I have a load of dried jalepeno so wish I'd made into chipotle peppers instead – is it possible to rewind time?
I was thinking of soaking them then doing a low temp smoke on my grill. Will that get me close or is it just not worth it?
UPDATE 2017-09-26
A year in, I would not recommend this procedure. Certainly, if you have already dried peppers and want smoky flavor, go ahead, but I've found that the depth of flavor as a result of shorter smoking times is noticeable, and there is an acridity that is present in all but the richest of dishes. Smoke the peppers fresh, if at all possible.
EDIT
Did it. I just used an aluminum pan with lots of holes poked into it. I soaked the chips and the peppers, and I was glad I did. In my Weber charcoal grill I didn't have tons of temp control, and some of them got a little charred even with soaking. On the other hand, I also tried to smoke some fresh peppers, and they didn't dry completely before my coals (and daylight) ran out, so clearly the initial moisture level of the peppers makes a huge difference. I guess I could have stopped and re-soaked them half-way through.
I've made some hot sauce with the pre-dried peppers, and it seems like there isn't a ton of smoke coming through, so my final thoughts on this are:
If you have lots of dried peppers you want to smoke, do it, but you'll get better flavor if the peppers are fresh.
Best Answer
I've cool-smoked home-dried, home-grown chillies over oak. It worked well. My home made smoker uses external heat under a dish of wood shavings sticking out the bottom of the chamber. Chipotles are smoke-dried so you won't get that intense smoke flavour in already dried chillies.
They show every sign of keeping indefinitely in an air tight jar, and still hold their shape (though I've crumbled some into flakes).
I tend to use them in sauces that are cooked and then served hot (or frozen in between), often with home-smoked garlic as well. Ideally the ratio of smoke flavour to heat would be a little higher next time. More time would help - I probably did a total of about 16-20 hours over two days (it went out overnight).