This article is about the food item. For the restaurant chain, see Chipotle steak bowl Mexican Grill. This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. It is mostly consumed fresh but in different forms, such as pickled, dried, and smoked.

Jalapeño varieties differ in size and heat. Typically, a grower passes through a jalapeño field, picking the unripe, green jalapeños for the market. Smoking is a common technique of food preservation that provides a distinctive aroma and flavor and is traditionally carried out in a field open-oven. The smoking process can affect structural, chemical and nutritional properties of food. Furthermore, the type of wood used in the smoking process impacts the resulting smoked food. Traditionally, the peppers are moved to a closed smoking chamber and spread on metal grills, but in recent years producers have begun using large gas dryers.

Wood is put in a firebox, and the smoke enters the sealed chamber. Every few hours, the jalapeños are stirred to mix in the smoke. They are smoked for several days until most of the moisture is removed. Other chilis can be smoked and dried for chipotle pepper, such as the bell or serrano variety, but smoked red jalapeños are most commonly used.

The technique of smoke-drying jalapeños can be traced back to the early food preservation practices used in Mesoamerica, even before the Aztecs. This form of chili was most likely encountered by Christopher Columbus on his trip to the New World and brought back to Spain, where it later spread to Europe, India, and beyond. Their self-preserving composition would have enabled them to survive the long journey across several oceans. In today’s society, chipotles are predominantly sourced from Mexico, where they produce two different varieties of the spice: morita, which is most commonly found in the United States, and the larger meco, which is mainly used domestically. Most chipotle meco never make it across the Mexican border, although they can occasionally be found for sale in Mexican specialty markets. Sold fresh at the market, this variation of the chipotle pepper will typically sell for three to four times as much as jalapeño. Many pair this spice with annatto, cumin, ginger, oregano and tomato powder.