Dehydrating Jalapeño Peppers – How To Dry Jalapeños
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Dehydrating jalapeño peppers is one of my favorite ways to preserve a fresh pepper harvest. If you’ve ever grown your own jalapeños, you know that you can end up with a lot of peppers. This is when dehydrating jalapeños comes in handy.
Dehydrating jalapeño peppers (or any pepper for that matter) basically involves removing the moisture from the pepper. There are many ways to accomplish this, from simply leaving the peppers out in a well-ventilated room, to using a purpose-built dehydrator.
So, in this article, I’ll share the basic techniques you can use to easily dehydrate jalapeños yourself. Drying jalapeños is super simple, and makes the peppers last up to a year!
Jump Ahead:
- How-to: With a dehydrator
- How-to: Without a dehydrator
- Storing dried jalapeños
- Making jalapeno powder
- Rehydrating peppers
- Other ways to preserve
Methods to Dry Jalapeño Peppers
Jalapeños can be dried in a number of ways. Since they are thicker than other hot peppers, they may take longer to fully dry, especially if dried whole.
However, jalapeños and other pepper varieties like habaneros have been dehydrated for thousands of years. This means that using a dedicated food dehydrator is not your only option! There are essentially three basic methods:
- Use a dehydrator. If you have a food dehydrator, I recommend using it. We use an Excalibur food dehydrator for its ease of use and the ability to set a relatively low temperature. These circulate the air and keep a consistent temperature inside. This helps keep your jalapeños nice and green (high heat can cause discoloration).
- Use the oven. Not everyone has the need or space for a food dehydrator. However, most people do have an oven. While this method is not always ideal, it will get the job done. The main drawback is that most ovens can’t set a temperature low enough for ideal dehydration. This can cause your jalapeños to cook slightly, which is not desired. Keep in mind that some modern ovens do have a dehydrate setting!
- Air dry. This won’t work for everyone. If you live in a hot and dry climate, then this option will suit you just fine. However, if the humidity is above 50-60%, your jalapeños may begin to rot or mold before they fully dehydrate.
How To Dehydrate Jalapeño Peppers
I’ll start with the preferred method for dehydrating jalapeños: Using a food dehydrator. I have used the Excalibur 2400 (the smallest and least expensive Excalibur) for many years. However, any food dehydrator will do the trick.
Tip: Before drying, “cure” your peppers by leaving them in a warm location for a few days. This process concentrates flavor and leads to a much more flavorful result!
How to dehydrate jalapeños in a dehydrator (steps):
- Sort and select peppers.
If you have a lot of jalapeños to dry, you should choose the highest quality peppers. Look for any with rot, holes, or mold and save them for another use.
- Wash and dry the peppers.
Clean the jalapeños with cool water. Be sure to thoroughly dry the peppers before slicing. You don’t want your dehydrator to waste time drying out droplets of water.
- Slice the peppers.
Remove the stems and slice the peppers in the desired shape. I prefer 1/4 inch jalapeño slices. You can also simply slice them in half lengthwise.
- Arrange on dehydrator trays.
Arrange your jalapeño slices evenly across the dehydrator trays. Give some room between peppers and try not to overlap the slices. This will promote more even drying of all the chilies.
- Set temperature to 125°F (52°C).
The ideal temperature to dry peppers is right around 125°F. This is enough heat to help speed up drying without cooking the peppers.
- Dehydrate for 24 hours (or longer).
Depending on the thickness of your slices, dehydrating times will vary greatly. Dehydrate until the peppers are brittle and crack easily when bent.
- Grind the peppers into a powder (optional).
To save space and make the dried jalapeños into a spice, now is the time to grind them up. Use a spice grinder to easily powder the dried peppers. Warning: Grind hot peppers outdoors or in a place with very good ventilation to avoid lung irritation.
- Store peppers in a dry, sealed container.
