Simply dried or smoked and dried, preserving fresh peppers by simply dehydrating them adds flavor and saves valuable shelf space.

I dry a lot of peppers. When you've got an overabundance, drying is an immediate way to preserve chiles. Once I started drying Hatch-type green peppers and grinding them to a powder, drying chiles became a priority. I pretty much keep my dehydrator going from June through December, our pepper season here in Central Texas. Once this season peaks in October and November, preserving the inevitable glut of beautiful peppers becomes a daily task that pays its dividends in almost every meal prepared in my kitchen for the rest of the year.

• You can dry any pepper, but those with thick walls like larger sweet peppers will take much longer. I typically dry small, spicy peppers or medium-sized peppers for making salsas or powdered pepper, like paprika.
• Smoking peppers and then drying them imparts smoke, obviously, but also preserves and kickstarts the drying process. I'll usually save up a bunch of peppers, fire up the smoker and let them rip for a couple to a few hours. Once they've taken on a good deal of smoke, they'll then go into the dehydrator to finish drying. Chipotles are the most famous of the smoked and dried peppers, along with smoked paprika. Use smoked and dried red jalapenos to make pickled chipotles.
• Use any wood that's good for smoking meat to smoke peppers. I love oak and pecan, but hickory, apple and other fruitwoods and even mesquite can be nice, though mesquite has a stronger flavor.
• To dry larger peppers, remove the stems and, if a less-spicy product is desired, most or all of the seeds and white membrane from the inside of the pepper. Cut the peppers in half and lay on a rack for a dehydrator.
• To dry peppers whole, cut a small slit in each pepper - this will help moisture escape from within the pepper and help it to dry more evenly.
• To dry small peppers like chiltepins, you can generally just leave them on a small plate or tray at room temperature until they're dry. Yes, it's that easy. Once dry, place them in a small jar with a tight-fitting lid.

• Once your peppers are ready, set the dehydrator to 130°F-140°F and dry them until they are, well, dried. This will take 1-4 days, usually, depending on the thickness and moisture content of the chiles. Make sure they are almost brittle and don't feel like they have any moisture left in them. 
• Place the dried peppers in a clean jar or container with a tight-fitting lid. Adding silica packets (available online) is a good way to ensure dryness in the jar and to help combat the bad things that can come with any residual moisture, like mold.
• Use dried peppers whole in pickle brines and stir fries; chopped in sauces like Salsa Macha and Chile Crisp; toasted, rehydrated and pureed into infinite salsas or ground to a powder.
• To grind peppers into a powder, use a clean spice or coffee mill and pulse the peppers until they are finely ground. Once ground, the peppers will gradually lose some of their flavor, so it is generally best to grind small amounts at a time to be used quickly. Adding silica packets to ground chiles can also help with clumping and keeping the powders dry. Smoked and dried sweet peppers, especially Hungarian and Spanish varieties, are how the world's finest paprikas are produced. If you have ever had or smelled a high-quality or fresh paprika, their flavor and value is obvious. I like to make paprika from mild, sweet red peppers that have been dried or smoked and dried. Mild green peppers (especially Anaheims, poblanos and Hatch) also make an excellent green chile powder that is phenomenal. Consider using sun-scalded peppers or any unripe pepper with a little bit of damage to it for making green chile powder.