Chipotle
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Chipotles are smoke-dried chile peppers, usually moritas, used for cooking Mexican- and Mexican-inspired cuisine. The chiles were originally smoke-dried because thick-skinned chiles do not air-dry well. Today, these peppers are typically smoked in for a period of several days followed by a later drying period. When dry, they are 2–3 inches long and 1 inch wide with a tan, wrinkled skin. Chipotles can be purchased in dried form, or canned and preserved in adobo sauce. Ten pounds of fresh chiles will yield approximately one pound of dried chipotle peppers when the process is complete.
Tierra Vegetables is a significant American producer of chipotle peppers (1000 lbs per year). They smoke-dry a variety of peppers including red jalapeños, serranos, habaneros, New Mexican chiles, Hungarian wax chiles, Santa Fe Grande chiles, and a milder jalapeño called the TAM (a cultivar named for Texas A&M University). Other varieties of smoked chiles include: Cobán, a piquín chile native to southern Mexico and Guatemala; Pasilla de Oaxaca: a variety of pasilla chile from Oaxaca used in mole negro; Jalapeño chico: jalapeños, smoked while still green; and, Capones: These are a rare smoked red jalapeño without seeds; Capone means "castrated ones." They are quite expensive.
Chipotles are a key ingredient that impart a relatively mild but earthy spiciness to many dishes in Mexican cuisine. The chiles are used to make various salsas, which are used to season a wide variety of dishes.
The word chipotle, which was also sometimes spelled chilpoctle and chilpotle, comes to English originally from the Nahuatl word chilpoctli by way of Mexican Spanish. The Nahuatl word chilpoctli means "smoked chile", formed from chil (="chile pepper") + poctli (="smoke"). The original Nahuatl word was spelled "pochilli" and has apparently become reversed. Today it is commonly misspelled and mispronounced as chipolte, an error of metathesis. Other early spellings from Mexico are tzilpoctil, tzonchilli and texochilli. The most common pronunciation is chee-POHT-lay, although some of those who are aware of this word's Nahuatl roots prefer the more historical pronunciation chee-POHT-l.
References
- {{cite book
| first=Rick | last=Bayless | authorlink= Rick Bayless | coauthors=Deann Groen Bayless | title=Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico | year=1987 | pages=332–334 | publisher=William Morrow and Company, Inc | location=New York | id= ISBN 0-688-04394-1
}}
- {{cite book
| first=Dave | last=Dewitt | authorlink= | coauthors=Chuck Evans | title=The Pepper Pantry: Chipotles | year=1997 | pages=96 | publisher=Celestial Arts | location= | id= ISBN 0890878285 }}