How to substitute ancho or chipotle powders for whole dried chili peppers?

I have a hot sauce recipe that calls for 3 oz of whole dried chili peppers, and recommends a mixture like ancho and chipotle. I don't have dried peppers but have both ancho and chipotle powders. How much powder would I use instead? Note: the recipe excludes the seeds of the peppers and I'm guessing the powders include the seeds though it doesn't specify on the bottles. Thanks in advance.

Lorna
  • Posted by: Lorna
  • December 15, 2018
  • 14639 views
  • 6 Comments

6 Comments

Lorna
Lorna December 16, 2018
Thanks again smaug, and thanks cv. This is all very helpful. Wish me luck!! :)
 
Smaug
Smaug December 16, 2018
Good luck, though you probably won't need it- hot sauce making isn't exactly a precision operation.
 
Smaug
Smaug December 15, 2018
Ancho peppers are usually about 1/4 seeds and stems that are thrown out, and are (or should be) fairly moist. Chipotles are usually powdered with the seeds and veins, and tend to be very hot- I would worry more about the level of heat you're comfortable with than the weight. At a guess, I'd start with 1 oz. of Ancho powder and chipotle at your discretion. It's always a little bit difficult with hot peppers because people's perceptions of them are so different- If I make a dish the way someone who grew up eating raw Habaneros whole makes it, my actual experience of the dish will be very different from theirs.
 
Lorna
Lorna December 15, 2018
Thanks smaug. Do you happen to have any whole dried ancho and chipotle peppers? I guess what I need to know is: what does one average sized dried pepper weigh, without the seeds/stem? Any idea? I can deal with it in ounces or grams.
 
Smaug
Smaug December 15, 2018
The ones (Anchos)I have are relatively large- I tried one- it was 3/4oz. whole, 1/2 oz. cleaned- hard to tell how much of that is moisture, but I'd stand by my original guess for amount. No whole chipotles.
 
702551
702551 December 15, 2018
I don't have dried anchos in my house right now, but I do have dried chipotles. I weighed eight of them (whole) which came out to 25 grams, thus one dried chipotle pepper is about 3 grams whole (stem, seeds and all).

That makes sense. Chipotles are pretty small and the size of my dried ones pretty much corroborates with what I've seen in the canned version.

Like Smaug, I remove the stem and seeds before using dried chili peppers, so a prepped dried chipotle (stemless, seedless) is probably closer to 2.5 grams.
 
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