Red chile powder made from ripened jalapeno and jalafuego chile peppers.
Having a couple of hot chile pepper plants in the garden is always nice. Aside from being extremely prolific plants, they are beautiful when the peppers start to ripen and turn red. A combination of red and green peppers makes a nice jar of pepper sauce or pickled peppers, but the red ones are good for drying and grinding into red chile powder.
Here in New Mexico it’s easy to dry the peppers outside using free solar energy. You can dry them in the oven or a food dehydrator, but you need to be aware, that as hot chile peppers dry, they tend to emit pungent/spicy fumes that can irritate your eyes and throat. Therefore, if the fumes do bother you (as they do me), it’s better to dry them outside.
Below are the methods I use for drying chile peppers outside and for grinding into powder. Both processes are super easy, but do require gloves for handling the peppers and possibly even a face mask when grinding. If your climate prevents you from drying pepper outside because of a high humidity, then try out one of the methods use in the precious link (oven or dehydrator). No matter how you dry them, the resulting red chile powder is far better than anything you can buy at the store.
Making Your Own Red Chile Powder
This process for making red chile powder requires a dry, sunny climate, gloves, and a spice grinder.
*See Kitchen Notes for more information.
- Fresh red hot chile peppers*
Wash the peppers and dry thoroughly.
Using gloves, cut the stem top off of each pepper. Cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds.
If you want to reduce the heat level of the chile powder, remove some of the lighter colored veins on the inside of the peppers as well. That’s where most of the pepper’s heat stored.
Place the peppers cut side up on a tray. Don’t crowd them so that air can circulate around the pieces.
Place the tray(s) outside in a sunny, safe* spot until they are shriveled and dry*.
Transfer the dried peppers to a spice grinder. Again, don’t crowd the grinder. It’s best to fill the grinder to only half full of loosely packed peppers.
Wear a face mask or scarf over the nose and mouth to keep from breathing in the spicy fumes. Grind the dried peppers into a powder. You might have to shake the grinder a few times to get a thorough grind.
Before opening the grinder, let it rest for a few minutes to let the powder settle. Transfer powder to a wide bowl and let it set out overnight to get rid of any lingering moisture.
Transfer the powder to a jar, put the lid on the jar, and place it in spice cabinet.
After a couple of days check to see if the powder is clumping. If the powder is clumpy, then it still has a bit of moisture. Remove the lid, break up the powder with a toothpick or chopstick and leave open until completely dry.
Fresh hot peppers – Chile powder can be made from any type of chile pepper – mild to hot to dynamite. Just be sure to label the finish product so that you know what is what. 🙂
Drying in a safe spot – Criteria for a “safe” spot.
- Free of resting birds. You don’t want poop on your peppers.
- As much direct sunlight as possible. More sun, faster drying time.
- Out of reach of critters. You don’t want critters eating your peppers or scattering them all over the yard.
- AND…if it starts to rain, bring them inside and set on the top shelf of the pantry until it gets sunny again.
What you’ll see – Once you set the peppers out in the sun, they will start to curl up along the edges as they dry. That’s what mine do. Just continue to dry them until they feel brittle.
How long does it take to dry? – The factors affecting the drying time are the amount of sun, temperature and humidity. The sunnier and drier it is (a low humidity), the faster the peppers dry. Mine have taken any where from 3 days to a week.
This year we grew both jalapenos and jalafuegos. Jalapenos have a rating of 2500 – 5000 heat units on the Scoville scale and jalafuegos have a rating of 5000 – 8000. It was the first time we had grown jalafuegos and will be the last. They were just way too hot for us. However, they do make a very tasty, and HOT chile powder. After pickling the first large batch of green peppers, then giving them away to my heat loving brother because they were just TOO HOT to eat, I left the remaining peppers on the bush to ripen and turn red. Because chile peppers get sweeter as they ripen while still maintaining their heat, they develop the perfect characteristics of a delicious red chile powder.
