooooo easy too! You can smoke all sorts of peppers with very little work or cost if you don’t own a smoker. What?!?!? What do you mean I can smoke peppers if I don’t own a smoker…………Just follow These Instructions and you can smoke them – I recommend 2 hours tops for peppers – then roast and use them or roast and freeze them or dry them and use later – all instructions are in this post.
Here’s all you need:
Handful of chile peppers or other peppers from the garden or grocery store. You can use hot or sweet peppers easily.
Smoker*
Dehydrator**
Food grade gloves/eye protection
Hot Peppers
The peppers must be free of bruising or insect bites. They should be firm and not soft.
Sweet Peppers in the Smoker
Put on your gloves and wash the peppers. In the meantime, turn on your smoker adding wood chips if you like. Pecan wood is especially good for this. Dry off the peppers and place them on the highest rack of your smoker.
You can smoke your peppers for 2 or 4 hours.
Hot Peppers In the Smoker
Sweet Peppers after 2 Hours
I left mine for 4 hours and then transferred them to the dehydrator for 6 more hours, at least in my dehydrator.
Hot Peppers Smoking for 4 Hours
Sweet Peppers after 4 Hours
You can finish off the peppers by dehydrating In a deydrator according to the instructions or you can put them in the oven, at lowest setting and propping the door open to reach 140F consistently (you will need an oven thermometer) for 12 – 24 hours based on size. You want a leathery – not brittle – feel.
You will have to watch the peppers in your dehydrator and whenever they look dark red (for red chile peppers) or black (for green peppers) and there is no moisture left in, they are finished!
The largest peppers are Anaheim, up top are Ancho, to the right are the small sweet peppers, and the little bits are just a green pepper that has been smoked, diced then dried – great for soups!
You can store them in a Ziploc bag or a mason jar for a long time. To rehydrate, snap off the top and get rid of seeds inside then put in a cup of chicken/beef/vegetable broth or water and let it simmer in a pan on the stove for about 20 minutes then use as you wish.
I don’t have a smoker or a dehydrator, but this sounds great!
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Today is the third anniversary of my blog although I have only been posting regularly for the last full year. This is one of my most viewed posts and searched for consistently every single day – I hope you enjoy this while I take the day off from cooking!
What a great idea ~ I don’t have a smoker but I do have a dehydrator ~ Haven’t used that thing in years so maybe I should pull it out 🙂
It sure makes it easy to get them out of the pantry when you need them.
I was lucky enough to find a source of “chilipeno” peppers from Hungary. They are a cross of jalapenos and Anaheim chili peppers. I got them smoked and dehydrated from a grower in Arizona and ground them into a powder that is a wonderful condiment. I put it on just about everything but ice cream!
I got him to send me some seeds and I have been growing my own and drying them in a dehydrator. I missed the smoky flavor, so I blended them with some smoked chipotles which I dried and ground up with them. Delicious! I put the ground up mixture in some shaker bottles I got at World Market. Now I am thinking of getting a smoker to do them myself. I have been looking at propane smokers. Any experience with these? any suggestions?
I really think you should sprinkle that on your ice cream and try it – it could be great! I don’t know about propane smokers and have never had any experience with them. Until you decide – you could always make your own smoke for your oven! I have the tutorial on this site just search in the search box “oven smoker” or “homemade smoker”. If you can’t find it, let me know here and I’ll send you the link. Don’t you love World Market??? I sure do!!
What temp did u smoke the peppers at?