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Have lots of jalapeño peppers? It’s easy to dry them and use them for your favorite recipes. Learn all the best tips and tricks for drying your green or red jalapeño peppers.
Let’s say–hypothetically speaking, of course–that you left your jalapeño peppers on the plant until they turned red and ripe. (By the way–my friend Laura has great tips for growing jalapeños over at You Should Grow. Check it out!)
And let’s say that you’d already put all your canning stuff away for the season. Hypothetically, of course. 😉
What’s a girl to do with a big bowl of peppers? Dehydrate them, of course! It’s easy to do, but you should keep a few tips in mind.
How to Dehydrate Jalapeno Peppers
Wash your jalapeños, cut the stems off, and then cut the peppers in half the long way. Use medical gloves (I like these) if you think you might rub your eyes or nose. You really don’t want pepper juice in your eyeball.
Some folks dehydrate their peppers whole, but I cut mine in half because you never know when you will find one with mold inside. If you dried this whole, you’d never know the mold was there–and you sure don’t want to eat that.
I used my Nesco dehydrator instead of the oven, because it works at a much lower temperature than my oven will go. It helps to spray the dehydrator racks with a bit of cooking spray–you don’t need much.
Place the jalapeno peppers, cut side up, on the trays. Don’t pack them in, but allow a bit of space in between.
Once your dehydrator is loaded up–for the love of all that is holy–put it outside and turn it on. Believe me when I say that you don’t want jalapeño clouds wafting through your house for hours.
Dehydrate your peppers at 135F for 6-8 hours. You’ll know they’re done when they snap instead of bend.
You can grind them in a coffee grinder (I like this one) or store them whole in a canning jar.
Use your dehydrated jalapenos to add a bit of spice to Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix, Crockpot Refried Beans, or Homemade Chili Powder.
How do you use jalapeños?
I sugar cure mine: start with about a half gallon of fresh jalapeños, screened for rot spots, wash them, dry them, cut stems, then slice into rings about 3/16”.
Put them in a gallon size ziplock bag with enough sugar to completely cover them and add at least 2 teaspoons of salt to the sugar.
Zip the bag closed and wait a few hours. You’ll soon have a bag full of jalapeno syrup with pepper rings in it. Pour out the contents, strain the peppers and do it again until the sugar stays dry, usually about 3-4 cycles. Then put the peppers out on a backing rack between a layer of paper towels and press lightly overnight. Once they are dry to the touch, )they will have some sugar crust, that just adds flavor) you can put them in a clean jar and close with a vented lid. They seem to be shelf stable from one season to the next. Very flavorful and great on cheese and crackers.
No problem with onions, garlic and other strongly fragrant veggies or herbs? You can do peppers, then.
If you had no problems drying other pungent veggies likonions or garlic, you can move to drying hot peppers.
The warning about doing it indoors has me concerned. I plan to dry them in my warming drawer, like I’ve done other stuff. What should I expect?
I am going to make spicy nuts and bolts
I do them in all different colors, as long as they haven’t rotted or gone soft, dehydrate them 🙂
You can do them GREEN! I have several stages of colors that I have done from green to “brown” to red.
Do you have to do them when they’re red? Mine are green. I just have so many and I heard a coworker saying she dehydrates them and then crushes into flakes.