Aside from using the powder to flavor soups, stews and an endless variety of dishes, you can use red or green chile powder to make sauces and spice blends. Here are a few ideas:
MJ,
I love your recipes and was so glad to find this one in particular about grinding your own chiles. The one thing I was REALLY hoping to be in here was what do you use as a grinder of whole chiles? I will cut lengthwise to deseed and partially devein then cut into 1 – 2 inch pieces but then what tool do YOU use to grind them to dust? Food processor? Blender? Other type of grinder? I don’t want to use a tiny little spice mill that only holds 1/2 cup or less. I hope to hear about your tools and technique soon! New Mexico Native now in Virginia ~ Terry
Terry – Good question! Because the whole dried pods stay fresher than chile powder, I usually grind powder when I need it. I take 2 – 3 pods, remove the stems and seeds, then use a pair of scissors to cut the dried pods into 1″ lengths. I’ll put them in a spice grinder and grind into powder. Yes, it only make about 1/2 cup of powder, I have found than it taste a lot fresher when you grind as needed. Oh and by the way – my spice grinder is actually and old coffee bean grinder that I repurposed into a spice grinder. It works great for grinding spices and herbs into powders. If you want to do a large quantity, then I would recommend something like a Vitamix. I don’t believe that a food processor or blender would be able to grind the pods into a powder. They would probably be good for chile flakes, but not powder. Hope this helps. Thanks for your question and nice comments! Cheers, MJ
Thumbs up on free solar energy; hard to beat. What a splendid idea to make your own chile powder! We’ve grown chile peppers in the past but skipped the past couple years (we did sweet bell this year). Your recipe has me rethinking our garden plans for next summer. The color on that powder is truly extraordinary MJ!
Totally agree Kelly! Anything I can dry in the sun, I do. My herbs can’t be placed in the sun, but it’s dry enough her to place them on the top shelf of the pantry for 4 – 5 days. The color of homemade is really a joy. And the flavor is a little sweeter than storebought which is something I really like. Thanks so much for your comments!
Love the vibrant red color of your chili powder. Way too humid for drying peppers in Florida except in the oven.
Thanks Karen! Yep, Florida is just a bit too humid I’d say. 🙂
What a cool thing to do. I bet your dried chile powder would make a nice little gift, too.
Thanks Jeff and yes, it does make a nice gift for my chile loving friends. 🙂
What a great idea! I’ve never thought of doing them myself and now I must wait until next year.I do love the smell of chilies!
Thanks Abbe! Our growing season is getting longer and longer each year although this year it does look like it might just be burned out. Last year we were picking tomatoes up to Thanksgiving.
Now your getting ready to bring up the heat!!! Drying peppers outside reminds me of Hong Kong, whereby they drive everything outside in weaved flat baskets. Good idea to let the chili pepper residue settle before taking the cover off or otherwise you will have clean sinuses for the rest of the year.
thanks Bobbi! Sounds like you lifting that lid too soon. 🙂 Interesting tidbits about Hong Kong. Thanks for sharing.
I soooo need to do this. (But first I need to wander to the garden to see if the peppers are still alive!)
Thank Debra! I know what you mean. I actually quit watering a week ago but now we’re getting 2 days of rain and it looks like it might come back. 🙂
What fun, making your own chili powder. I’ve tried growing jalapenos here but I guess we’re just too far North. I do remember ounce in Southern Texas picking a red jalapeno and popping it into my mouth. Boy was my mouth on fire. Lovely images of your peepers and powder.
Thanks Ron! It’s even hard in my backyard to grow peppers because with the trees, my garden doesn’t get but 6 -7 hours of sunlight. But we have a pretty decent growing season as far as length goes, so by September, the chiles are starting to turn red. October is red chile season here.
Such a fabulous way to save a bit of summer! I can’t believe it’s mid October already!
Thanks Deb! I know!!!! The fall is going by way too fast and now we are having a cold front which means it’s skipping the fall all together. Bummer!
