Green Dragon Hot Sauce: A Shelf-Stable Version

I concocted this recipe with my dad. We make hot sauce together every year, with creative variations and lots of bickering over each batch.

 This is a beautiful, vibrant green, smoky, fruity hot sauce that hits all my hot sauce rules: fruity, vegetal, smoky, a teeny bit sweet, and sour. And you can make this from start to finish in less than 1 hour! I love to eat this hot sauce with eggs, or drizzled on fish tacos. Truth: I put this shit on everything.

 This recipe calls for two types of common peppers: serrano and jalapeño. But feel free to experiment with other pepper varieties! Try to keep them green!

 Note: chili peppers are HOT once you cut them open, so please be careful. Always use latex gloves—or dish gloves or even a plastic bag over your hands—when handling any hot peppers. These babies can BURN!!

This recipe makes 6 standard 5-oz bottles of hot sauce. The easiest place to order hot sauce bottles is on the internet, but if you snoop around there might be a bottle distributor in your neighborhood where you can get a case for cheap.

Ingredients

6-oz (3/4 cup or about 3 large) tomatillos, husks removed
4-oz (1/2 cup) onion, roughly chopped
4-oz (1/2 cup) green serrano peppers
4-oz (1/2 cup) green jalapeño peppers
3-oz (1/4 cup) frozen pineapple (you can substitute fresh or canned but make sure it is unsweetened!)
1-oz (1 cup or 1 small bunch) fresh cilantro, torn up with your hands, stems included
2-oz (1/4 cup or about 2 fresh kiwis), peeled
3 tablespoons lime juice (juice from about 6 limes, bottled is fine)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon rum
1 tablespoon salt

Directions

  1. Turn the oven on to 450 degrees F, and on a sheet tray, lay out the first 6 ingredients: tomatillos, onion, jalapeño peppers, serrano peppers, and the pineapple.

  2. Roast for about 20 minutes, then crank the oven to broil, and broil on high for 10 minutes or until they’re all slightly blistered and soft, and tomatillos are bursting, turning halfway through.

  3. Transfer contents to a blender and add the rest of the ingredients: cilantro, jalapeno, kiwi, lime juice, vinegar, salt and pulse until desired texture is reached.

  4. Pour the hot sauce into a sauce pot and bring to a simmer, checking with a thermoter that it reaches 190 degrees F.

  5. Fill bottles or jars with a funnel and cap.

  6. Invert them upside down for 5-minutes to seal and sanitize the lids.

  7. It will last unopened for about 1-year.

  8. Once open, refrigerate.

  9. Hot sauce should last at least 6-months in the fridge after opening. How do you know if it has gone bad? It will get moldy.

 

Laena McCarthy