I want to make chili using Kenji’s chili paste recipe. I went to my international market and got all these dried chiles. I am not sure which ones to use to make the best flavor.
Pictured is New Mexico, Ancho, Mulato, Pequin, Arbol, Pasilla, Guajillo, and California.
I also don’t like a ton of heat. For reference, I made Meat Church’s Over The Top smoked Chile last month, and it used a whole can of chipotle peppers in Adobo along with a few tablespoons of a powder chile mix (I used Malcom Reed’s Bonafide chili seasoning and not Meat Church’s). The chili had a great flavor, but it was a tad too hot for my liking.
So which ones from my lineup would you use to get started? Also, I have read some comments online that the recipe from the website is very liquid, as it’s diluted with a full quart of stock. But I’ve seen some comments that there’s a book recipe that makes a more concentrated paste using less liquid. Any recommendations for my application? Thanks.
by Slow_Investment_2211
4 Comments
So both the Serious Eats recipe and his Food Lab recipe have categories of chiles — if you don’t like heat avoid the “hot” category (I think the Serious Eats recipe goes into more detail but I’m looking at the Food lab now and he says cascabel, pequin, and arbol are your hots).
The good news about this recipe (like pretty much everything Kenji does) is it’s a guideline. I’ve only made it once so far (and made the mistake of looking at the Serious Eats recipe when shopping and the Food Lab one when cooking), but you can mix and match chiles to get what you think is the best flavor for your palate.
And the Food lab recipe only calls for 2 cups of stock (and no canned chipotles) so feel free to go with less liquid.
Use the peppers that are outlined in the recipe for the chili paste and it won’t be very hot. The heat is in the other peppers that you don’t have to add.
I usually have ancho, arbol, and guajillo on hand and use those for the chili. The arbol go a long way so be careful if you don’t like a lot of heat.
I also toast and grind those peppers to use in Kenji’s fajita marinade. It’s a game changer for flavor.
If you’re getting too much heat from the canned whole chipotles, see if you can find the chopped chipotles that come in a jar. I feel like they aren’t nearly as hot as the whole ones in cans, but still have all the other smoky flavors you want. Otherwise try some smoked paprika instead of chipotles and leave out some of the hotter dried chilies.