Use freezer bags or mason jars with a desiccant packet to keep the peppers dry. Dehydrated jalapeños can be kept for up to a year when stored properly.
How long to dry jalapeños in a dehydrator
How long you dehydrate jalapeños will depend on your goal. In my experience, jalapeños require 24 hours or longer in the dehydrator to become fully dried to a brittle texture. This is ideal for grinding peppers into a powder.
Dehydrating Jalapeño Peppers In The Oven
If you haven’t yet made the leap on buying a food dehydrator, the oven is the next best thing. The process is similar, but it may take even longer depending on the type of oven you have.
One of the benefits of a food dehydrator is its ability to circulate air. This dries out fruit and vegetables much faster than stagnant air in a standard oven. For this reason, convection ovens are best for dehydrating.
Tip: Check out the Ninja Foodi toaster oven – it doubles as a food dehydrator with circulating air.
Here are the basic steps for dehydrating jalapeños in the oven:
- Wash & dry the peppers. As always, make sure your peppers are cleaned and dried before slicing.
- Slice peppers. Cut off the stems and slice the peppers into the desired shape. Remember to be consistent in size and shape for even drying times. Remove seeds and placenta at this stage if desired.
- Arrange peppers on an oven-safe drying rack. In order to allow the peppers to receive as much dry air as possible, place them on a drying rack on a cookie sheet. This will speed up the drying process.
- Preheat oven to the lowest temperature. Many ovens have a low temperature of around 150°F. Set your oven to its lowest temperature, or ideally 125°F. Also, check to see if your oven has a “dehydrate” setting.
- Bake for 24 hours or until the peppers are fully dried. Check on the peppers after about 6-8 hours if you have a convection oven.
Remember that the thicker your slices, the longer the process will take. It will also take much longer in a standard oven than in a convection oven. If you do a lot of dehydrating, consider getting a dedicated dehydrator! It is a lot of fun experimenting with drying out various foods (and even making spicy beef jerky).
Air Drying Jalapeños
If you want to go old school, you can try dehydrating your jalapeños by hanging them to air-dry. This is the most ancient method for drying fresh produce. The benefit is that you retain the most flavor (sun dried peppers are much more tasty than using a dehydrator).
The main drawback? It takes much longer.
Also, if the humidity in the air is above 50-60%, you may have trouble reaching truly dried out peppers. or the peppers can begin to rot. Use one of the other methods above for better results.
How To String Jalapeño Peppers For Drying
If you live in a dry climate, the best option is to hang-dry your jalapeños. This is a good choice if you have a covered outdoor area or a room that gets lots of airflow. Stringing peppers into a ristra is easy.
What you’ll need:
- Strong string or fishing line (not too thick)
- Needle
Tip: Since jalapeños are thick-walled, they will take much longer to air-dry. Be sure to use only the healthiest peppers to avoid mold or rot setting in.
- Start by tying the string or line to your needle. Poke the needle through the first pepper at the base of its stem, threading the string through by about 2 feet (60cm). Tie a strong knot around the first pepper’s stem.
- Continue piercing additional peppers through their stems until you have a bouquet of peppers on your string. Be sure not to add more peppers than the string can support without breaking.
- Hang the strung peppers in a outdoors in the sun, or in a drafty room indoors where they will receive plenty of airflow. Depending on the air moisture level, your peppers should be dried within 3-4 weeks (or longer). Help speed up the process by giving the jalapeños a shake once or twice a day.
Air drying usually doesn’t dry peppers to a brittle consistency. The peppers will be more leathery and bendable. This is considered fully dried, and the peppers can be ground or left to rehydrate later.
Using A Fan
Have a fan? That will help! If you don’t have a drafty room where you can hang-dry peppers, a fan can mimic a breeze. Set up your peppers on a plate or arranged on a drying rack and aim the fan directly at the peppers.
Allow them to dry, rotating occasionally, for 1-2 weeks. It may take longer if you live in a more humid environment. Peppers are adequately dried when they reach a leathery consistency and are significantly lighter in weight.
