Home Dried Chiles

• 1 to 3 pounds fresh chiles
• A home Food Dehydrator (I use a Nesco brand dehydrator which ran me about $70 with shipping)

My home food dehydrator: I use a Nesco brand dehydrator which ran me about $70 with shipping. The Nesco dries evenly and came with 5 trays; three of the five are displayed open to demonstrate how the drier trays are stacked in most home units of this type.

There are no absolutes and a good handful of variables involved in chile drying using a machine. The only way to become completely proficient is to dry dry dry! That said, it isn't that hard, and with patience and a watchful eye you can be successful on your first attempt. Below I have outlined a few guidelines that will help you get started.

Selecting Chiles to Dry
Select the best produce you can get your hands on, at the peak of ripeness (unless you are doing green chiles - in which case this doesn't apply). Wash your chiles carefully and remove leaves or other debris, dust, or insects. I don't dry bruised or damaged chiles, but if you do make sure to cut away the parts that have been affected.

Loading Your Trays
Lay out your chiles evenly on the trays - do not pile the chiles on top of one another or overload the tray with too many, or too large chiles. If you have a chile that will not fit - don't force it, Just eat it fresh instead of drying it.

Drying Time
Drying time will vary enormously depending on the number of chiles, the type of machine you are using, the thickness of the chile walls and the humidity, temperature of the air and even the altitude of where you live.

One thing that I have found is that many food dehydrators will recommend that you cut your chiles in half before putting them in the dehydrator. I don't do this, and I don't recommend it. I find that chiles that have been cut open don't hold their flavor as well as ones that have not been cut. Cutting the chiles significantly reduces the drying time - in many cases they will dry in 14 or 15 hours cut vs. 72 to 80 hours uncut. It is worth it to wait the extra 3 days.

Drying Temperature
Chiles like other fruits are best dried 130° to 140° (55° to 60°C). By drying you chiles at this temperature you minimize the loss of some of the chiles more aromatic qualities - as well as the vitamins and minerals which are actually abundant in fresh chiles! In fact the amount of vitamin A in chiles dramatically increases as the pod turns red and dries, from roughly 770 units per hundred grams of green pods to 77,000 in freshly processed dried red pods.

Testing for Dryness
Testing your chiles for dryness is important - you don't want your chiles to over dry and lose their taste and texture. It is particularly important to monitor your chiles near the end of the dehydration process. To test for dryness remove a chile from the dehydrator allow it to cool and feel the chile chile with your fingers. The chile should be pliable and leathery with no pockets of moisture. The stem end of the chile should be firm and the seeds should shake loose in the pod.