Chipotle

Chipotle is a smoked, dried jalapeño rather than a separate plant variety. Ripe red fruit is exposed to heat and smoke during processing, producing the distinctive dried ingredient used in Mexican cooking. Growing characteristics belong to the jalapeño cultivar used; they are not universal properties of chipotle.

History & lineage

Chipotle is a processed chilli ingredient made by smoking and drying jalapeños. Mexican agricultural accounts describe it as part of a longstanding preservation tradition, rather than a separate botanical cultivar.

One documented modern production area is Camargo, Chihuahua, where growers leave a later jalapeño harvest to ripen red before processing. The resulting ingredient combines the characteristics of the source jalapeño with those imparted by drying and smoke.

Culinary uses

A little goes a long way, because smoke accumulates in a way heat doesn't. Dried pods are toasted and soaked like any other dried chilli and blended into adobos, salsas and braises; chipotles en adobo are chopped straight in, sauce and all. It is the natural partner to slow-cooked pork and beef, to black beans, and to anything involving tomato, where the smoke reads as depth rather than as barbecue. Ground chipotle makes an excellent rub and a better addition to mayonnaise than any bottled sauce. Use half what you think, taste, then add more — smoke cannot be taken back out.