I’m probably a little late posting this, but maybe someone can use this as a guide next season! The peppers in my little balcony garden were a big fail this year, but I was fortunate that my friend Nicole from The Fresh Kitchen had a beautiful haul this year and shared the wealth with me.
Although fresh chilies are delicious, there are reasons why drying them for later works well. Perhaps you have an abundance and some are at risk of spoiling. Maybe a specific recipe calls for dry peppers. I wanted to make chilli jam with mine, but didn’t have time to get it done before they went bad.
You can dry chilies a few different ways: in the sun, in your oven, in the dry air, or in a dehydrator. I chose the oven for my chilies. I’ve also dried figs in the oven, by the way; it’s the same concept.
Oven-dried Chilies:
To dry chilies in the oven, make sure your oven is on the lowest setting possible, no more than 130 degrees fahrenheit. If it’s too hot, the chilies will just cook. The time to dry is going to vary, depending on your oven and the size and type of your chilies. Expect it to take at least six hours, but check every hour or two.
You want to release the moisture from the air, so either leave your oven door open, or crack it open every hour for a few minutes. With the second method, you may have to leave the chilies in the oven longer. I ended up doing most of my oven drying after Baby J went to bed, because I was concerned about leaving the oven cracked while he was awake. If you have pets, that’s something else you should probably monitor.
If you want, you can turn the oven off before going to bed, leaving the home, etc. The chillies will be just fine. Just start up the oven again when you get back.
One thing to note…the fumes from the drying chilies can be really strong. Make sure the area is ventilated. Set up a fan, open the windows, etc. You’ll know the chilies are dry when they are easy to snap into two.
That’s it! Very simple.
14 Comments
Excellent! I’ll have to pin this for next year! I had a ton of chili’s that I wasn’t able to use 🙁
Yup, that’s pretty much how my mom does them, along with the Hungarian fragrant paprika. I love these!
Oo yum!
I wonder if this would work for other things too? DH wouldn’t let me anyway since it uses so much electricity.
Hi Rena, a dehydrator would probably be more efficient, but I don’t have one yet, so this is all I can do for now! I’m thinking about getting one at Christmas though. I’ve dried figs in the oven as well but haven’t tried anything else. The key is to keep the temp low enough to dry the chilies or figs or whatever out but not cook them.
Oh wow! My husband would love to do this!
very timely post because I have a bunch of small banana peppers that I need to harvest and somehow keep over the winter. I may dry them as well to see how well they last. I have never dried vegetables before since I always assumed you needed a proper dehydrator for that.
Hi Eva, thanks for commenting. A dehydrator would probably be more efficient, but an oven works if that’s all you have! You can also hang them to dry or dry them out in the sun. If you live in a humid climate, I wouldn’t recommend that though.
I always wondered how people did this. Now I know thanks for the easy step by step guide!
My Hubs and my BIL are always interested into anything chilli, what they did was they just left their chilli in the crisper to dry… but that is a long process, thanks for hastening it up through your article! 🙂
yep my chilis didnt grow this year at all, kind of disappointed but great concept for dried chilis i just might attempt this.
I’ve never tried this before! Thanks for the tip!
The idea of trying figs dried in this manner intrigues me! However, I love dried chilis and will give this a try 🙂
Wow, thankful for the very helpful tip! We actually did grow this variety, but we pickled it instead. I could always use them dried though for spicy dishes.