The Best Hot Sauce Recipe

 
 

LET’S MAKE Hot sauce!

Welcome to hot sauce class!

I’m excited to make some spicy sauce with you. In preparation for class, below is the recipe and shopping list. You can get these ingredients at most grocery stores or produce markets. But you can also find chili peppers via your preferred online grocery vendor, like Amazon Fresh. Scroll down for a list of fun online chili pepper vendors, if you want some super hot fresh peppers to cook with. The one rule you can’t break? Make sure you get fresh chili peppers, not dried ones. Dry chilies won’t work for this recipe.

This recipe is awesome because it tastes awesome with any kind of pepper. Try to use red or orange peppers so the color is still bright and hot sauce-alicious. But you can use jalapeno, Fresno, habanero (hot!), or whatever tasty, fresh pepper you can find at your local grocery store (or take a look at the list of online shopping options lower down in this post).

The hotter the pepper, the hotter the sauce. Chili peppers are rated for heat using a Scoville index, and the higher the number of Scoville units, the hotter it will be.

Meet the best hot sauce

Why such hyperbole? It is sweet without sugar (hey, apple), way tastier than Frank’s because it uses real, live vinegar vs. white vinegar (not so tasty), and has the extra tastiness of fresh garlic (a not-so-secret ingredient in some of your favorite sauces, like Sriracha).

Try to use latex gloves or something to protect your hands when handling hot peppers and hot sauce as these babies can BURN your skin.

This recipe makes one 5-oz bottle of hot sauce, plus a little extra for eating.

INGREDIENTS

4 red or orange colored fresh chili peppers (like habanero, jalapeno, Fresno or cayenne)
4 cloves garlic
1/2 small apple, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
3/4 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt or sea salt

DIRECTIONS

1.     Remove the stems and seeds, and roughly chop up the peppers along with garlic cloves and apples, and add them to a pot with the 1/2 cup water and 3/4 teaspoon salt.

2.     Cover the pot, bring the mix to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer everything for 8 minutes, until the peppers are nice and soft. Make sure there is still water in the pot, adding a tablespoon of water if it evaporates.

3.     Transfer all the contents, including any water that’s left, to a food processor or blender. Add the vinegar and process for about 45 seconds, or until the sauce is nice and smooth. Adjust to taste, adding more salt if desired. NOTE: This sauce will thicken as it cools, and taste less astringent and vinegary after a few days.

4.     Too thick? You can add a bit of water and vinegar, adding 1 tablespoon of each at a time to make sure acidity is balanced.

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

6.     Let cool to room temperature and refrigerate. Hot sauce should last at least 6-months to a 1 year in the fridge. How do you know if it has gone bad? It will get moldy.

SHOPPING LIST

This recipe uses fresh chili peppers, please DO NOT USE dried peppers, as they will not work in this recipe.

o  4 fresh red cayenne chili peppers

o  1 small apple

o  4 cloves fresh garlic

o  Apple cider vinegar (1/2 cup)

o   Sea salt or Himalayan pink salt (3/4 teaspoon)

WHERE TO BUY CHILI PEPPERS:

The best place to find a wide and amazing assortment of chili peppers is at your local farmer’s market or farm stand (smaller and more local, the better!). But maybe it’s not the season where you live, or your access to a local market is limited? You can usually find fresh chili peppers on Amazon, like habanero or Fresno. And while you can certainly find common peppers through your preferred online delivery services like Amazon Fresh or Fresh Direct, here is my list of online retailers for more exotic varieties (ghost pepper sauce!), or plants to grow your own:

  • Janie and Fernando run a small nursery in New Jersey, Cross Country Nurseries, and have been growing chilies since the early 90s. You can find fresh chili peppers, pepper plants, seeds, and much more.

  • Pepper Joe’s sells over 100 varieties of exotic chili peppers as well as plants via PepperJoes.com.

  • GhostPepperFarms sells, you guessed it, ghost peppers from their Florida pepper farm.

  • Another Florida vendor, Baker’s Peppers offers fresh peppers delivered to your door when in season.

  • Bohica Pepper Hut in South Carolina, also sells fresh peppers delivered to your door when in season (late June or early July). Over 200 varieties and free shipping.

  • A&M Farms offers mixed variety boxes, plus sauces, seeds, spices and powders.

  • Non-dried, chopped and frozen New Mexico and certified Hatch Green Chilies are best found via The Chili Guy, in packages of 5, 10 and 25 pounds; or even a whole truckload! 

  • Ghost Pepper Store is a bit of a misnomer, as they sell a variety of fresh chili peppers, dried peppers, smoked peppers, powders and seeds.

  • Homesweet Homegrown was started by Robyn Jasko, founder of Grow Indie and lauds itself as the “world’s first chili pepper CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).” You can get a share of their chili pepper harvest, and each month a box of 18 hot peppers will arrive at your door.

VERSION #2: Red PEPPER HOT SAUCE THAT IS larger and BOTTLED (SHELF-STABLE)

Almost the same, but this version is bigger and makes about 4 bottles! Also it adds a few steps at the end to make it pasteurized so that your hot sauce can be shelf stable, meaning it can be gifted and sit on the shelf for awhile before you open it (then you need to refrigerate it).

INGREDIENTS

10 red hot chili peppers (the food, not the band)
6 cloves garlic
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Roughly chop up the chili peppers and sweet red peppers along with the garlic cloves and apple, and add them to a pot with the water and the 1 tablespoon of salt.

2. Cover and bring the mix to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer everything for 20 minutes, until the peppers are nice and soft.

3. Cool the mixture slightly, then transfer it to a food processor or blender and add the vinegar. Process until the sauce is nice and smooth, roughly 30 seconds. Adjust to taste, adding more salt if desired.

5. Return the mixture to the pot and heat until it reaches 190F on a heat-safe thermometer.

6. Turn heat to low and pour the hot sauce into bottles while it’s still super hot.

7. Cap and flip upside down for 5 minutes. Then, flip them right-side up and let cool for 12 hours, then hand them out to all your friends!

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR PRESERVING YOUR HOT SAUCE: 

Use Quality Hot Sauce Bottles And Caps

Use food safe, high quality hot sauce bottles and caps.

Follow Sterilization Protocol

Make sure all supplies are properly sterilized (hot water is fine).

 Avoid Using Oil

Oil can introduce a botulinum toxin and a poisonous protein.

 Ph For Shelf Stable Hot Sauce

A pH measurement of 3.4 or lower creates a sufficiently acidic environment to prevent bacteria from growing. Adding citrus fruits like lemons or limes, fruit such as apples or pineapples, and a high-quality vinegar that is at least 5% acidity are all great ways to increase acidity and lower your pH. Don’t add more water than vinegar. Don’t add extra vegetables without adding more vinegar. Try to maintain a balanced ratio like this recipe, even if you are swapping ingredients.