William Wight's Chipotle Chiles

           Jalapeno peppers

  Recipe by: William Wight I made my first batch of chipotles two weekends
  ago and they tasted great. My Mexican-American friends at work gave them a
  positive thumbs up.

  How I did it:

  Preparing the smoker:

  I borrowed my neighbors Cajun Cooker II water smoker (borrowing is much
  better than buying).  His unit has two grills, one near the top and one
  just above the water pan.  I put 5 lbs of self-lighting briquettes in the
  bottom, and set them on fire.  I put 3 qts. of cold water in the water pan
  that sits above the charchol pan.  I bought a 3 lb. bag of mesquite wood
  chips and soaked them in water while the briquettes got going.

  Preparing the Meat:

  I bought a fresh whole pork loin, cut it in half and rubbed it with a
  smoker spice recipe (will post if anyone wants it) did the same with two
  fresh turkey legs.  I put the meat on the bottom shelf.

  Preparing the chiles:

  I picked them in my garden the morning of the smoking.  About half of the
  chiles were red. I washed them and cut off the tops, at the calyx. I put
  about 2 lbs of standard Jalapenos and TAM Jalapeno (50:50) about two
  peppers thick on the top shelf of the smoker.  I prepared a second
  simmialr-sized batch of Jalapas and Fresno chiles for the second batch.

  The Smoking:

  When the briquettes got going, I started to put a few mesquite chips on the
  charchole.  About every 15 minutes I had to add more mesquite as the smoke
  would stop when the mesquite was consumed.  I did the first batch of chiles
  for 3 1/5 hours and removed them.  I added the second batch.

  At 8 hours (4 1/2 for the second batch of chiles) I took out the chiles and
  meat.  The pork loin was just about the best pork I've ever eaten and my
  wife said the turkey leg was for sure the best she'd ever had.

  After dinner, I put all the smoked chiles on two foil-lined cookie tray and
  put them in the oven set at the lowest setting.  I left them in the oven to
  dry for about 24 hours.  I tested the chiles until they were crisp and
  would break when I squeezed one.  I let them cool and put them into my
  blender and chopped them to fine flakes/powder.  Beware of the powder,
  it'll make you cough big time!  I them blended them all together and was
  surprised how little I ended up with, about 3/4 qt.

  My powdered chipotles have a very rich smokey flavor and are mildly hot. So
  far, I have used them on tacos and I tried them sprinkled on top of cream
  cheese spread on crackers.  Wow, what a taste.  I just hope the bottle of
  powdered chipotles will last me until next season.