If all you’ve ever used is the store bought ‘wimpy excuse for real ingredient’ chili powder from the usual boring name brands you are in for a real treat!
Not only will this stuff fill in for the generic brands in any of your favorite recipes you’ll find that adding it to any number of other dips, marinades, dry rubs or just an accent on your favorite roasted vegetables it will bring every dish to life.
I discovered this one by accident when my local farmers’ market had bushels of ripe jalapenos available for pennies on the dollar one year. The first thing to try was making my own chipotle in adobo. The first mistake I made was being impatient and allowing the heat to rise to 200 degrees or so in the smoker. The second was that I didn’t realize how long the cooking process would take and ended up canning the chipotles at 4am the next morning.
For the next batch of peppers I decided to just cold smoke and taste to let them tell me where to go next.
Smoking Chili Peppers – Jalapenos / Habaneros
WOW! These peppers are incredibly tasty and I’m adding them to everything… Several of them came out dried to a crisp and I immediately put them in the spice grinder and created my own chili powder. This stuff gets added to every dip I make, sprinkled on homemade chips, fish filets, etc. The flavor is deep, smokey and like nothing else you’ve tasted. I’m going for another bushel tomorrow…
Some of the softer ones I sliced and added to my ‘ugly pepper’ liquid after I used the original pepper slices for sandwiches. These also came out with an incredibly deep flavor.
If you’ve never tried this awesome treat it’s time to jump into the pool. The taste is incredible!!!