My Favorite Canning Recipe - Chipotles in Adobo

My absolute favorite thing to can using the water bath canning method, is Chipotles in Adobo.  A favorite for so many reasons, they are delicious in lots of applications; I like to chop and mix with smoked pork shoulder for tacos, or chopped and mixed into scrambled eggs.  Chipotle aioli is amazing on a BLT, or mixed into chopped brisket for a sandwich.  The flavors are complex; hot with heat, spicy with cinnamon, allspice and clove, slightly sweet, and with a hint of vinegar, but you can’t really discern any of those on their own.  You just know it is good.  I also love that the ingredients are from every season of the garden;  my onions that have been hanging for months, frozen garden tomatoes for the base of the adobo, and weeks long harvest of Springdale Farm peppers, allowed to stay on the vine long enough to turn red.

The peppers take about 3-5 hours to smoke, and I did mine in weekly batches.  Glenn from Springdale Farm smoked theirs in batches as well.  We ultimately smoked 30 pounds of red jalapelenos.

Once we had enough peppers smoked, (30 pounds before smoking) we set a date for the canning.  We would need 6 quarts of tomato puree, so I pulled bags of my frozen garden tomatoes from the freezer.  Frozen tomatoes are very easy to deal with, once they have become half thawed.  Simple squeeze the tomato pulp out of the skin in to a pot.

Once I had the quantity I needed, I pureed the tomatoes with the immersion blender and stored in baggies.

I procured the necessary spices from Savory Spice on Sixth street, as we were set to go.  Since the process takes the better part of an afternoon, I cured some Richardson Farm Pork Belly a week before, to smoke that day as well.  Chipotles and bacon, why not?

We followed the recipe and began the process of cooking the tomato, onion and spice mixture until the onions were soft.  Then pureed the mixture and added the peppers into it.

Peppers in Adobo

We sterilized jars on the porch with a propane tank and large pot configuration.

Steralizing jars

With bacon smoking in the smoker:

Smoking Pork belly for bacon

Once the Chipotles had reduced to the desired consistency, we started spooning into hot jars, then processed for 20 minutes. I think we ended

up with at least 48 half pint jars of chipotles in adobo, which we divided between us.  We made the same amount last year, and each ran out before the pepper season returned, so I think we might need another round.  Hoarding is my nature with delicious things.

And the bacon, cured with Ruhlman’s basic recipe, but with the addition of Springdale Smoked Pepper mix, prior to smoking, was amazing.

Bacon

And Chipotles:

Chipotles in Adobo