Exactly what I was planning to do soon. I bought a chili plant in a pot at the beginning of summer and have been harvesting and drying the chillies ever since. They are so little, so I thought it better to wait until all of them are ready to be harvested before I grind them. But the hottest chillies I have ever had, the first time I tasted one (a tiny amount), I instantly started crying…
On no! When a chile makes you cry, it’s hot!!! We had a hailstorm this summer and I had to pick every thing afterwards, so I had a huge batch of green jalafuegos. I pickled them and my husband ate the first one. It made him cry. 🙂 That’s when I knew they were HOT! So turning the hot ones into powder is the best way to save them and save yourself. 🙂 Thanks so much Adina.
I’ve never heard of jalafuegos but if I did I’d certainly buy some seeds and try to grow them (what a funny name!) out of curiosity, as an experiment. I’d use them maybe in Thai curries if they were too hot for pickling or other medium-hot chile dishes… I put them on next year’s seed shopping list!
Your dried chile looks fantastic! I agree nothing is better than home-dried and how ground… I always dry with the lowest oven temperature and maybe because the batches are low, I’ve never had throat problems. (Though I do have it when I grind them sometimes!).
I like the name as well, that’s why I bought the plants in the first place. Ha Ha. I didn’t check the heat level. The plant didn’t get too big and we did grow it in a pot, so it would make a nice patio plant. Our garden only gets about 6 – 7 hours of sunlight a day which is minimum, but the plant was still quite prolific. It took a while for them to ripen, but since we weren’t eating them, we gave it time. 🙂 These probably would work in Thai curries. They red ones are a little sweeter than jalapenos and a lot hotter. Thanks for your wonderful discussion as always!
You are so kind…. you are probably the only person (apart from my husband) who isn’t bored with my chile cooking and growing adventures! Big big hugs!
My husband does this each year with extra hot peppers. I’m always afraid to haha. Love the color!
Thanks Amy! I think it’s the only thing to do with hot peppers. Used sparingly in soups and stews and it adds just a bit of spice which is always nice IMO. 🙂
Your red jalafuegos are such a vibrant red!! I’m sure you can mix your chile powders to make the perfect spice and heat for many of your NM dishes. I’m curious if you could smoke them to make your own chipotle flavored dried chiles?
Thanks Jan! Aren’t they pretty? I did try smoking them once, but my husband’s smoker was too hot. You need to be able to smoke at around 200F and he can’t get his below 250F so all the peppers burned. Bummer. I do have a stovetop I was going to try some day because I love smoked peppers. If you try it, let me know how it turns out.
I have never thought of making my own chili powder…save this for the next year !
Thanks Angie! Hope you get to try it next year.
I love this! I’ve never ever heard of jalafuegos – it sounds like they’d be way to hot for me too. But what a great way to use them!!! I want to try this now.
Thanks Susan! Jalafuegos turned out to be way too hot for us! 🙂 My brother is eating them like candy. I hate wasting so the chile powder turned out to be the perfect way to use them.
Fun idea! I haven’t tried this, and I have a friend who’s about to give me some ripe red jalapeno peppers. Might be a bit too humid here, but it’s getting fairly dry so I may give this a go. Thanks!
Thanks John! Hope you get to try it. The flavor is quite different from what one can buy. Hopefully, your humidity doesn’t cause a problem. If they aren’t showing signs of drying after a couple of days, just move them to the oven.
Thanks, MJ. I’m an avid pepper dryer myself. I’d like to point out to those who have gas ovens that the heat from the pilot light is PERFECT for drying peppers, or anything else for that matter. Plus, you don’t have to worry about the weather. Been doing it that way for decades with excellent results. I’m always glad to get your posts from the Land of Enchantment, my favorite place on earth. I’ll be retiring there very soon. Can’t wait!
Sharon
Thanks Sharon! What memories you brought back with your comment! YEARS ago I had a gas oven and yes, I used to dry a lot of stuff in the oven with just the pilot. In addition to drying chiles, my favorite thing was beef jerky. If one can make jerky with the pilot light, kind of shows you how much heat that puts out. 🙂 Thanks for the reminder!
Good choice on choosing New Mexico for your retirement place! When my husband and I retired we had a few discussions on where to retire to and we always came to the same conclusion. Why move? We live in one of the best places in the country in so many respects. Weather, food, culture, activities, beauty, diversity, and great people – why go any where else. 🙂