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Hey guys! Whew, how is it already September?  And, how did the longest year of my entire life, end up whizzing by so quickly? Well, I know one thing, I am not ready for fall.  Where I live, we have four seasons, and every year I go through this internal fight with myself about accepting the changes that Mother Earth has in store for us.  I’m going to miss my garden this year, we grew the most veggies since we moved here, and I’m just so proud of our hard work we put into it.  On the same token, our jalapeño and serrano plants are giving us more than we can handle right now.  Man, I have made so much salsa, guacamole, jalapeño poppers, even gave dozens away and the plants are not slowing down!

My sister gave me an idea to dry some of the peppers in the oven and ground them up like you would an ancho, chipotle or cayenne pepper.  I have no idea why I never even thought about grounding up jalapeños or serranos.  But when she told me, I was like duh, of course I should do that.

Now, I have to be real with you and let you know that this is an all-day affair, because the drying process has to be low and slow. Where I live, it’s very humid in the summer, so it took me literally 14 hours to dry the peppers in the oven. I honestly believe the total time to dry the peppers really depends on the climate and altitude that you live in.  But, I didn’t mind the length of time it took because I wasn’t going anywhere anyways (thanks pandemic). Also FYI, the jalapeños will permeate through your house while they’re in the oven, so hopefully you like the smell of peppers! The good thing is that even though our house smelled like peppers, it didn’t affect our senses.  My 11-month old was in our home the entire time and wasn’t affected by it at all.  Of course, practice the amount of caution that you see fit for your family.

So, if you’re like me and are running out of ideas on what to do with your peppers, I have a simple recipe for drying and grounding them up.  The ground peppers can be used as part of a dry rub, add it to chili (perfect time for chili season), or incorporate it into just about anything that you want to add a little heat to.

Oven Dried Chile Recipe
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Oven Dried Chile Recipe

Recipe by Milagros Carter
Prep time

20

minutes
Cooking time

14

hours 
Calories

N/A

kcal
Total time

14

hours 

20

minutes

This recipe is great for all of those jalapeño or serrano peppers that have taken over your garden. Use these ground peppers in dry rubs, chili seasoning, or anything that needs a touch of heat that only jalapeño or serrano peppers can give!

Ingredients

  • Jalapeño and/or Serrano Peppers (Washed and Rinsed)

  • Equipment

  • Large Baking Sheet

  • Metal Baking Rack

  • Knife and Plastic Cutting Board

  • Disposable Gloves (optional but recommended)

  • Face Mask (optional but recommended)

  • Handheld Coffee Grinder (free of coffee grounds) or a molcajete (mortar & pestle)

  • Small Funnel

  • 1 to 2 oz. spice jar (I used a recycled spice jar)

Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Fahrenheit
  • Prepare the baking sheet and rack by placing the metal rack inside of the baking sheet
  • Put on disposable gloves
  • Placing one pepper at a time on the cutting board, slice the peppers in half lengthwise
    Optional: Discard the pepper seeds if you want less heat, otherwise leave them in
  • Line the pepper halves on the baking rack with the cut side upwards, leaving a little bit of space between each pepper to allow air to circulate between them
  • Place in oven and check on them every 2-3 hours, until peppers are completely dried to the touch
    Note: At this point you can either discard your gloves and use a new pair after the peppers have dried out, or keep the same pair in a safe location so as not to touch anything.
  • Peppers are done when all the moisture has been removed and feel like they will crumble if you squeeze them.
    Note: The peppers will look dehydrated
  • Let the peppers cool to room temperature on the baking rack
  • Put on your face mask and gloves
  • Taking a few peppers at a time, place them in your clean coffee grinder and ground them up until they turn to powder form. If using a molcajete, ground the peppers by hand until they turn to powder form. Be careful not to breathe in the powder particles
  • Place the funnel inside of the spice jar and pour the powder into the jar
  • Repeat steps 10 & 11 until all the peppers have been ground up and transferred to the spice jar
  • Makes about 1 oz. of ground peppers (I like to recycle my old spice jars. This is not ancho chile pepper).

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