Safe, yes, but you'll be changing the flavor somewhat substituting equal amounts like you would need to do. The powdered chili could be difficult as the taste of that could change with shelf storage of your finished product.

The arbol is hot like the cascabel, but the cascabels have what is described as an additional nutty flavor along with the heat that you'd be missing. Guajillo are more mild, less heat.

The larger issue is the chipotle which have the distinct smoked flavor and I'm not sure how you'd substitute that. I can't find them dried either, only canned, but there is a 'pepper wagon' at a farmers market about an hour from here (the aroma from that wagon draws you clear from the far end of that open air market :)) and I'm about to resign myself to make a trip to see if I can't get some things to have on hand.

So, I'm not really helping you, just adding some thoughts.

My brother makes a killer roasted salsa but it's for freezing only, not canning, and I've never watched him make it to know his exact recipe.

I can't really think of any dried chile that will give you the same smoky level of heat and flavor as the chipotles. I made it last year with dried chipotles and guajillos.

Since you're pureeing the rehydrated chipotles, I *think* you might be able to substitute canned chipotles. I'll go back, read the recipe in more detail and ponder that avenue.

I think the powdered chipotle would be fine if you subbed an equivalent weight for the whole dried chipotles. I would not roast the powder. I don't think it would be necessary.

Jim

Jim, the whole chipotles in the OP's recipe are toasted then soaked in water until they've absorbed enough to become pliable, soft and can be pureed. Water has been added back so weight of powder then becomes void as an equivalent.

Hmm. Maybe I should have read the recipe. :-)

Perhaps canned chipotles are the best answer. That way you can get the correct amount by count. Just don't get the chipotles en escabeche (pickled).

Jim

Chipotles are red jalapenos smoked with mesquite.

So I'd think they'd be toasted enough already with the smoking process. I don't know what the advantage of re-toasting them would be.

I've just about stopped using canned chipotles and, after a few unpleasant surprises, stick with the powdered Penzey's product. Much easier to control the heat and smoke flavor in what ever I'm doing.

We've been making peach / chipotle chutney, as an example.

A lot of recipes (like the chilies Colorado my BILs love) using dried or dried and smoked chilies call for toasting them first before soaking, supposed to add a layer of complexity to the taste, a more nutty earthy flavor. Necessary? I don't know, I'm not a gourmet cook at all :)

But it didn't surprise me to see it in the above recipe as many times as I've come across it. I love Hispanic foods but only do a few things here at home, most of the time when we're eating Mexican we're eating out.

I just canned that salsa, and couldn't find the cascabel peppers either, although I found chipotles at a local Hispanic store. I ended up subbing ancho chilies, which is not the same flavor profile, but it seemed the best choice of my options.

Since the chipotles in the recipe are rehydrated, I think canned chipotles could be used instead, but the dried powder is probably a safer option as I've noted a wide variation in flavor in the canned ones.

Annie

Thank you for the options, all. I made a batch using 4 guajillo peppers (they are much larger than cascabels) and some canned chiptole in adobo. It made a mild sauce which should work well for the kids. Next batch I will likely use the ground chiptole from Penzey's and a mix of guajillo and arbol for complexity and a little more heat. In the past I have gotten dried chiptole peppers from Penzey's but the drought must have driven the price up and it was a bit beyond me at the time. The are generally of excellent quality though.

Found this thread while trying to find the answer to my question about this salsa, and figured I'd piggy-back here. I find that Penzeys carries whole chipotle AND cascabel chiles, but I have NO idea how much I would need to order to make this recipe. The chipotles are available in sizes ranging from .5 ounce to 1 pound, which is a pretty wide range. Anybody have a clue here? I don't have any dried peppers on hand to compare. The recipe calls for 12 peppers of each type. Want to hazard a guess what that would be by weight??

This post was edited by mom2wildboys on Wed, Aug 13, 14 at 20:25

I don't know if this will help, but I do have dried guajillo peppers. 12 of them weighed 2.45 ounces. The small arbols I have are in a 2-1/4 ounce package and there was probably 50-60 in there.

Penzey's has great customer service. You could call them and ask. They really should list roughly how many peppers are in an ounce or a pound.