How do you smoke chiles to make chipotles?]
Bill Wight– Chipotles (chi pote lays) are a Mexican specialty, made by smoking red Jalapeno peppers over mesquite wood. It’s very easy to smoke chile peppers. I use an electric water smoker but any smoker will work. I pick the red chiles the morning I am going to smoke them. You can smoke just about any kind of chile, but to make authentic chipotles, use only Jalapenos. I use, in addition to Jalapenos, Jalapas and Fresnos. Use red peppers only, as the yellow, orange and green ones become a dirty color when smoked. I wash the peppers and cut the tops off. I make one slit in the pepper from top to bottom and remove the seeds and membrane with a melon-baller. Wear gloves to do this or you will be hurting in a few hours. I like to leave the two halves attached and open the pepper up, as this makes each piece bigger and less likely to fall through the bars of the grill. Start your smoker about an hour before you’re ready to put on the peppers and get it up to temperature,–180-200F. I put
