Recipe: Home smoked chipotles and other chiles information

This is the only recipe that I have for them. It's a bit complicated, but the book says that it works, after spending two pages telling you about professional chipotle smokers who travel the chile areas of Mexico and New Mexico and how they do it. If you really like chipotles, then you might want to look for this book. It's got some great smokin' hot recipes in it.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Home Smoked Chipotles or other chiles

Recipe By : "Chipotle Chile Cookbook" ISBN 8-881656-03-9
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : BBQ & Smoking Information

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
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***** NONE *****

The only recipe for home smoked chipotles, that I know anything about is in the "Chipotle Chile Cookbook - Fire with Flavor" by Jacqueline Higuera McMahan ISBN 8-881656-03-9. Here is the quote from her book:

"Perfect Chiles for Smoking

Use ripe, red chiles that are available usually from midsummer to autumn.Because of their ripe state, red chiles are richer in flavor with more sweetness just as ripe fruit is sweeter than green. If the chiles are a little wrinkled, that's fine, they have just begun to lose moisture; but do not use chiles that show signs of mold or have soft spots that may indicate rot.

I found a slightly dented Char-Broil meat smoker on sale at a hardware store and snapped it up. We had great success on our first attempt at home smoking chipotles:

1) First build a base fire of hardwood briquettes, using an electric starter or starter sticks. When the coals are hot, but covered by white ash, you can add the smoking material.

2) Add small pieces (we used 4 inch chunks) of fruitwood, almond or pecan wood which you have had soaking in a bucket of water for a couple of hours.

3) Add water-soaked hickory chips. You want to keep a balance between having a smoldering fire, not so hot that it burns the chiles, and not adding so much soaked wood and chips that you put the fire out. Add soaked wood chunks and chips every 30 minutes. If you have pieces of green fruitwood, such as they use at Tierra Vegetable Farm, that is the best smoking fuel.

If you have to go to bed, just allow the smoker to go out. When you return or get up you can start the smoldering fires again if the chiles aren't smoked enough.

The Char-Broil smoker has a basin for water which we ignored during our first try. We have found that it helps to add a couple of inches of water to the basin because it helps disperse the heat. The smoker racks are several inches above the water basin. We place about 2 pounds of ripe chiles on each rack. heat is drawn up the edges of the smoker causing hot spots around the edges of the rack; the chiles placed here can toast so it is necessary to move them around the racks and toward the center. This is a good job to do every time you replenish fire.

Turn chiles over so they smoke evenly.

MOST IMPORTANT! KEEP FIRE AS LOW AND SMOLDERING AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT IT GOING OUT. NO FLAME! YOU ARE *NOT* BARBECUING THE CHILES.

Smoking Time -- How Long is Long Enough?

Home-smoking chiles takes about 10 to 12 hours, making it a perfect job to start in the early morning.

When are chiles smoked enough? In five or six hours, they have absorbed a maximum amount of smoke flavor and they have lost between 60 and 90 percent of their moisture. I personally do no like them when they are bone dry dehydrated. In our home smoker, we tend to underdry them because we like them moist (about 50 percent dehydration). But they must be stored in the refrigerator or freezer to prevent any mold whereas completely dried chipotles can be stored for months."

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