What to use instead of dried chiles
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Toasted and blended into a chile paste or sauce base
The dried flesh is the body of the sauce as much as the heat and colour, and it thickens the whole thing as it purees.
Ancho for guajillo, or guajillo for anchoRan out
1:1 by count
Ancho is darker, sweeter and raisiny; guajillo is brighter red and tarter. The colour shifts more than the heat does.
Ground chile powder of the same varietyRan out
1 tbsp powder per 1 large dried chile
No flesh, so the sauce stays thin. Reduce it longer or add a spoon of tomato paste for body.
Sweet paprika + cayenneRan out
2 tbsp paprika + 1/4 tsp cayenne per 2 anchos
Gets the colour and the heat with none of the dried-fruit depth. The sauce needs thickening separately.
Chipotles in adoboRan out
1 chipotle per 2 dried chiles, and drop any smoked paprika in the recipe
Heavy smoke and vinegar and a lot more heat. The sauce goes brown-red rather than deep red.
What doesn't work: Fresh chiles blended in instead. Drying is what concentrates the fruit and creates the dark colour, so fresh ones give you a thin, watery, grassy sauce that tastes raw however long you cook it.
Whole dried chile fried in oil for heat and aroma
A few seconds in hot fat pulls capsaicin into the oil and toasts the skin, and that toasted note is most of what you are after.
Dried chile flakesRan out
1/2 tsp per whole chile, added off the heat for 10 seconds
Far more surface area, so they burn in a fraction of the time. Add them last and pull the pan.
Chilli crispRan out
1 tbsp per 2 dried chiles, stirred in at the end
Brings its own garlic, soy and oil. The dish tastes finished rather than freshly fried.
CayenneRan out
1/4 tsp per whole chile, bloomed 5 seconds in the oil
Even heat right through the dish instead of hot pockets, and no toasty aroma at all.
What doesn't work: Hot sauce added to the pan. It is mostly vinegar and water, so it drops the oil temperature, steams the aromatics, and the dish ends up sour rather than hot.
Toast dried chiles only until they smell nutty. Thirty seconds too long turns the whole batch bitter and nothing later in the recipe fixes it.