Cooking with Whole Chilis

[Run Amok]

I've never really cooked with whole chilis too much. They can be a little hard to source and a pain to work with. But, I've been cooking with them more lately and it's amazing how much of a difference it makes. Just a little PSA.

I made a riff on this:https://altonbrown.com/taco-potion-19-recipe/ last night with some leftover ancho chili powder and chipotle chili powder and it was really, really good.

So, just a little cooking PSA!

[caribougrrl]

like whole dried chilis? or fresh chilis?

[Run Amok]

Dried.

[caribougrrl]

the reason I asked is because I'm surprised they are hard to source dried! I cannot predictably get specific dried peppers, but I live in a remote area... whenever I visit my parents, I tend to load up on stuff like dried peppers. They live in a pretty rural area of Ontario, but I can walk to a small grocery by their house and buy a huge selection of dried chilis

last week I saw chipotle chili powder for the first time EVER in a grocery store... I have a pile of dried chipotle right now, but I was stoked to see the chipotle powder in case I ever do run out

so, now I'm curious what you do have available other than ancho and chipotle?


my cupboard right now has:
ancho
pasilla
cascabel
arbol
guajilo
birds eye
chipotle (meco and morita)


I'm not sure that I always put them to their best use though.

[Run Amok]

Oh, yes, I can find dried chilis in general. But, find it harder to find specific chilis. That can be an excercise in futility. I live a long way from where chilis are grown though! Mostly, they are just kind of a pain to work with. In the same way that starting with whole spices is a pain but produces far superior results! I don't have a spice grinder although I'm definitely contemplating it.

[witchypoo]

i use dried often - mostly to make sauces. 

my source for anchos has disappeared, so i hafta find new.

[Natasha]

The way I learned to use whole dried chiles was to put them in a dry hot skillet until they puff up, then roughly chop them. Once they've cooled, I put them in the blender and they break down into nice small pieces.

[DocBuzzkill]

I have a coffee grinder dedicated to grinding dry, whole spices, including dried chile pods.  The weekend before last, I made carne avodaba using dried, red New Mexican Hatch chile pods I bought at a farmers' market in Tucson when we were visiting last spring.  Just tore them up, knocked out most of the seeds, then ground up the "skin" in my spice grinder to a fine powder.   The flavor was superb in the stew.  It's pretty easy to make your own chili powder blend using a mix of chiles and whole spices (cumin seeds, coriander seeds, etc).

I'm pretty lucky since my local grocery store carries dried anchos, guajillo, arbol, and pasilla peppers.  There are plenty of other markets in the Boston area that carry varieties of whole dried peppers, especially the major Indian grocery stores.

I also use that spice grinder to make all of my Indian masalas from whole spices.  Definitely worth having this little utensil available.

[ihop]

Oh!  And you can clean your grinder but grinding a piece of bread.  The leftover spices (or coffee) stick to the bread.   

[radial]

Oh!  And you can clean your grinder but grinding a piece of bread.  The leftover spices (or coffee) stick to the bread.   

Oh, good tip! 

[hally]

i use dried often - mostly to make sauces. 

my source for anchos has disappeared, so i hafta find new.

Penzey's used to carry them. I hate that they closed our local one.