I did not photograph these after we grilled/smoked them, but I did discover part of the way through that I should have inverted these ingredients, with the red bell peppers on the bottom and the chocolate Habanero chilies inside or on top of the red bell peppers. I add red bell peppers to the Habanero chilies to make the sauce go a bit further and be slightly less hot. I did put in a few regular Habanero chilies, just because I had them, but I did not add any of the chilies in the first photo, as I want to dry those.

Should I break down and buy a dehydrator? If so, which one? I don't have anything else I want to dehydrate, except perhaps some apples, and we will be harvesting those this afternoon, and I don't think I have time to deal with drying those. We generally just juice them and freeze the juice.

I can remember my mother drying chili peppers by threading them on a string and just letting them dry naturally. Of course, house temps were different back then, no air conditioning, etc so might not work as well today. I have a dehydrator, but don't really grow enough peppers to bother with I guess. Husband does not like heat at all. Sigh...

I do remember hanging some upside down before - I might try that. I want to harvest these before it starts raining on Wednesday.

Good Harvest! I would pull out the dehydrator. It could take some time so I would not want an oven on overnight. My wall oven does start at 180 so I do use it often for drying, but quicker veg like beet and kales. Hanging to dry needs low humidity that I rarely have. But you might.

I roasted all my hot peppers this year with a few tomatillos, garlic and shallot, then blendered and into small containers for the freezer. I had to freeze all the Hatch chilis being too busy but might dehydrate some for powder over the xmas break.

I don't have a dehydrator ... yet, but we're going to Home Depot this afternoon and might pick on up there. I'll have to see what they have in inventory.

Normally we might have low humidity, but not this week! It is supposed to start raining on Wednesday and be humid for five or six days at least.

ETA: I went ahead and ordered this food dehydrator from Amazon - Home Depot does not have any in inventory, and it would take longer to get one. I'm sure this is more than what I need for chilies, and so maybe we will dehydrate some apples while we are at it. We have more apples this year than ever.

Thanks, Oly! But I did order a dehydrator from Amazon, and while they said it would be delivered tomorrow, I do not expect it before Tuesday morning, which will be soon enough.

And no, I do not know anyone in Los Angeles with a dehydrator! I was also unaware that people lent theirs around. If it were summer, I would just take the chilies to the desert to let them dry out, but then they might dry out too much. I might try that next year, however, as an experiment.

I live in a fairly moist place. I have dried peppers by stringing them and hanging over my wood stove. That was semi successful. My best result was using a dehydrator and slitting the peppers in one or two spots. I didn’t slice them all the way open. I just wanted to make sure the inside got completely dry. I could barely see the slices after drying.

Btw I have a round Nesco dehydrator which I like. But I would love to have the Excalibur .

Well, if you have a dehydrator coming, that's the best option in my opinion. If you dry them whole, be sure to cut a slit in them so they'll dry inside thoroughly.

I've dried small peppers by stringing them with a needle and thread, leaving lots of room between peppers, and hanging them in the garage in the summer when it's hot. It's humid here in the summer, of course, and it takes more time to dry them whole. I started cutting them in half and stringing them, as sometimes I got mold inside the peppers that couldn't be detected from the outside.

You could dry them in the oven but you are going to fill your house with pepper fumes, which may not be pleasant.

I keep the dehydrator in the garage to avoid the tear-gas type fumes from drying peppers. I also dried leeks and garlic, so my garage is pretty aromatic, LOL.

Annie

We always just hung the string of chilis, stem side up, by the kitchen window, where they didn't get a lot of light, but did get the cross breeze. In my current kitchen, I've been known to take advantage of the fancy tech in my fridge and put my peppers in an open shallow container in the back. The evaporator works like a slow dehydrator. :)

Congrats on your purchase! Do report on the results!

I've been putting chilies in the fridge to take advantage of its dehydrating abilities, but I am glad that I am getting a dehydrator.

