Part 4: The Evolution
of Chipotle Flavor

By Dave DeWitt

Chipotle Special Index Page

I realized that chipotles had hit the mainstream during lunch at the Quarters in Albuquerque. My friend Wayne and I have been having our two-martini lunch weekly at the Quarters since 1975, and not much has changed over the years. It’s a barbecue joint with great sandwiches but this Monday something new appeared on the menu: Alaskan King Crab Cake Sandwich with Chipotle Mayonnaise. Not only was the sandwich great, it got me thinking about how far chipotles have progressed in American cuisine.

A Bit of Smoky Background

Chipotles are smoked jalapeņos that are produced exclusively in Mexico–see our Chipotle Pepper Profile for the complete story. Virtually unheard of a decade ago, chipotle chiles have recently powered their way into the Fiery-Foods and Barbecue Industries. Because of their unique flavor profile–heat plus smoky overtones--the chipotle is unique in the industry as an ingredient in a growing number of restaurant dishes, food service products, and fiery specialty foods.

"Once upon a time the term chipotle was esoteric," says chile wholesaler Gary Brooks, known to his culinary customers as The Chile Guy. "But now billion-dollar suppliers that create menu products for the nation's largest restaurant chains are using chipotle as a staple."

The first chipotle product was Bufalo Chipotle Hot Sauce, introduced in the early 1950s. It was made in Mexico and soon became the best-selling hot sauce in that country. In the United States, it was popular mostly with Mexican-Americans–until the fiery-foods boom that began in 1975. In 1989, Chuck Evans, owner of the MontezumaŽ brand of sauces, introduced Montezuma Smokey ChipotleŽ Sauce and that sauce was the first American chipotle sauce. Now there are dozens of chipotle sauces and salsas, and the major players like Tabasco and Melinda’s have produced chipotle sauces. Even Heinz has a Southwest Chipotle Sauce, and the food giant Tyson Foods has a pre-rubbed "extreme" chicken product called Crazy Chipotle Chicken. You know chipotle has mainstreamed when McCormick comes out with a Chipotle Chile Pepper product as part of its Tour de Flavour line.

Other food service chipotle products include Q-Master’s Chipotle BBQ dry sauce mix, which is a blend of red, ripe tomatoes and chipotles. Williams Seasonings offers another dry sauce mix, Chipotle Cream Sauce, which restaurant chefs find handy to use.

Restaurants Get Into the Act

When I heard that Starbucks was going after the lunch bunch with a chipotle chicken sandwich, I guessed that restaurants were in the vanguard of chipotle appreciation. I did several web searches and discovered that innovative American chefs were creating chipotle masterpieces. For example, El Torito Restaurants menu developers won the "Best in Class--Dinner Entree" award at the Menu 2000 conference with their Grand Marnier Sirloin Steak Fajita Skillet with Chipotle Adobo Sauce. Some famous chefs got into the action, like Rick Bayless of the Frontera Grill in Chicago and his menu item Chipotle-Glazed Salmon with Spicy Peanut Salsa.

At Casa Rincon in Sedona, Arizona, a favorite dish is Southwest Pork Tenderloin with Chipotle Mashed Potatoes. Another Sedona restaurant, the Silver Saddle Room, offers Deep-Fried Rattlesnake Nuggets Dusted with Cornmeal with Sweet Chipotle Sauce! Trumbull Kitchen in Connecticut serves Mini Crab Cakes with Chipotle Aioli while Deb & Lola's in Kentucky offers Venison Tenderloin with Chipotle Bordelaise. At R.L. Steamers in Chesterfield, Missouri, one of the specialties of the house is Fried Oyster Nachos with Monterey Jack Cheese and Chipotle. At the Powerhouse Café in San Antonio, customers rave over the Duck-Tart Appetizer with Tomatillo-Chipotle Sauce while in in Sacramento, the Delta King Riverboat serves Wild Rice and Chipotle-Garlic Cream Sauce with its Grilled and Prosciutto-Wrapped Atlantic Sea Scallops.

Smokin’ Specialty Foods

Of course, specialty food manufacturers couldn’t keep their hands off an ingredient as hot as chipotles, but even I was amazed at the breadth of the product lines. There were so many products that I decided just to list them by category. I did not list basic chipotle sauces, salsas, or barbecue sauces--they are very common–but instead decided to concentrate on the more unique products.

Beverages

Condiments

Dips

Fast Food

Jams

Legumes

Dry Spice

Sauces and Salsas

Snacks

Soups

Tortillas

After finding all of this information, I began to wonder how Mexico was able to supply the demand for chipotles in the United States. So I called Emma Jean Cervantes, of Cervantes Enterprises near Las Cruces, New Mexico. She told me that the jalapeņo crop in Mexico is so huge that they have plenty of red pods, and the only thing they do with them is smoke them. The technology is getting more sophisticated than the old tunnels in the ground, and hence the Mexicans are able to increase supplies as the demand rises. And everyone thinks that the demand will increase greatly as America’s love affair with the chipotle continues.

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