How Long Do Dried Jalapeños Last?
If you are drying for long-term preservation, you’ll be happy to know that dried jalapeños will keep for 1 year or longer when stored properly.
Follow these guidelines to avoid the possibility of spoiling:
- Store them in sealed containers with minimal air
- Use mason jars with food-safe desiccant packets
- Store out of direct sunlight
- Keep cool
Following these tips will help ensure safe consumption for many months, but always check your dried peppers for any signs of mold before consuming. If something seems off, it is always better to be safe and throw them out.
Tip: Store dried peppers in multiple containers so that if one becomes moldy, not all are lost.
How To Make Jalapeño Pepper Powder
Making jalapeño powder is a great way to use your dehydrated peppers. It’s a spicy alternative to cayenne powder that gives food a unique and tangy flavor.
Read our complete guide to making powdered jalapeño here.
Quick steps for making jalapeño powder:
- Dehydrate peppers until brittle. The peppers should easily crack when squeezed.
- Pulse in grinder or blender. A spice or coffee grinder is ideal, but a strong blender will work as well. Make sure the grinder is completely dry before adding your dried jalapeños.
- Store in a spice container. As long as it is kept dry and cool, jalapeño powder should last a year or longer.
- Remove seeds before dehydrating (optional). If you don’t have a spice grinder, grinding seeds can be difficult. You can also save your seeds for growing next year.
Use your jalapeño powder for spicing up soup, adding to eggs, making aioli and more!
Tip: Try smoking your jalapeños before grinding them into a powder. Learn how to make delicious chipotle powder here.
Rehydrating Dried Peppers
To reconstitute your dried peppers, submerge them in hot water for 10-15 minutes. If they float, keep them under the water with plate or a bowl. The peppers should become soft and limp, perfect for making sauces or flavoring soup.
See more ways to use dried peppers here.
Rehydrated jalapeños will not have the same crispness or texture as fresh peppers. However, flavor and heat levels should be nearly identical to the original peppers.
Other Methods to Preserve Jalapeño
While dehydrating is a great way to preserve your jalapeño harvests, there are many other ways to use them while they are fresh. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Pickling – Delicious and crunchy pickled jalapeños.
- Freezing – Retain as much of the original flavor and heat of the peppers.
- Making hot sauce – Get creative with other spices and flavors in a homemade sauce.
I hope this article helped you learn how to dry jalapeños at home. If you have any suggestions or ideas, feel free to leave a comment.
Calvin
One of the original Pepper Geeks! When Calvin isn’t gardening or learning more about peppers and botany, he might be traveling new places or playing some music.
I use a food dehydrator to dry my peppers and it works great. I have a question though:
Let’s assume that I slice my peppers in half for dehydration and dry them as is i.e. no deseeding.
At what temperatures can I dry the peppers WITHOUT damaging the seeds if I should choose to keep some for seeding purposes?
Just wondering…. 🙂
Thank you (in general)
I would keep it around 110°F or lower to try to avoid damaging the seeds. I believe pepper seeds will die around 120°F, but I would play it safe.
I have been dehydrating my peppers for a while, I dehydrate them all. I grow Birds eye, Jalapeno, Ceyana and Habanero peppers with tomato and capsicums. I dehydrate them all place them into the blender and make chili/ tomato and capsicum flakes or fine powder.
Hi Calvin, and thanks for this. I make my own chilli oils and usually just dry the (whole) chillies on a shelf in the garage for a few days. Usually no problem. Recently I started chopping them up (to dry quicker) but now most of them start turning red (which I’d prefer not to happen). Any suggestions? Thanks again
Hi Jun – it sounds like the fruits may have been harvested later than usual, leading the peppers to ripen off the plant. If they are harvested earlier, they should stay green, cut or not.
Awesome! Thank you. I’ve been wonder how dry. I can’t use all the pepper pickles & sauces I have so drying is another great alternative, with maybe more options for later uses.
