Chipotle chile’s name derives from the Nahuatl word
chilpoctli, which means “smoked chile pepper”, AKA chile ahumado,
chile meco, and chilpotle.
Chilpotle is closer to the actually
spelling of the original Nahuatl word, but over time, dropping the “l”
before the “p” found favor as the more popular spelling, perhaps
because the old-school chilpotle is a little more difficult to
pronounce, and folks opted for the easier route.The Aztecs used this
smoking process to preserve all kinds of foods, which allowed the
foods to be stored for long periods of time. It is speculated that the
thick-fleshed jalapeños were smoke-dried because they tended to rot before drying, otherwise.
Whatever you call it, a chipotle chile is a large jalapeño
chile that is first dried, and then smoked (although it can also be
dried over smoke, to give it a more intense and flavorful smokiness).
Jalapeños are named after the town of Jalapa in Véracruz State, and
are also known by the names cuaresmeño or gordo. In its dried form,
the traditional chipotle chile is a dull tan to deep coffee brown in
color with a wrinkled, ridged surface. It is usually 2 to 4-inches
long and 1-inch across, with medium thick flesh. The taste profile is
smoky and sweet, exhibiting subtle tobacco and chocolate flavors with
a Brazil nut finish, with deep, complex heat; the piquancy is rounded
and slowly fading, not sharp and intense, usually in the 5,000 to
10,000 Scoville unit range. They are commonly used in soups, stews,
sauces, salsas, marinades, salads, stuffed with fillings, and these
days, in desserts.
There are two main types of chipotles: morita and meco.
Morita, which means “small mulberry” in Spanish, is grown primarily in
Chihuahua State; smaller than the meco, with a dark reddish-purple
exterior. They are smoked for less time, and considered inferior to
the meco. Most of the chipotles consumed in the States are moritas.
The larger chipotle meco, also known as chile ahumado or típico, is a
grayish-tan in color with a dusty looking surface; some say it
resembles a cigar butt. They tend to be smokier in taste, and are the
preferred chipotle of most natives. They are also sometimes called
chile navideño because they are reconstituted and stuffed to make a
very traditional dish popular at Christmas time. Most chipotle meco
never makes it past the Mexican border, although you can occasionally
find it for sale here in Mexican and specialty markets.
Chipotle grande is a smoke-dried Huachinango chile with a
similar flavor profile, but the chile is larger, and they cost more;
fresh in the market, they sell for 3 to 4 times as much as a jalapeño,
when you can find them. A Huachinango is a fresh red jalapeño grown in
Puebla and Oaxaca, measuring 4 to 5-inches long by 1œ -inches wide,
with a thick, sweet flesh and a rounded, complex spiciness. A chipotle
tamarindo is even larger than the grande, acquiring its name from the
shape of the tamarind fruit pod; it costs even more than the grande,
and is the most prized of stuffing peppers. When you see a chipotle
labeled jalapeño chico, it is a jalapeño that was smoked while it was
immature and still green. Every now and then you might find chipotles
capones (“castrated chipotles”), referring to a smoked red jalapeño
without seeds; these tend to be much milder. In the market you’ll find
chipotles as whole chiles, as powdered chile, and canned, packed in
adobo sauce.
Chipotles are principally grown and smoked in Véracruz,
Oaxaca, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, South Texas, and Southern New Mexico. As
much as 1/5 of the total Mexican jalapeño crop, some 620,000 tons in
2009, and 30% of the total chile varieties grown, is smoke-dried into
chipotles. Jalapeño farmers pick green chiles for market, but allow
some to ripen red, to be smoke-dried for chipotles. The longer they
are left on the plant, the drier they get, and the easier they are to
process. This is often done towards the end of the season, since
maturing fruit signals the plant to stop chile production; ripe mature
seeds have been produced and its job of procreation is done. Once
harvested, the ripe chiles are moved to a smoking chamber, where they
are placed on racks and dried for several days (or longer) with low
heat and wood smoke. Every few hours they are stirred around to expose
them to more smoke; the smokier, the better. It’s said that it takes
about 10 pounds of fresh red chile to make 1 pound of dried chipotle.
Creative and unscrupulous producers have started to use large capacity
gas driers, spraying the chiles with liquid smoke to mimic the
traditional process. Smell your chiles carefully; liquid smoke often
has an unpleasant artificial chemical fragrance.
Americans are most familiar with the canned variety,
packed in adobo sauce. Adobo sauce originated in Spain as a marinade
or food preservative, and was widely adopted by all of the areas
visited by the Spanish explorers. The adobo sauce used with canned
chipotles is technically a marinade, in this case, usually made of
tomato, powdered dried chiles or paprika, brown sugar, salt, onions,
vinegar, garlic, bay leaves, and oregano; some brands and home cooks
add a small amount of sesame oil. La Morena brand has the most intense
chipotle flavor and the best flavored adobo sauce, with accents of
rich tomato, garlic, dried chile, and a touch of sesame; San Marcos is
the brand known best in Austin stores, and probably next best of the
many brands offered (La Costeña, Goya, Herdez, Embassa, El Mexicano,
La Victoria, Roland, etc.). San Marcos (and other brands) also makes a
canned chipotle sauce that is basically pureed chipotles en adobo;
easy to use straight from the can. Canned chipotles are often of the
morita type, because the smaller size is easier to fit whole into the
small cans. In Central Mexico, when chipotles are preserved in a
sweet-tart brown sugar and vinegar marinade they are called
chipocludo; chipotles canned in a seasoned sauce are called chipotles
adobado, or en adobo.
To cook with dried chipotles, they can be lightly toasted
on a dry comal or skillet, just until they get fragrant and swell
slightly; overcooking them makes them bitter. Once toasted, the seeds
and ribs can be removed to lower the heat level if desired (but why
would you?), and the chiles can then be ground or used whole. For some
traditional Mexican sauces the toasted chiles would then be sautéed in
oil or lard before being pureed. Alternatively, the chiles can be
soaked in warm water or stock until they become pliable, and then
added to a dish or stuffed. With both methods the stem is removed
before use. If using the canned chiles en adobo, you can use only the
drained chiles, or use the marinade as well. Try chipotles in salsas,
in queso, in soups and stews, in chile con carne, in cooked sauces, in
pickled vegetable mixes, in scrambled eggs or chilaquiles, stuffed and
baked, added to cake or brownies; the list goes on endlessly. No
matter how they are used, they punch up the flavor of any dish, making
it better.
This article appears in August 24 • 2012.
