Smokin' Hot!

For those of you not familiar, if you ever ate anything that had chipotle in it, it's a smoked hot pepper, specifically jalapeno (although the word chipotle simply means smoked chili pepper). Well this year in my garden my cayenne peppers were finally ready to harvest. I love hot peppers, but I wasn't about to eat about 20 peppers before they all went bad, so I had to think of my options.

I could make and jar some homemade salsa, freeze the peppers for later, or maybe even dehydrate them. However I wanted to do something different this year, and not just dehydrate them. So my decision; smoke 'em! Time for some homemade cayenne chipotle seasoning ...

I decided to halve them rather than smoke them whole. I really wanted to get the flavor into them since I will likely only be using a small amount each time. I just wanted to make sure that the smoky flavor ran deep ...

I then soaked my wood chips (hickory this time) and got out my trusty Little Chief electric smoker!

I've often thought about upgrading to a larger smoker, but there is something about using a small electric smoker that I really love. It's easy, quick, and consistent on temperature with very little maintenance. I plan to build myself a larger smoker one day, but for now, this little jewel will do just fine!

It took a little longer as it was a bit breezy, and I had to drop them to the lower rack after a few hours (total time in the smoker, but not always smoking, was about 6 hours). Once they were done, this is what they looked like. I didn't want them burned, but I certainly wanted them completely dry for grinding ...

(looking back, I think I'll just put them inside the garage to keep them out of the breeze to keep the temp up ...)

*** WARNING *** When grinding, please be cautious of the dust! It's not "hot", it's actually quite uncomfortable (and I would think dangerous). I happened to get a very small whiff of it in when I opened the lid and was almost gasping for air! I kid not! Be careful!

 

After grinding I decided to take it and put it in an old medicine jar (with the little ones around it's safe, and perfect for storage).

Results? Smokin' Hot! The ground peppers are extremely hot, but have a deep smoke flavor, exactly what I was hoping for! A repeat for sure!

Looking forward to getting some fresh salsa and putting in a dash of my own hot chipotle. This is going to be good!

Happy Cooking!
-Matt