Making Hot Sauce With Chipotle Peppers

Making hot sauce is an art. It’s also fun because there are so many ways to make it. You can vary ingredients anytime you like.

I’m a fanatic about flavor so when I make hot sauce, I want it to be flavorful and not just hot. So today’s recipe calls for Chipotle peppers. I really like that smokey flavor you get with these.

The peppers I use for this recipe are dried and therefore need to be reconstituted in water, so we have to boil the peppers in water for 30 minutes.

As far as the ingredients go, feel free to substitute the apple cider vinegar for red wine if you need or want to.

I would rate this as a medium hot sauce (that varies from chile batch to batch). You can reduce the heat of this sauce by removing the seeds from the chiles.

If you are inclinded to remove the seeds, it is easiest to do it after they have been reconstituted. Just slice them open and scrape out the seeds.

Let me remind you that you should never touch your face/eyes after handling chiles. The oils in the chile can burn pretty badly and I don’t want to see anyone in pain. Use caution!

Making Hot Sauce Chipotle Style

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 10 dried chipotle peppers
• 3/4 cup tomato puree
• 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. oregano leaves
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup beef or chicken broth, depending on desired consistency

Directions:

Place the peppers in a pan and cover an inch or two with water. Bring to a boil and then lower the temperature to simmer with the lid partially on for 30 minutes. When they are done, remove the lid and let the peppers cool. Remove any stems from the peppers.

Heat a frying pan over medium high heat and add the olive oil. Saute the onion for about 20 minutes until they become golden brown. Stir frequently.

Add the minced garlic and cook an additional 3 minutes. Set aside to cool.

After the onion mixture has cooled, add to a blender along with the chiles, and all the other ingredients.

Blend on high for 1 to 2 minutes. If the consistency is too thick, add some of the water that the chiles cooked in or more broth. You want it to be thin enough to pour but not as runny as water.

That’s it for making hot sauce! It’s best to store the hot sauce in a glass container. It should keep for a couple of weeks or longer.

Try our salsa recipes.

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