Make your own spicy, smoky homemade roasted red jalapeno powder from the discarded skins of roasted jalapeno peppers. You can also make this from whole roasted or smoked peppers. It's such a great seasoning. Here is the recipe.
This recipe is the perfect example of what you can do when you have a dehydrator, and how many bits and pieces you may normally discard from a recipe can actually turn into something unexpected and amazing.
I became obsessed with dehydrating when I started gardening. My garden was exploding with chili peppers and tomatoes, and I wanted some good ways to preserve them. As you can see from my Preserving Chili Peppers pages, I found MANY ways to preserve them, but dehydrating is definitely one of my favorites.
I've used my dehydrator to make all sorts of interesting seasoning blends from peppers and other ingredients I grew in my own garden, but one of the most interesting things I've begun to do is to make spicy homemade seasoning blends from discarded items.
I recently posted an article on How to Make Seasonings from Hot Sauce Pulp, and got a good reaction from it. Basically, if you strain the solids out of a homemade hot sauce recipe of yours to thin out the hot sauce, you might normally throw that pulp away. However, that pulp still have a lot of life and flavor left to it. Dehydrate it and turn it into a wonderful seasoning blend.
The same applies to roasted pepper skins.
Say what? It's true!
I recently made another batch of one of my favorite hot sauce recipes - Roasted Red Jalapeno Hot Sauce.
The recipe calls for roasting several red jalapeno peppers, peeling them, then making the hot sauce. This time, I took the skins and dehydrated them.
Once they were dried, I ground them with a mortar and pestle and poured them into a spice jar. Done! The flavor is wonderful.
It retains that smokiness you get from roasting the peppers and a bit of the spicy heat. Talk about YUM factor. I've been sprinkling this stuff over foods all week long. The cool thing is that this seasoning is unique. I have no idea where you can buy this sort of spice.
Who needs to? I can make my own!
That's the beauty of owning a dehydrator. You can make all sorts of spice and seasoning blends to fit your own personal tastes. The world is yours! Go make some seasonings!
How to Make Roasted Red Jalapeno Chili Powder - the Recipe Method
Roast your red jalapeno peppers as you normally would. I have information here on How to Roast Chili Peppers.
Once the peppers are done roasting, cool them enough to handle, then peel away the skins. It helps to place them into a paper bag or sealable baggie to let the steam loosen up the skins.
Spread the charred skins over dehydrator trays and dehydrate them at 125 degrees F for 8-10 hours, or until they are completely dried through. There should be no moisture at all and will be crumbly to the touch.
Grind them down in a mortar with a pestle, or add them to a spice grinder and grind them to either a powder or a coarse grain.
Store them in airtight spice containers. Use it as you would use any spice.
Recipe Notes and Tips
You can make this from whole roasted jalapeno peppers as well, not just the skins. If you want to do it this way, roast the jalapeno peppers as you normally would, but then slice the jalapenos into rings about 1/4 inch thick, then spread them out onto dehydrator sheets.
Dry them at 125 degrees F for 8-10 hours, or until they are completely dried through. There should be no moisture at all. Then grind them and use them as you'd like. You can also add in other ingredients, like onion and garlic powder, salt, pepper, herbs, and more.
BOOM! You now have your own personal spice blend. Give it a name! Go sell it for a million bucks! Just don't forget me if you do!
Let me know how it turns out for you! The amounts will vary depending on how much you start with, but the skins from 1 pound of roasted red jalapeno made about 1/4 cup or so of dried seasonings for me.
Go Get a Dehydrator!
If you do not yet own a dehydrator, I urge you to order one up. I LOVE my dehydrators (yes, I own two) and use them all the time. They're essential for making leathers, jerky, spice blends, preserving in general and more. Here are links to the two that I personally own (Affiliate Links, my friends! FYI):
The Nesco is a smaller dehydrator that is perfect for general home use: Nesco FD-75A Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator, White.
The Excalibur is a larger 9-tray dehydrator that is ideal for larger batches: Excalibur 3926TB Food Dehydrator, Black.
I use and highly recommend both of these.
The Spicy Dehydrator Book
I hope you'll check out my cookbook! Here is the link: The Spicy Dehydrator Cookbook, by Michael Hultquist.
Check Out These Related Links and Recipes for More Information
Try Some of My Other Popular Homemade Spice Blends
If you enjoy this recipe, I hope you'll leave a comment with some STARS. Also, please share it on social media. Don't forget to tag us at #ChiliPepperMadness. I'll be sure to share! Thanks! -- Mike H.
Homemade Roasted Red Jalapeno Powder - Recipe
Ingredients
- Discarded skins from roasted red jalapeno peppers. I used the skins from 1 pound red jalapenos.
Instructions
- After you’ve roasted and remove the skins from your red jalapeno peppers, reserve the charred skins. Your amounts will obviously vary.
- Spread the skins out over dehydrator sheets. Use extra trays if needed.
- Dehydrate at 125 degrees F. for 8-10 hours, or until the skins are completely dried through. They should be very crumbly to the touch with no moisture anywhere.
- Grind up the dried mixture with a mortar and pestle, or use a spice grinder.
Notes
Nutrition Information
TJR says
I made this last year from the jalapenos I grew in my small garden and got 2-4 0z jars. It was fantastic. I gave my brother one of the jars and he enjoyed it (unfortunately I ran out of mine really quick). I bought the 9 tray Excalibur dehydrator for this year because I planted more plants, but they don't seem to want to turn red. Guess I will try the green ones. I really enjoy a lot of yours and your wife's recipes. Wished I would have come across your recipes when I was younger and could really enjoy the hotter peppers instead of just jalapenos.
Mike Hultquist says
Thanks so much, TJR. I appreciate the comments. Glad you enjoyed it. Yes, it'll definitely work with green jalapenos.
John says
Great idea!
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Thanks, John! Tastes great.