Do you dry out your chile pods for year-round use?
Did you know chile have different names depending on if they are fresh or dried?
Did you know chile have different names depending on if they are fresh or dried?
Dried Jalapeños = Chipotle
Dried Poblanos = Ancho
Dried Anaheim Chile = Colorado or California
Dried Mirasol = Guajillo
Dried Serrano = Chile Seco*
(or more specifically: balin, chico, tipico and largo)
Dried Chilaca = Pasilla
Dried Chile de Arbol = Chile Seco*
The names above can vary depending on the region you are from. Some terms are more general: "Chile Seco" for example, translates to smoked chiles so is a more unbiquitous term that can apply to smoke-dried serranos, jalapeños, and Chile de Arbol, for example.
Drying chile pods is a great way to store them for year-round use. We keep jars of whole dried chiles in our spice cupboard to crush onto everything from burritos, tacos, stews, sandwiches or pizza. You can also crush or process dried peppers to make hot pepper flakes or hot pepper powder. Yum!
Learn how to dry peppers without a dehydrator »
Drying peppers in a hot car in the sun can work effectively! And it doubles as an air freshener. ;) Here are some more ways on how to dry peppers »
Being able to dry your chiles from your garden is one of the best reasons to grow peppers! When you have an overabundance of peppers, dry a bit portion of them for later use. You won't regret it! Dried chiles take up way less space, we like to put them in mason jars with tight fitting lids and store in the cabinet, away from light. Then, we crumble/crush (or use our kitchen shears to cut) the peppers into soups, salsas, stir-fries, burritos, tacos, roasted veggies and so much more. Dried chiles pack a lot of flavor punch!
Peppers are the Perfect for Spice & Herb Gardens
Growing pepper plants is essential in any spice garden as dried chiles are a beautiful and useful spice to keep stored away for adding flavor and kick to any dish. So in addition to growing herbs like cilantro, oregano, and basil, it's also wise to include a variety of peppers in your spice and herb garden.
Dried peppers are great to add to salsas!
Discover our Favorite Salsa Recipes »
You can add any dried peppers to salsas – we love to experiment with different peppers in our salsas, the tomatoes really bring out the different flavors. We like to have Salsa Tasting Parties where we make several different salsas using different peppers for each, and enjoy sampling them all to really taste the different flavors and enjoy each's heat. If we have fresh hot peppers, we'll use them as well because they add a different element of fresh flavor, but we often supplement with dried peppers, and, in the off-season we pull out our jars of dried chiles to add flavor and heat to salsa.
Grow all of our Peppers of the World »
