Smoked, Roasted and Preserved Jalapenos
September 09, 2013 | Updated October 28, 2020
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See this? It’s a plate of jalapenos that have been fire-roasted, smoked and preserved with a little vinegar and olive oil. Sound like a lot of work? Maybe. But if you make these you will be blown away.
I’ve been making preserved, fire-roasted jalapenos for several years. They are a fantastic addition to all sorts of things, like chile verde, tacos, fajitas, chili, or, to stray from Mexican food for a moment, on a sandwich with some cheese, with charcuterie — or hell, just on crackers.
If you’ve ever had those jars of roasted red peppers, it’s like that, only the jalapenos are green and spicy. This is different from a typical jalapenos en escabeche in that it’s less vinegary, and a little more smoky. Oh. and red ripe jalapenos are even better.
Speaking of smoke… Last year after I roasted a bunch, I looked at my smoker and thought, “Hey, why not?” After all, chipotles are nothing more than smoked-dried red jalapenos, right? So I put the roasted peppers in the smoker for a couple hours: Not enough to dry them, but enough to get them nice and smoky.
Holy crap they were good! And hot. Jalapenos are notoriously variable in their heat, and you really never know if you’re going to get a fiery one or a glorified bell pepper. The only reliable way to suss out the super hot ones is to look for the stretch marks on the chile: Those stretch marks are signs of stress, and a stressed chile is a hot chile.
First you need to fire-roast your chiles. Start by oiling them up and setting them on a hot grill.
If your grill isn’t super hot, you can close the lid, but I find this roasts the chile a little too much. If your grill doesn’t really get blistering hot, lay the jalapenos right on your stove’s burner grates and blast them with the heat of a gas stove. This works really well at charring the skin without overcooking the pepper.
You’re ready to rock when the skins are coming off.
Move the chiles to a paper bag or a large bowl that you can cover. Let them steam for 30 minutes or so, then peel and seed.
Now move them to a smoker for a couple hours. What wood? Mesquite is an obvious choice, but anything will do, really.
Once the jalapenos are smoked, to preserve them you dredge the peppers in vinegar, salt them well and pack into a glass jar. Cover them completely with olive oil and they will keep in the fridge for almost a year, although they soften over time.
It’s jalapeno season, folks. Make these and eat some. I’d bet money that if you do, you’ll want to put up a few quarts for winter.
Smoked, Roasted and Preserved Jalapenos
Ingredients
- 2 pounds jalapenos
- Olive oil to coat them, plus more to fill jars
- Salt
- 2 cups cider vinegar
Instructions
- Coat the jalapenos in some olive oil and grill them over very high heat until the skins blister and char. Alternately, you can do this over the burners of a gas stove. When the skins are charred, put the jalapenos in a paper bag or large bowl and cover it. You want the jalapenos to steam for 30 minutes.
- Put on rubber gloves if you have them. I am largely immune to the effects of chile oil on my hands, but dealing with so many chiles affected even me. So my advice is to wear gloves. Rub the skins off the jalapenos near the sink. Don't rinse the chiles, as this removes a lot of flavor. Just rinse your gloved hand from time to time to get stray bits of chile skin off them. When you're done, remove the stems and seeds from the jalapenos.
- Arrange the jalapenos on the grate of your smoker. Start with the smoker cold, and bring the temperature up gradually to between 200°F and 225°F, for a total time of 1 to 3 hours, depending on how smoky you want them. I smoke for 2 hours, with the last hour being around 200°F. Once this step is done, the jalapenos can be kept in a jar in the fridge for 2 weeks or so.
- To preserve them longer, pour the vinegar into a rimmed baking sheet and lay the jalapenos inside to coat them. Leave them there for 5 minutes. Set another baking sheet out and move the jalapenos to it. Sprinkle the chiles with salt.
- Pour a little olive oil into a clean Mason jar. Pack the jalapenos into the jar, covering them with more olive oil. Leave no air pockets. I find that using a chopstick to poke around releases any trapped air bubbles. Cover the jalapenos with 1/2 inch of olive oil and close the lid. They will keep in the fridge for a solid 6 months, and I've used them after a year and they were OK.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hey Hank, huge fan, first time commenter. Is it possible to pull this recipe off without the vinegar? Also wanted to let you know that I have done just plain roasted jalapenos and they are the absolute bomb on pizza.
Dillan: Sorta. Yes, you can skip the vinegar, and they’ll be great, but they won’t keep as long.
I do fire-roasted bells every year and pack them in olive oil in pint jars. This sounds like a step or two above that in flavor profile. Can’t wait to do this.
After step 5 above, do you think it would hurt at all to hot water bath the jars for longer keeping?
Thanks for all the great content!
David: I don’t think this process is safe for water bath canning. It works, and it’s been used in Italy for centuries, but I’ve never had the guts to can it and put it on a shelf. I always keep them cold.
These jalapeños have become a staple at my house. I will be planting more this year just for this recipe!
Trying these tonight! Thx
Would this recipe work if you did not smoke them? Sounds tasty, but I do not have a smoker.
Ray: I think so.
