Chili Salt is perfect for finishing a dish just before serving. You will want this just about anywhere savory and salty - and a bit of heat - is needed.
So here is the thing. I have chili peppers, lots of chili peppers. This seems incredible considering I bought 2 tiny little plants at the beginning of this summer and stuck them in a pot.
And despite the weather - which was ironically a bit cold for summer - I have an abundance of chilies. I've only been able to use so much in our everyday cooking.
Preserving chilies is easy.
We dried some. Having my own dried chilies in the cupboard - chilies I grew - feels very self-sufficient.
Dying them is simple and just requires tying them together with some scrap string and hanging them in the kitchen, preferably in a sunny window. We wrapped the string around the little green stems, securing with knots.
Once dried, they will last forever. It will take a couple of weeks, but once completely dry and brittle you can take them down and store them in an open jar in the cupboard almost indefinitely. If left whole they keep their flavour and heat for a long time.
But still, dried peppers don't have the same flavour as fresh chilies.
So when I saw this, I thought it was the best thing ever.
Fresh chilies have a bright and crisp flavour. Preserving them in salt like this keeps some of that freshness.
How to use Chili Salt
- Use this as a spice.
- Wherever you would use salt, and reduce or eliminate the use of other salts in a recipe. It adds a nice bit of heat to sauces and roasted vegetables.
- Add this to your saute pan with onions and garlic and marvel at how wonderful it smells. Then marvel at how you just saved yourself a few minutes of chopping a fresh chili. The chilies almost melt into the food. If you are really heat-sensitive, go easy and use sparingly, at least until you have figured out how much you can handle. There is definitely some heat in here.
- Use it as a finishing salt on meat or seafood, if you want a bit more heat.
- My favourite thing -- Avocado Toast with this chili salt (instead of regular sea salt). It is the best way to start your day!
- Awesome on top of eggs
Chili Pepper Salt
Ingredients
- 1-½ cup coarse sea salt
- 1 cup fresh chilies I used Thai chilies, green stems removed, left whole. you can remove the seeds if you wish, but that means handling the cut chilies and that could be just too much work not to mention hard on your hands
Instructions
- Add chilies to small bowl of food processor and pulse several times until very finely minced. You don't want a paste, so I wouldn't use a blender for this. Add the salt. Pulse several more times so that everything is a pretty orange-pinky-red colour. Store in an airtight container. You can use this right away, but storing for a week or so will distribute the flavour of the chillies more quickly.
Notes
Recipes with Chili Salt
Skillet Eggs in spicy tomato sauce
Teresa says
Love, love love this idea! Can't wait to try it. Thanks
Trish @infinebalance says
I know, awesome right? Hope you try it!
threeovens says
What a great idea! I already have a bunch of chilies from my garden that I have dried. And sea salt!
Trish @infinebalance says
Perfect! It was meant to be
Jennifer says
How long will the pepper salt keep? I'd like to make it as a gift from my dad but don't want it ot go bad before he has a chance to use it all.
By the wya, this a great idea. Thank you for sharing.
Trish @infinebalance says
The salt will dry out the peppers and so you are left with salt and dried chili flakes. Essentially you could keep this forever. Perhaps overtime you will lose some of the flavour? I've had mine for about 2 months and it's only gotten better. Would it still taste great in a year or two - I'm not sure. I'll let you know if I still have some sitting around at that time 🙂
But remember salt is a natural preservative and you are using quite a bit here. Don't skimp on the salt.
Joel says
Your salt looks great! These are one of my most favourite things; thanks for the shoutout and sharing the love! Like you I believe they could essentially keep forever though I've never made enough to last beyond a year (and it tastes great even then)....
Smiles and thanks!
Joel
Trish @infinebalance says
Thanks for the inspiration!! I'm head over heals in love with this stuff. Thanks for stopping by
darlene says
Do you measure the peppers after you have put them in the food processor?
Trish @infinebalance says
Hi - no I measured before putting them in the food processor. Just a rough chop and then measure.
Darlene says
Thank you so much! I am making this today. Can't wait to try it.
Trish @infinebalance says
Let me know how it turns out!
Darlene says
This stuff is great. Mine is not dry yet though. I mean it's not sticking together it just doesn't look like salt yet. How long does it take.
Trish @infinebalance says
When I made this it was fairly dry from the start. Your peppers may have had more moisture in them. If you find it is still too wet, add more salt and give the mix another buzz in the food processor.
Darlene says
I will have to try that. I have already used it in my salsa. Yummo!
Darlene says
As of today. I have made this three different ways. 1. I used 1 cup ceyanne. 2. I used 1/4 cup Thai peppers. 3. I used 1/4 cup Orange habanero (seeds removed) EXCELLENT!
Trish @infinebalance says
Ha!! Addictive isn't it? Love your experiments.
Pat says
I love homemade food gift ideas that keeps on giving. Do you spread this out to dry before putting it into a container? Do you keep this in the refrigerator or pantry?
Thank you for sharing.
Trish @infinebalance says
I store mine in the pantry in a closed container. The mixture should be very dry when you are done, if it seems too wet, add more salt. So I put mine right in the jar, closed the lid and put in the pantry. That's it!
Tricia says
Thanks so much! I'm making these as Christmas presents for the in-laws!
capt says
Great idea. I made mine with both red and green thai chili peppers - no seeds - looks pretty. I'm not a big salt eater and found I had to keep adding a lot of salt! Since it was still wet I decided to spread it out on a paper plate and put in in the micro for 1 minute and it dried it right up! I blended it again to reduce the size of the pepper bits. Now it's perfect for an old empty spice jar with the sprinkle top. If you do this I think you could use use much less salt but still get the great pepper flavor. fyi, the salt itself has the pepper flavor. Thanks for sharing.
Trish says
That's a great idea! Thanks for sharing :). Will try next time.
Belinda says
Thanks for the idea! Mine were still pretty moist so a minute in the microwave really did dry them up!
Annie says
So I did this with habineros... in have juice at the bottom. Did I have us to many peppers?
Trish says
Hi Annie -- yes too many peppers. 🙂 you will have to play around and add more salt to eliminate the extra juice. You might need quite a bit. Perhaps start with a portion of your pepper mixture and add salt to that to get the consistency you want. Good luck
Lauren says
Can you use fresh jalapeno for this? I made it with them and it's sort of wet. I read that makes it spoil? Everyone else online says to do dehydrated peppers. But this seems so much more yummy! They won't go bad right?
Trish says
Hi Lauren -- yes you can, but you will need a higher salt to peppers ratio to absorb the moisture.
D.Blu says
This might be a novice beginner’s question, but can I use coarse kosher salt in place of sea salt?
Trish says
Hi! No - this is a great question!. Of course. Any coarse salt will work. Give it a go.
Liz says
I am so glad I found this recipe!! Good way to use up my chili, jalepeno and habanero peppers I am growing. I am so excited to try this!!