Homegrown, Homemade Chipotle Peppers

I finally moved ahead with something that I've been aiming to do for a couple of years now...make homemade Chipotles.  This pepper has grown leaps and bounds in popularity over the past few years.  Besides the burrito place, you can find Chipotle this and that pretty much everywhere you look.  Even McDonald's has Chipotle on its menu.  Well, it's at least called Chipotle.  Who knows what kind of ingredients actually flavor it?  Chipotle peppers are smoked Jalapenos.  if you are a pepper lover and grower, it seems that you end up with more Jalapenos than you know what to do with by the end of summer.  Sure you can always freeze them.  Salsa is great to, but how about some homemade Chipotles!  If  you have smoker, then all ya need are some jalapenos and wood chips.

I smoked ribs and bbq for the 4th of July and it just so happened that the first dozen or so Jalapenos were mature enough to pick from the backyard.  With these two events coinciding, the perfect time to make homemade chipotles was upon me.  I placed them on a wire rack and laid the smoke to them.  They absorbed a cloud of Hickory for about 4 hours and were left in the low heat of the smoker for nearly 24 more.  As with pretty much anything else that you smoke, you want to be sure that the heat does not become an issue.  Remember  to smoke them low and slow.  If your smoker climbs above much more than 200, you'll end up cooking and possibly burning the Chipotles.  The great thing is that once the smoker is up and running, there is not any other prep work.  Traditionally the peppers are allowed to fully mature and ripen to their red color.  The Jalapenos in the backyard had reached a decent size, So into the smoke they went.  This picture shows 4 different phases of the chipotle; Green Jalapeno, Chipotle, grinding in the mortar and pestle and finally chipotle powder.  If you want to purchase Chipotles, you will most likely find them canned in a tomato sauce called Adobo.  These dried versions will work great for rehydrating and blending into bbq sauce, soup and who knows what else.