How To Buy: Make sure the skin is thin and smooth. The Mulato pepper should have a dry texture with no visible dots or ridges. Recipes Using This Pepper Ancho: The all-purpose pepper, anchos are dried Poblanos, with a meaty texture, a rich flavor, and a mild, smoldering heat. They add great flavor and heft to sauces and blend well with a wide variety of ingredients.

It takes about 48 hours of dry heat to dry out a batch of chipotle chilies. Few people want to spend this much time smoking them so, you might consider transferring them to another appliance to complete the drying process. You can use either a food dehydrator or an oven. Either way, you need plenty of time smoking the peppers beforehand. After the smoking process is complete and you want to store these as dried chipotle peppers, then you’ll need to dry these completely. Using a dehydrator works best (125-135°F), but 10+ hours in an oven set at its lowest temperature, or 170-200°F depending on your oven (convection), will do. The name “Cascabel” (meaning “rattle”, or “jingle bell”) comes from the sound made by the loose seeds inside when you shake the pepper.

Remember that even though you might store them well, the peppers can still lose their flavor and become crumbly with time. Don't Forget To Toast Them! When someone says Chipotle, the first thing you might think of is Chipotle, the restaurant. But did you know that there is also a spice named Chipotle that is just as tasty, if not even more than the burritos you get from the restaurant?

But I also like to add 1 or 2 other Mexican chillies to the mix, depending on what is available. This is to add flavour, as well as volume to our chilli paste. Guajillo: Long and thin, with dark-red skins, guajillo chiles are hotter than anchos (below), with a brighter character. Combine both varieties with pasillas (also below) for a balance of brightness, richness, and heat. Color: Its skin is smooth and shiny, with a deep red color. The Guajillo pepper (as well as the Ancho) gives a beautiful red color to many different Mexican caldos or sopas (broth and stews). When it is fresh, it has a green color that changes to a deep red when it ripens. But, how do you this? Take a grinder or a blender and add the peppers with whatever seasonings you would like. I like a high concentration of these peppers, so I don’t add any extras in the blender or grinder. When you grind the pepper, it should turn into a fine powder.

These peppers have an earthy flavor that's not too spicy. The dried version of this pepper gets a smoky flavor that adds a nice touch to recipes! There are several small types of hot chiles (some have a cylindrical shape too) that are called indistinctly “Piquín” when they are dried, but when they are fresh, they may be called other names according to their shape and the region where they are grown. Nowadays, most of the process is done by industrial drying machines, but there are still a few regional small producers that smoke and dry the peppers using old-fashioned methods with Guava and Oakwood.

First, you need to clean, deskin, and remove the pit from the jalapeno pepper. Make sure you choose some peppers that are large and already ripe. They should be a purple to red color, typically at this stage you can also smell the heat and savoriness of the pepper! Substitutions for Mulato Chile Peppers: Mulato chiles are very popular in Mexico, but they are not as well know in other areas. Ancho chile peppers make a good substitute, but they will be more mild.

Chipotle Chile Peppers

Another thing to keep an out for is the pepper's color. It should be bright and you should be able to slightly fold them. If the peppers break when you try folding them, it means they are old and won't have a lot of flavors. How do I properly store dried Mexican peppers? How To Use Chipotle Chile Peppers: Chipotle chile peppers are often used in Tex-Mex cooking. They add a nice smokiness to sauces and robust meat dishes. It is most common to find them canned or jarred with an adobo marinade of vinegar, paprika, and spices which creates a tasty sauce and acts to preserve the chiles. The adobo is just as useful in the kitchen as the chiles themselves!

Caption: The above picture represents the one that you can find here in the States as Piquin Pepper, and this one is a mix between a Totochile or a Timpinchile. Recipes Using This Pepper If you had never cooked a meal with dried peppers, make sure to use plastic gloves to avoid skin irritability when cleaning the peppers and removing the seeds and veins. The difference between Chile Ancho and Chile Mulato comes from a pair of distinctive genes that makes them ripen in a special color.

How to Make Chipotle Powder

Chipotle Powder is used extensively across Mexican cuisine and has become a signature flavor for this type of food. It is also a prominent feature in Southwestern cooking and Tex Mex dishes. It is a funky, spicy flavor that is perfect for burritos, tacos, and quesadillas. Not only that, but you can also use it to add color and spiciness to the likes of stews, soups, and curries. As a confusing side note, you will often find ancho chile peppers or even fresh poblano chiles mislabeled as pasilla chile peppers. You’ll know you have a pasilla if it is dried (for starters) and thinner than an ancho. Chipotle Powder is mildly spicy and is the perfect addition if you want to add a deep and complex heat that does not overpower the dish. It goes up to 8K Scoville Heat Units on the Scoville scale. How to Use Chipotle Powder?