Exploring the smoky heat of chipotle peppers

I have learned that spiciness is something you have to build up to gradually. And one great way to start, if you are tentative about spice, is by using chipotle peppers. These peppers rate fairly low on the Scoville scale, between 3,000 and 10,000 units of heat (somewhere around the level of Tabasco sauce).

Chipotle peppers happen at the end of the jalapeno harvest season. They are jalapenos that were over-ripened on the vine and thus could not be sold as is. The pepper farmers pick these over-ripe peppers and smoke them for several days, which gives the peppers a wonderfully complex flavor.

You can buy dried chipotle peppers in the Mexican section of many American grocery stores. (Safeway stores in my area have a section of Mexican products and spices in distinctive clear plastic bags hanging on a peg display.) If stores in your area don't carry them, you may need to seek out a Hispanic grocery store. (Which you should do anyway, because it's fun and there is a lot of delicious food there!) You may also find canned chipotle peppers in the section with other canned Mexican foods.

Chipotle peppers tend to be a little bit tough and leathery, so unlike other peppers, you don't want to just chop them and add them to a dish. You can chop the dried chilies and add them to something that is going to cook for a long time, like a braising sauce, a soup or a pot of chili.

For other dishes, you will probably want to use chipotle powder. This can be found in the spice aisle at most grocery stores, or you can buy it online (I recommend X).

Try adding a little dash of chipotle to your chili, soups, stews, sauces, salad dressings, chip dips…once you get the taste for it, the uses are almost endless!

Image courtesy of Flickr/professor evil