I lust recently started freezing them in this manner and it makes so much more sense than freezing them whole. They take up much less space in the freezer, you only risk burning your hands, ect during initial prep before freezing, and they are so convenient to just break off chunks (whack larger frozen bags flat on the counter) when cooking.

I also smoke-dry powder and flakes, ferment, can, bottle... you name it. All of the above is half/most of the fun. Besides ya gotta do something with all those dang peppers! ;-)

This post was edited by mecdave on Sun, Dec 28, 14 at 9:26

I freeze whole peppers that I've blanched and then thaw, clean, and chop as needed for use with nachos, burritos, sauces, chile and stews. I freeze them on plastic wrap covered cookie sheets, and once frozen put in freezer zip bags. They stay separate and I can remove the number I need for any given meal.

I freeze all my peppers for hot sauce making. But I vacuum pack all of mine whole. The vacuuming shrinks down the size of the bag so much it's ends up the same size as if I chopped them up.
Better yet, there will be no freezer burn even after a year or more (if I let them stay in there that long :-) because all the air is out of the bag.
Works very well.... Highly recommended.

I do it all, dry, pickle, sauce, freeze. When I freeze it depends on my mood, sometimes I roast and skin (gotta be sure to get them dry and pack them tight and get the air out before freezing, I've lost quite a few from freezer burn), chop and freeze, and some I just toss whole in the bag. I've had good luck with all methods.
Pam

I freeze whole serrano peppers. They're not as richly flavored as other peppers, but for someone like me that doesn't do "super hots" it delivers a good amount of content controllable heat.

The thick walls hold up rather well when cooked into things. They're also easy to work with while fresh out of the freezer and still frozen.

With hot ones (habs, LD..) I make sauce with fresh ones and dry/dehydrate the remaining. Sure, if hot/super hot is intended for cooking/spicing up with then chopping and freezing make more sense. Like you've already mentioned , it takes a lot less space.

With sweet and mild ones (when I have extras) I blanch, cool in cold/ice water then freeze. I have done a side by side "Blanch-or Not-Blanch" experiment.I have found out that blanched ones retain better texture than NOT blanched.

Seysonn