Chipotle chilies are smoked and dried jalapeños. The unique combination of smoky flavor with peppery heat makes these perfect for so many uses. These can be put in soups, sauces and beans. Ground into powder they can be added to spice rubs or sprinkled over virtually anything.
There are several ways to get good chipotles but no matter what you need to start with good, ripe jalapeño peppers. Choose jalapeños that are firm without any soft spots. They should have a good, bright red color and have their stems shouldn't be loose (an indication that they were picked too long ago). The fresher the peppers the better.
One word of warning. No matter how you go about making chipotles you are going to be handling chili peppers a great deal. This means you need to be very careful when touching anything sensitive, like your eyes. I fully recommend that you get some disposable food handling gloves before you start this project.
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