Dried Jalapenos

We love drying jalapeno peppers slices in the oven (without a dehydrator) to use in recipes or to grind into a jalapeno powder as a spicy seasoning. Only 1 ingredient needed and stores well to be used later on.

Find a sale and wondering how to to dry these to add on top of your nachos this week? It is easier than you might think and a great way to save them for later too. If you like hot food but don’t always want to go to the store to buy fresh produce often, this is a great way to dehydrate and preserve them.

You do NOT need an expensive dehydrator to dry vegetables and fruit. Yes that is handy if you do have one at home but sometimes takes less time if you just use your good old fashioned oven. What can you do with a lot of jalapeno peppers you might ask? Well the options are endless but when it comes to saving them for a long time, this is the key.

The first time I saw that the grocery store was basically giving these babies away, I wrote a post on pickling banana peppers. That method is great too if you haven’t yet tried it. Another fantastic way to marinate them in a brine and store for a long period of time to use later. This is even simpler though with just a sheet pan…that is it.

How thick should jalapeno slices be when drying?

You want them to be about 1/8″ thick. To be most accurate you could use a mandolin but honestly that thing kinda’ freaks me out and I am way too accident prone to use that baby. If you’re a lot braver than I am then you can get really even slices with that. I just use a cutting board and really sharp knife and just go at it.

How Long to Bake Jalapenos in the Oven

You can eyeball it pretty well, you just want them to be about the same thickness and pretty thin overall. You can see here how they look once they’ve taken a trip in the oven for a few hours.

At 200 you can dehydrate sliced jalapeños peppers for 2 hours or until they are hard and dried. From there you want them to completely dry and cool to room temperature before storing in bags or mason jars. It is important to store properly so they stay hard and for a long duration. These stay longer than roasted jalapenos because all of the moisture is gone.

Can you dry whole jalapeno peppers?

Yes you can do this too. You will need to use a sharp knife to cut a few slits in the top. Spread on your baking sheet in a single layer. Preheat oven to the lowest temperature, 150F works great. Set on middle baking rack with the door slightly ajar. Rotate every few hours for a total of about 7-9 hours or until firmed and crispy.

Tips to Remember

Ok first off I will say that I am very sensitive to heat. If you are as well I would suggest wearing a pair of latex gloves when you slice these. I do the same thing when cooking hatch chiles and it’s a game changer.

You can do the same thing for other produce too like dried lemons, limes, and other types of green peppers. If you would rather jump to recipe use the button at the top of this post;

How to Preserve Dried Jalapenos

When you are done with these steps you want to allow them to cool entirely. You can then use a spice grinder to make them into a jalapeno powder (linked at top of post) to keep, or keep them whole in a baggie. The most important thing is to ensure you remove all the air out first. Using a vacuum sealer is your best bet. Second just suck all the air out and seal well. Store in a dry environment for up to a year (sometimes longer!)

How do you rehydrate dried jalapeno peppers?

If you want to use them later, but not dried you can soften them up again! All you need is a small dish of hot water. Enough so you can submerge the amount you want to use. Leave them in there for about 10 minutes or until the whole thing has softened to your liking. Then add into a recipe like our hummus with canned chickpeas, or on nachos.

Note that they won’t become as alive and vibrant as fresh jalapenos would be. They will be limp and not a bright green as if they were at the beginning.

The only reason to do this is if you don’t want it to stay crunchy in your dish. The most common uses for these is to make them into a seasoning, similar to dry Sriracha. Just a tad will do it, go easy at first because it is almost impossible to tone it down if you add too much at the beginning. Start with 1 chopped up or 1/8 tsp if ground.

Recipe ideas

Hot peppers are great for so many things. The great spice and taste you love can still be enjoyed year round this way. This is a great method if you don’t want to spend $ on a food dehydrator. Much faster than if you were to try and air dry peppers over 3-4 weeks in your home. Like really who has time for that??

You can easily double this to save half of them sliced and the other you can use a coffee grinder even to make into a seasoning.