How To Make Homemade Smoked Paprika

If you think paprika is just for color, you haven’t tried homemade smoked paprika. In this recipe, I used my dehydrator to dry the peppers fully, but if you don’t have one, you can use your smoker, air fryer, or even oven to achieve the same results.

Once you try making your own paprika, you’ll never go back to store-bought. Fire up the smoker it’s time to create your own secret weapon for incredible barbecue!

Use this smoked paprika to add even more deep, smoky flavor to our BBQ rib rub, ultimate brisket rub, or prime rib rub.

What you’ll need

• Red Bell Pepper – Paprika is made from dried and ground red peppers from the Capsicum annuum family. Red bell peppers are easy to find and work well for homemade paprika, but if your store carries long sweet varieties like Shepherd or Corno di Toro, they’re even better. These peppers have thinner walls and more natural sweetness, which helps them dry faster and gives the paprika deeper color and flavor.
• Smoker or pellet grill – this recipe is for smoked paprika, so you will need a smoker to add smoke flavor to your bell peppers. If you want traditional paprika, you can skip the smoking portion of the recipe altogether. 
• Dehydrator – to dry the peppers you will need a dehydrator. If you don’t own a dehydrator, take a quick peek at your air fryer – many air fryers actually have a dehydrator setting! You can also make this recipe in your oven set to the lowest temperature possible. 
• Spice grinder (or mortar and pestle) – I like to use a spice grinder (or coffee grinder) to make things easier, but if you don’t have one, you can just use a mortar and pestle and grind the peppers by hand. 
• Airtight storage container – You want to store your homemade paprika in an airtight container to keep it fresh as long as possible. A mason jar is a great option, but you can also use any Tupperware or spice container as long as it’s mostly airtight. 

What if I don’t have a dehydrator? 

If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can dehydrate the peppers in your smoker. The key is to keep the temperature as low as possible. If you can keep your smoker between 130°F and 150°F, you can absolutely dehydrate them right on the smoker.

Most pellet grills don’t go low enough to dehydrate peppers without cooking them, so a dehydrator is ideal.

If you don’t have one, check your air fryer. Many have a built-in dehydrate function. You can also use an oven, but since most start at 170°F, prop the door open slightly with a wooden spoon to lower the temperature and improve airflow.

How to make smoked paprika

To keep things simple, I’m using a single bell pepper, which yields about two tablespoons of smoked paprika. If you want to make a larger batch, increase the number of peppers you use. The rest of the process doesn’t change based on the quantity. 

1. Prep the peppers 

Start by slicing off the top/stem. Try to cut as closely to the stem as possible so that you have the most usable pepper available.

Remove the seeds from the inside. If you keep the seeds in the pepper, then they can leave a bitter flavor. 

Slice the bell pepper into rings. The thinner you cut them, the faster they will dehydrate, so try to get them as thin as possible to speed things up. 

Slice the pepper rings and place them on a baking sheet for easy clean-up. You can also put them directly on the smoker’s grates. 

2. Fire up the smoker

You can smoke your peppers using any type of smoker or pellet grill as long as it maintains a steady temperature of 180°F or less. If you have a cold-smoking setup, that works great as well. During this step, you don’t want to cook the peppers; you just want to give them a chance to soak up some smoke flavor, so it’s important to keep the temperature as low as possible. 

Preheat your smoker to the lowest temperature possible. This is around 170°F on most pellet grills.

3. Smoke the peppers

Place the baking sheet or peppers on the grates of your smoker. 

Again, we are not trying to cook the peppers, we just want to give them a little smoke. You should let them smoke for about one hour. They may soften slightly, but they should not change much in appearance or texture during the smoking process. 

After an hour, you can remove the peppers from the smoker.

4. Dehydrate the peppers

To convert your bell peppers into paprika, you need to dehydrate them. This process removes all moisture from the peppers and prepares them for grinding. 

You want to set your dehydrator to 130°F and place your smoked peppers on the racks. Dehydration time will depend on the thickness of your peppers, but they should take between six and seven hours to fully dehydrate. 

You will know they are done when they are fully dry and easily crumble by hand. 

5. Grind the peppers 

My preferred method for grinding spices is in a spice grinder (or coffee grinder), but if you don’t have one then you can alternatively use a mortar and pestle and grind the peppers by hand. 

Grind your peppers into a find powder-like consistency. 

6. Store

When stored in an airtight container, homemade paprika will keep for at least four months. Depending on how humid your environment is, you may encounter some clumping, but if this happens, just give the container a good shake, and it should break apart. 

A good way to tell if your homemade paprika is still good is to sniff it! If you still smell a fragrant pepper aroma, then it’s still good to use. If the aroma is gone, then it’s time to throw it out.

A reader left a comment that he has found that “even after a year, it is still far superior than store-bought“.

Homemade Smoked Paprika

Making your own smoked paprika at home is a game-changer for adding deep, smoky flavor to your BBQ rubs. You can also make a large batch and get some nice mason jars for a thoughtful homemade gift.

If you tried this recipe, we’d love to hear how it turned out! Please take a moment to rate it and leave a comment below—your feedback helps us keep bringing you the best BBQ recipes.