Nice to know that I need to slit the chilies before dehydrating them - I would not have known about that. Thanks for that info.

Kevin told me that when he was dehydrating things that it took several days, and so I guess I will have to wait until we get back from the desert before I start the dehydrator. I don't want to leave it on for several days while we are gone.

Oh no, Lars, it will only take several days if you are air drying those peppers. According to my instructions small peppers like habaneros will be dried somewhere between 5 and 24 hours at 135F-140F. Shorter time for thinner/smaller pieces and longer for larger ones.

Annie

That's good to know, Annie. I will start them tomorrow evening, and that should give me enough time.

The dehydrator arrived today, as Amazon said it would, but sometimes when they say one day delivery, it takes two. Anyway, I put all the chilies in - two trays of the long red ones (I think they are Cayenne) and one tray of chocolate Habanero and regular Habanero, plus two empty trays because the instructions said to use at least four trays, even if some are empty.

I put the chilies in before reading this again, and as it turns out, I forgot to slit them, as that was not in the mfg instructions, and so after five minutes, I took them out and slit all of them. Then I read about the fumes and moved the dehydrator from the kitchen to the sewing room, which I can close off. There was already an aroma, and so I hope the sewing room can contain it. I can open windows in the morning, but by Wednesday it will be too cold to open windows, as temperatures may be in the low 60s.

Since I started this at night (almost midnight), I am slightly concerned that I might over-dry them. I will check them in the morning when I get up and see. I'll set an alarm to get me up extra early. I took a nap this evening, and so I won't need to sleep that long tonight. I think if I let them go five hours that the small ones will still be okay. I'm not sure what will happen if I over-dry them, but I really have more chilies of this type than I need, and I grew them more for ornamentation than anything else. I don't think the Habanero chilies will be dry in five hours, as they are fairly fleshy and much larger. I've never dried Habanero chilies before, and so this will be a new experience.

Congrats on your dehydrator purchase. In addition to the tips above, another thing to consider is dehydrating temperature. IF you use a lower temperature (100F-105F max), it will preserve the color of the pepper and the seeds will remain viable for planting next season or sharing with fellow gardeners. Any higher temp, the peppers will darken and the seeds will be killed. Even at this low a temp, your thin-wall peppers should be dry within 24 hours. Good luck with it! Now you need a new grinder to make powders lol.

I still don't know for sure what these red chilies are, but I have asked the friend who gave me a bunch of seeds. Maybe he will remember. Here are the chilies before drying:

Here they are this morning, after spending about 5-1/2 hours in the dehydrator at 135°

The Habanero chilies are still in the dehydrator, and they are going to take a bit longer, it seems. I wonder if I should have made slits on two sides... I do have more chocolate Habanero chilies that I have air-dried for seeds. I still generally buy seeds each year, just to be safe.

I had not thought about making chili powder. I generally just chop the chilies and use them that way, but the long red ones I use when making pickles, and I just leave them whole.

Next I am going to store them in a glass jar that I will vacuum seal. The instruction book said to store them this way in the refrigerator or freezer, but I think I will store them at room temperature in a dark place. That's how I've stored them before, but in the past, I've just air-dried or sun dried them.

The red pods do not look like cayenne peppers to me . Most cayenne varieties have pods that hang down on the plant. Thai chilis, as well as several other varieties, stick up above the foliage. I'm not sure what you have, but they look like they will add some nice heat to your cooking.

I've decided that they are not cayenne, and I also think they are probably Thai chilies. I think my friend did give me some Thai chili seeds, but I'm still waiting to hear from him. I've grown cayenne before, and the pods did hang down. I've not grown ones that stick up like these, but they are very ornamental, as well as being edible and flavorful.

I've already used some of these chilies in cooking, and they seem to me to be hotter than cayenne, and so I will be careful when using them in the future. I do like their flavor.

I'm still waiting for the Habanero chilies to get dried. I did also add another slit to them, and they were still quite fleshy when I did that. One site I visited said that you should cut them in half, but I prefer to keep them more or less whole.