Do you keep the peppers whole or cut them in half? Just finished some smoked in hickory. I’d say they are pretty tasty! Also I need a hint to remove the seeds!!! Aaagh! I followed the receipe and only got 1/2 of a pint. Any suggestions? Thanks and good eating!
I love all of your recipes, but especially the ones like this where you show how to store them up for the winter!! So excited to try this!
Oohh.. Yes! What Laura said! Not to steal from the thunder of Hank’s recipe here but fermenting peppers is awesome! The salt brine is only necessary if your peppers aren’t juicy enough on their own. If they are juicy enough just add dry salt like you’re making sauerkraut. How do you know if they are juicy enough? Pound them to bruise them up just like you do with cabbage to make sauerkraut. If they don’t release enough juice to cover themselves after weighing them down in the jar, then you need brine but only enough to cover them. I ferment my peppers for a whole month to really bring out the flavor. After fermenting, I’ve kept them in the fridge for over a year, if they last that long. The taste does change though after a few months. They seem to mellow out in time; its hard to desribe. I’ve had habaneros go from fruity to buttery tasting after about 6 months or so. I highly recommend giving poblanos this treatment…
Thanks for the how to tell if a jalapeno is a hot one info. I happened to buy 2 pounds of red jalapenos this wknd. They all had the stretch marks so I guess they’ll be hot ones:)
Did 2 kinds: one sort of like you talk about only I put them in jars with salt and a little citric acid and pressure canned ’em. They make good gifts for cooks or if you run out of chilies.
Second way is the way I like to make them for keeping in the fridge. Make 1 quart of 5% salt brine to cover the raw chilies. Pack in a jar and weigh them down to keep the peppers under the brine. Let ferment for 10 days. (let off the pressure every few days if you don’t have an air lock on the lid) After the initial ferment store in the fridge for as long as you want. They are tangy and salty and retain a lot of their texture.
Thanks, Hank. I did not pre-heat. They went in before I lit the smoker. I don’t doubt your instructions, just can’t imagine what went wrong. I’m using a propane smoker, put the peppers on the jerky rack at the very top of the box (away from the heat). They were sharing the smoker with three ducks and some pork, but I don’t think that would’ve affected anything. Do you? Will try again when I have more peppers to harvest. Perhaps putting them in a shallow aluminum tray would be safer?
Elizabeth: Wow, I am so sorry! One question: Did you preheat the smoker? If so, that’s why. I put the jalapenos in the smoker cold and get the temperature to rise gradually. I will adjust the recipe to make that more clear. Again, sorry!
I tried. Followed instructions to the tee. They were in the smoker for 1 hr 30 min at 240* and they burned to a crisp. I planned to smoke them for 2 hours. Unfortunately I resisted the temptation to peek or I would have pulled them before they burned up.
@LifeandLarder
Have you tried growing them? The plants won’t survive the winter in the Pacific Northwest, but I would have thought that Australia would be a suitable climate for growing peppers.
this is a great idea. homemade chipotle! been wanting to make some since chipotle is hard to find here in Ireland. need my chillis to ripen first….
@lifeandlarder
If you seed a fresh one, you should be be able to grow your own. Chiles are really easy to grow, and produce well. You may not get the same heat as the origional, as this seems to be at least partly environmental, but the taste will still be there.
I use roasted jalapenos in a fish taco recipe from the NYT. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/health/nutrition/20recipehealth.html?ref=nutrition This recipe won out in their re-inventing taco night recipe competition. The rock cod you’ve got in the freezer would work well in this recipe (ling cod even better). The smoked jalapenos would take it to another level. I am going to try it soon.
I’m thinking about a mix. Roasted, Smoked jalapeno peppers used to make jalapeno jelly. I wonder how it would come out?
Thanks much for the “recipe”. I am definitely going to give this a try. The only thing I am able to reliably grow is hot peppers. The squirrels and chipmunks take every thing else. I’ve been freezing my peppers, though I did trying canning them once. I never got my pressure canner up to temp, so everyone said to throw them out. It was sad as I had worked very hard, all day. I haven’t tried canning since.
Hank,
As an Australian, Jalapeños were only found sliced and pickled in a jar, alongside nacho, taco, burrito and fajita kits, in the ‘Mexican’ section of the supermarket. Not a particularly inspiring place for real (and very good) Mexican food.
Fortunately we are now seeing them fresh (if rarely) in the grocery section of the supermarket – albeit fairly pricey.
I like to dry them in the dehydrator, and make jalapeño powder (which I cannot buy here) in a spice grinder or blender, and make delicious jalapeño spiced nuts. But how much better would they be if I smoked the jalapeños first? Thanks to you once again for some inspiration.
Another use for jalapeños I only recently picked up on my first trip to (Oaxaca) Mexico, was jalapeño jelly – which is mind blowingly good – on a crunchy Chicharrón ‘chip’ (fried pork skin), and is also delicious on good old roast pork – with crackling of course!
Hank
I make my own smoked salt and use it to cure my roasted peppers before putting them up in oil to get that smoked chile flavor. Look forward to trying your vinegar soak on my next batch.