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Pickled peppers are a great way to add spice and variety to winter meals without adding food miles to your plate. We toss them into chili, use them to top tacos & make a truly amazing salsa or chimichurri in no time flat. Once you’ve mastered summertime dill pickles, try your hand at pickling peppers at home to preserve the heat of summer the whole year round.
You can adjust the heat of this pickled hot pepper mix by adding more sweet peppers to the mix. Keep in mind, that even the heat from a single hot pepper will infuse through the entire batch and add spice to every bite. Unless you really like to feel the burn, use hot peppers sparingly. I tend to chop my pickled hot peppers relatively small, so they can be used as a topping for summer hot dog.
If by chance you overdo it, use them in small amounts adding a finely minced pepper to two to a soup or salsa to add just a small amount of heat. The pickling juice will also pick up the flavors, and a dash of it is a great way to add salt, heat and flavor to dishes as well.
When I’m pickling sweet peppers, I like to can them in slices. The long slices will add extra flavor to sandwiches, and they’re heaven on a homemade Italian sub.
If you’re giving them out as gifts, consider some cute labels. Chalkboard labels are all the rage these days, but I stick to ball canning’s dissolvable labels because they’re easy to remove so that you can reuse the jar once it’s empty.
If you really want to save money on pickling, buy your canning supplies in bulk. While rings and jars can be reused, lids should be new each time to ensure a good seal. We buy our canning lids in bulk online and bring our canning unit costs down considerably.
While pickled peppers are a staple in our cooking year-round, our pantry wouldn’t be the same without our other summertime canning favorites:
This summer, we added a few wild foraged pickles to our pickle pantry as well:
Get creative! There are a lot of wonderful pickles out there, and making your own homemade pickled peppers is just the beginning.
Pickled Pepper Recipe for Home Canning
Equipment
Ingredients
- 5 Cups Peppers, diced, Mix of Hot and Sweet
- 5 cloves Garlic
- 2 Cups Cider Vinegar
- 1 Cup Water
- 2 tsp Canning Salt
- 1 tsp Sugar
Instructions
- Begin by preheating your water bath canner.
- Divide chopped peppers between 5 half pint jars and top each jar with a garlic clove.
- Bring Vinegar, Water, Salt and Sugar to a boil in a saucepan.
- Pour the brine over the peppers in each jar, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
- Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes. (15 minutes for 1000-6000 ft elevation.)
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Pickling Recipes
Looking for. more simple water bath canning recipes for pickled vegetables?
Source for Processing Times:
National Center for Home Food Preservation: Pickled Peppers
Looking for other options?
Try these great pickled pepper recipes:
State Extension Recipes
Clemson University Pickled Peppers Recipe
Fancy Food Magazine Recipes
Bon Appetit Pickled Peppers
Food Network Pickled Jalapeno Peppers
Saveur Mexico Pickled Peppers
Hello,
I will be having an abundance of fresno peppers any day now, and I was wondering if the sugar is necessary in the pickled pepper recipe. Can I follow your recipe without the sugar with success?
thank you
The sugar is optional in this recipe. The only thing that’s doing the preservation here is the vinegar, so don’t reduce the vinegar or change the vinegar to water ratio. You can alter the spices, salt or sugar as you like. Enjoy!