It might seem hard, but it’s actually very easy to learn how to dehydrate peppers.

First, wash your peppers. It will make your dehydrating take a little bit longer, but it’s worth it to make sure you don’t have any dirt or creepy crawlers in there.

Put on latex or nitrile gloves. GLOVE UP, ALWAYS. There are a million horror stories about cutting up habaneros barehanded and regretting it once the pain kicks in. Be safe and get those gloves on.

Inspect the habaneros and throw out any pepper that’s brown or black.

Now – and this is where we start getting into business – crack the pepper open gently. Slide your thumb around the calyx (the part where the stem attaches to the pepper) to detach the pepper while leaving most of the seeds intact. This is a pretty important step if you’re aiming to get pure habanero powder. It’s more work, but it means less seeds with your peppers, and that means less bitterness. If you’re doing it, might as well do your best, right? That’s why we’re learning how to dehydrate peppers after all.

Look at all the seeds I don’t have to pick out of the powder.

Now take your deseeded peppers and put them in the dehydrator. I prefer to shred them slightly so they lay flat.

Set your dehydrator to between 95 and 170 degrees. Choose lower to preserve the color, although it will take longer. Go higher to dry faster, but watch out because the peppers will burn if left in the dehydrator too long. 130 degrees is a good midpoint. At that temperature peppers will take between 6-10 hours to dry completely.

Once your peppers are fully dried – they must be dry enough to snap when you try to fold them in half – they are done! They’re ready for grinding into flakes or powder.

And that’s your guide! Let me know how well this works for you.

Niki