Drying Hot peppers

[mackdaddy]

I have some cayenne peppers I want to dry and crush. I thought it would be nice if they had a smoky flavor to them. Has anyone dried them in a smoker. Should be at 200 F for 1-3 hrs depending how long it takes to dry them. If never done before I'm sure your collective expertise can give me some ideas and direction. Thanks

[Juddlight]

I smoked some peppers a few hours around 180 and it didn't really dry em out enuf to crush so finished in a dhydrater overnight and seemed to do the trick...smokey crushed hot peppers are worth it...so good ☺

[fracmeister]

The only way I got them dry was at 125 for 24 hours on the smoker.... a bunch of my jalapenos that had turned red on me...

[Steve Retherford]

Smoked, dehydrated, and a ride in the coffee grinder.
Always works great.

[Spinaker]

I smoke them, Then hang them on a string in a well lit south facing window.

[Tim E]

My experience has also been that smoking will not get these to the needed dehydration for grinding. I have found this out specifically when I can chipotle peppers (smoke jalapenos) in adobe sauce. Like spin and a few others have stated, you will need to finish them off in a dehydrator to get the moisture levels down.

[(mr.brisket)]

I string them up in a sunny window to dry then I smoke them, so just the opposite of Spinaker, but I assume either way will work.

[fzxdoc]

I just dried a bunch of peppers in my gasser yesterday. Set it at 180 and it took over 8 hours to get them nearly dry. Finished them off in the oven then crumbled them by hand. Next time I'll do the smoke/dehydrator/crush route.

I've never had much luck with hanging them to dry. They seem to take forever and I'm always wondering how much dust, etc. has settled on them before they're dry enough to be crushed. Any tips, (mr.brisket) ?

Kathryn

[smarkley]

I have done this before, especially with the thin walled types like cayenne or arbol... my method is exactly like Spinaker 's - I live in a dry climate so that helps too.