Saving Chipotle Chilies in Adobo Sauce

We like a lot of Tex-Mex/Mexican food around here.  In fact I'd say we probably have at least one thing a week that would be considered Tex-Mex, whether it's tacos, Southwest Pasta Skillet, Spicy Bean Burritos, taquitos, or Roasted Tomatillo Salsa with Avocado.  Sometimes I come across a recipe that calls for chipotle chilies in adobo sauce.

They are spicy, vinegary, and a little bit smokey.  Just a little bit of chiles and the sauce add a lot of flavor to a dish.  In fact most recipes only call for a very small portion of the can.  (The brand I buy is a 7 ounce can). Or sometimes the recipe only calls for the sauce and not the chilies at all.  But at about $2.50 a can, I don't want to waste the remainder.

So what's a girl to do?  Freeze them, of course.  I pour a whole can of chilies and adobo sauce into my one cup mini food processor and give them a whirl until what I end up with is sort of a chili paste.  Next I line my cookie sheet with waxed paper and drop the paste by the tablespoon full onto the waxed paper.  An overnight stint in the freezer gets each mound of chilies and sauce firm.  Once they are completely frozen, I pop them off the waxed paper and place them in a labeled zipper bag.

Now I've cut the cost of my can of chipotle chilies and adobo sauce significantly.  I think the last time I did this I was able to get 11 or 12 tablespoons of chili paste out of the one 7 ounce can of chilies.