How to Dehydrate Hot Peppers in an Air Fryer: Quick, Easy, and Delicious!
Can you dehydrate hot peppers in an air fryer?
Yes. Dehydrating hot peppers can be fast, simple, and efficient using an air fryer. Simply pick your peppers, wash and dry them, cut them into appropriate slices, set them on a tray and put them in the air fryer for 130 degrees Fahrenheit for 6 to 9 hours. Once you’re done, you’ll find your peppers dry, shriveled and ready for eating. Make sure you store your dried peppers in an air tight container.
How to dehydrate hot peppers in an air fryer
I’ve provided every step you might possibly need when taking on this task. Be sure to follow each and every step because they’re all very important. During step five, I recommend that you keep an eye on the cooking process. I would check at least 4 times to make sure your peppers are looking good.
The beauty here is that you can use any type of air air fryer you’d like. There are basket types and there are oven style air fryers. As long as they have the option to either dehydrate or to set their temperatures as low as 130 degrees Fahrenheit then you should be good to go.
Step 1: Pick and choose the peppers
You want to look for the most vibrant color peppers in the lot. Try to avoid using any that are old and too soft. You want to go for the crunchy ones. Look around your pepper for any rot or mold that might have grown from it. You can throw them away since you only want to dehydrate the freshest peppers.
Dehydrating the freshest Peppers will provide the most flavor-packed spices that you can create from your air fryer.
Step 2: Wash, rinse and dry your peppers
It’s important to thoroughly wash your hot peppers in and out. I recommend that you get each one and rub any mildew or Gunk off the exterior of the peppers. Use a strainer and place each clean pepper into it. Then, grab some dry paper towels and dab all the wetness out of your peppers. Try to hand dry them as much as you can. The dryer they are, the easier it will be for your air fryer to dehydrate them.
Step 3: Slice the peppers
You have several options here. You can either slice your peppers lengthwise or cross section. I do prefer to slice my into cross sections. I recommend that you create about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch thick slices. Any bigger than that and you’ll have a hard time dehydrating it properly. Any thinner than that then your peppers May likely shrivel into tiny little pieces of nothing.
You can keep the seeds in your peppers or you can remove them. It’s entirely up to you. I do recommend that you keep them only since the seeds add on to the overall flavor and texture of the dry peppers.
If you plan to create pepper powder, then you might have to remove the seeds either before or after dehydrating your peppers.
Step 4: Arrange your sliced peppers on the air fryer tray
This part is equally important as all the rest. Make sure you space out your slices evenly throughout the entire tray of the air fryer. I don’t recommend allowing any of the slices to touch each other and don’t stack them on top of each other either. You want each and every slice to have its own pocket of space so that the air fryer May circulate hot air throughout the entire chamber. If any of them are left making contact with each other then that’s one less side that the hot air will have a difficult time penetrating.
Trust me on this, you have much more evenly cooked pepper slices if you give them all their own space.
Step 5: Set the temperature to 130 degrees Fahrenheit for 6 to 9 hours
I recommend 130 degrees Fahrenheit for about 6 to 9 hours. If you prefer a dryer texture, then I would recommend 120 degrees Fahrenheit for about eight to 10 hours. It’s also important for me to tell you this but the longer you leave your peppers in to dehydrate the more brittle the texture ends up being.
The 130 degrees Fahrenheit temperature will actually help provide a combination between a chewy yet brittle exterior but I personally enjoy.
Step 6: Let the dehydrated peppers sit
Once you’re done cooking many hours later, I want you to let your peppers sit for about 15 to 20 minutes. We’re going to need their time to cool off.
Step 7: Store the peppers in an air tight container
After the 20 minutes is over, hear Peppers should have had plenty of times to completely cool down by now. You need to immediately have your airtight jar ready. Place those Peppers inside the air pipe jar and seal it as soon as possible. You don’t want any more moisture from the environment to get into or make contact with your dried peppers. You obviously don’t want to rehydrate them until you eat them right?
Are dehydrated peppers still spicy?
The spicy part of a hot pepper actually comes from capsaicin. The funny thing about capsaicin is that it has a. it’s also an oil-based instead of water-based. So while you’re dehydrating your hot peppers, the only thing that is escaping the peppers is the water. The capsaicin oil remains and should technically now taste a bit spicier only because it is more concentrated thanks to the drop in water. As a result, it should taste spicier.
How to tell if your peppers are done dehydrating
When you’re drying your pepper oh, you want to look forward to the texture of your pepper to become a combination of both leathery and brittle. You don’t want it to be too leathery, and you don’t want it to be too brutal at the same time. The color should always end up a bit darker that was before. It should also shrivel up by at least 1/3 to 1/2 of what it was fresh.
Remember, your air fryer has has probably removed a lot of the water that naturally comes in fresh peppers. So it’s pretty obvious that the size and weight of your dried peppers will drop significantly.
You can also tell that your peppers are shrinking by simply looking at the overall tray. Sometimes you might have remembered giving each slice a few centimeters a room, but when you’re done dehydrating your peppers, you’ll notice that the gap between each slice is significantly larger.
How long does it take to dehydrate peppers?
Dehydrating papers takes anywhere from 6 to 10 hours. However, it depends on the temperature you use. The temperature we recommend is 130 degrees Fahrenheit. If you want to cook it at a higher temperature, you may need to shorten the time that it stays in the air fryer by an hour or so. If you want to leave your peppers in the air fryer for a longer period of time allowing it to be a bit more crispy, then I would lower the temperature to somewhere around 120 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit and cook it for 10 hours or more.
Ultimately, I would recommend that the gold standard be 130 degrees Fahrenheit for about 8 hours. For every 2 degrees difference that you decide to cook it for, you should add or subtract an extra hour from the cooking time.
How do you store dehydrated peppers?
Here are a few different tips on how to store your dehydrated peppers to keep them fresh for as long as possible.
- Seal them in airtight containers and try to avoid leaving the jar open for long periods of time.
- Seal small batches of you are dried peppers in multiple vacuum sealed bags so that you can keep the ones you don’t eat has fresh for as long as possible.
- Keep your storage of dried peppers away from light and at room temperature.
- You can also put them in the freezer which will make them last at least 2 years.
- You can keep them in the refrigerator and they should last a little over a year.
Can you freeze dehydrated peppers?
Yes, you can put dried peppers in the freezer. This will allow your dried peppers to stay fresh for at least 2 years. If you plan to use them and take them out of the freezer, let them thaw for about 15 to 20 minutes. You can also rehydrate you are dried peppers by simply submerging them into a bowl of water. If you leave it in for more than 2 to 4 minutes then they might become soggy. We recommend that whatever you’re using it to cook with, then dip it into the water for a minute or two and then throw them into the pan along with the rest of your food while you’re cooking.
Nutrition facts of dehydrated chili pepper (15 gm)
Can you dehydrate peppers too long?
The longer you dehydrate your peppers the darker and more brittle they will become. At some point you may end up with dried peppers that literally break into pieces in your hands. The longer you are dry your pepper, the potentially hotter it will taste since you are removing more of the water content and creating a more concentrated capsaicin amount.
How do you rehydrate dried hot peppers?
The best way to rehydrate your dried hot peppers is to place them into a large bowl of warm water for about 15 minutes. Depending on the thickness and the size of your slices oh, you may need to leave it in for a bit longer. Once your dried hot peppers are rehydrated you’ll notice that size of each slice will increase slightly and that it would have absorbed the water to a point where the texture is a bit too squishy.
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