I agree, I don't think they are cayenne, because my cayenne peppers grow downward.

I usually cut my larger peppers in half, but dry the smaller ones whole, but they do take longer. So, how does the sewing room smell? (grin)

Congratulations on the dehydrator purchase, I think you'll find it useful. And whole dried peppers look really pretty in a glass jar.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Annie

" I'm pretty sure they are dried enough and not over-dried, as they are still pliable. "

A little concerned here. Dried peppers should NOT be pliable. You should hear a cracking sound when you squeeze a dried pod. With a little more pressure, they should break apart into smaller pieces.

If you don't dry them enough, the moisture in them will cause mold and the peppers will spoil.

I'm not sure you can over-dry a pepper. 5.5 hours is not long enough. I'd throw them back in the dehydrator and let them run for several more hours. jmo

And yes, I thing they're probably a thai as well. Beautiful peppers.

The dried Ancho chilies I buy at the store are pliable, and I dried these to about the same texture. The seeds rattle inside and the chilies themselves are pretty stiff. They will break if you try to bend them in half. Also, I vacuum sealed them, and so that should prevent mold, I think. I'll check them again to see if they need to go back in. I could also put the vacuum sealed jar in the freezer, but I would rather not do that.

Last night I checked on the Habanero chilies, and they still were not dry, even after 20+ hours, and so I turned the heat down to 115 and let them go overnight. I checked them again this morning (after 32 hours), and they still were not dry (at least not most of them), and I so turned the temperature back up to 135. I hope they will be done by this afternoon. Since I have the dehydrator going, I might as well put the first chilies back in.

I second the guy who uses the oven. My oven also starts at 180, which is just a hair higher than I'd like but totally doable. Between 180-200C it will be much quicker than a dehydrator and you can do more chilies at the same time. They turn out perfect too, as soon as they are crispy with a slight squeeze, they're ready for the blender and come out very powdery (perfect). Also, avoid using anything above 200 as you risk burning the chilies and the smell will be deadly....

I forgot to mention, bigger, thicker, juicier peppers should be cut in half to dry much quicker and evenly. That's what I do with my ghosts, Habs, Scotch Bonnets and Bishops Crown.

I'm not sure you can over dry a pepper, as they are generally either ground, crushed or rehydrated for use.

As I mentioned, I cut the larger peppers in half for drying. The instructions with my Excaliber say to remove stems and seeds, cut into rings or strips and dehydrate at 125F for 4 to 8 hours or until leathery. My Sugar Rush I cut into thick rings and they were still dried after 7 hours.

I would definitely not turn the heat down, and I hope your peppers are dry by now. I seldom dry whole peppers but I have done it successfully and they got dry enough because I kept them in a quart canning jar for a couple of years before I used them all up.

Annie

Too late for removing the stems and cutting the Habaneros in half. As of 10PM, all the Habanero chilies are dried except for one, and so I considered that a sacrificial chili and will use it in the near future.

I'm not sure why instructions say to remove the stems - they do not seem to inhibit drying, and they can be removed later. Instead of cutting in half, I prefer cutting slits, but I still see how that works out.

As I mentioned above, I am not interested in making powder, as I do not have that many chilies.

That type of chile should dry well on their own, just spread them out and turn them occasionally.

Josh

I finally heard back from the friend who gave me the seeds, and he told me that this plant is Yatsufusa, which is helpful information for me. This chilies are hotter than cayenne, and they are very prolific. The plant keeps putting out more chilies, but I will harvest some more this week-end and dry them. I will also make sure to save some seeds so that I can plant this one again. I like it primarily because it is easy to grow and is very pretty. The chilies taste like cayenne or Thai chilies, and so the flavor is nothing special, but it is still nice to have.

I received some desiccant packets today, and I will add those to the dried chilies that I already have, just to make sure they do not mold.