Can You dehydrate peppers in a toaster
Some newer toaster ovens have a low-heat/dehydrate feature, yes. But since it takes a LONG time to dehydrate in an oven, I would probably not feel safe doing it in the toaster oven
I don’t yet have a dedicated dehydrator, so for the time being I’m using my air fryer toaster oven, which has a “dehydrate” setting. Using that setting, I get temperature increments of 10° rather than 5°. Since I can’t set it to 125°, am I better off with 120° rather than 130°? I realize it will take a little longer; I’m just wondering if 120° will be enough.
@Carol, typical air fryer aka toaster ovens have fairly inaccurate thermostats and both hot and cold areas in them unless they have a fairly strong fan which most do not.
You could measure the temperature to see how accurate it is, but I’d be inclined to set it to the lower temperature but the most important thing is the evacuation of the moisture. If you merely cook them at a low temperature and they are creating a steam bath, it will take forever and the result will be poor. At the same time, a mere 10 degree temperature difference is not much, will not make a significant difference in time taken or the result.
Airflow to remove the moisture is the most important part, not temperature, but the heat accelerates that so that they don’t rot before dehydrated enough. Choose more airflow before more temperature, unless it is very humid where you are doing this.
When using oven may leave door open a crack wooden spoon works
I’m dehyrdrating some jalapeno peppers in my oven, which has a convection bake setting. But the lowest temperature that it will do is 170F. I have two pans of them (half sheets with wire racks) on two oven racks. Going to check them after 3 hours, hope this will work. I grew a *lot* of peppers this year:)
@Susan, How low does your broiler setting go? Convection often just circulates the air around inside, which is not what you want. You want the moisture drawn out, to be evacuated from the oven. This may be more easily accomplished with the broiler setting and the door cracked open. Further if your peppers are red ripened, a little higher broiler setting can create a desirable carmelization of the peppers but you really have to keep an eye on that because they can go from carmelized to burnt quickly, so the moment they show a hint of blackening they need pulled out, oven let to cool down to about 125F, then proceed to continue at that temperature.
I would not do them at 170F, at which temp you are cooking them and losing flavor and color. That will work, rather than throwing them away before you use them all as fresh, but will not be as desirable an outcome.
Keep in mind that an oven set to 170F but with the door cracked open, may work out. Measure measure measure, to see what you end up with. Most important part is leave a path for the moisture to exit because you are dehydrating.
Hi! Have you ever paused dehydrating in the oven and then restarted later? Does that work?
Definitely – no big deal. The peppers may re-hydrate a bit from moisture in the air, but they will just continue to dry when you turn the heat back on.
@Alyssa Griswold, Once you have started the dehydrating process, if you need to stop then you should store them in the refrigerator and start the process back again very soon, within few days at most, because once you have heated them, they will spoil much faster if not refrigerated or further dehydrated.
Do not just turn the oven off, leave them sitting there at room temperature and start it up again later. That is a recipe for bacteria or still bacterial waste byproducts if you then heat them to 165F to kill the bacteria.
Nice, thorough job!
Getting ready to process a plethora of peppers in our Excalibur and just needed the time & temp but you gave me so much more than that. Just subscribed to your newsletter and am looking forward to perusing the rest of your content.
Great! Thanks for sharing – we also made a video recently about making pepper powder on our Youtube channel: check it out here >
Some ovens have a “Bread Proofing” setting for rising bread. This happens to be very close to the perfect temperature for drying peppers as well, as bread rises best at 120-130 F (67-72 C).
I have made ghost pepper powder that turned out quite well. I did not remove seeds, but just removed the stems and split the ghost peppers lengthwise in half or thirds. After thoroughly drying them (outside-down) in a food dessicator, I used a (dedicated) mortar and pestle to make the powder. I keep the powder in a spice container that lets you conveniently shake powder out on food needing more heat.