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.
Long slices of pickled sweet peppers for sandwiches.
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
This quick pickled pepper recipe allows you to preserve peppers with water bath canning. Sweet peppers will result in a tasty topping for adults and kids alike, while adding hot peppers to your pickled mix will obviously increase the heat.
Ingredients
- 5 Cups Diced Peppers, Mix of Hot and Sweet
- 5 Garlic Cloves
- 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.)
Just getting Started Canning?
If you’re just getting started canning, but plan on making canning and preserving food part of your lifestyle long term, try investing in an online canning course. Pioneering today has a canning with confidence course that takes you through the ins and outs of canning from basic canning safety all the way through to pressure canning meat at home. The course covers:
- Canning Safety – Safe techniques to for home canning
- Water Bath Canning – Jams, jellies, pickles, tomatoes, and other high acid fruits and vegetables including low sugar, no pectin variations.
- Pressure Canning – How to safely operate a pressure canner at home to can almost any type of food for long-term preservation
- Troubleshooting and Storage – Figuring out why a recipe just didn’t work, and maximizing storage of your home canned goods.
Take a look at Canning with Confidence if you’re planning on investing heavily in long-term home food preservation.
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
Billy
This looks so delicious! Thank you for sharing your recipe. I want to start pickling peppers more – the only things I’ve really stuck to are pickles, onions and carrots. I think throwing in peppers adds at the very least a great variety of color to dishes when used as a side dish or condiment. Super excited to try this at home. Thanks again for sharing!
Jennifer
I have never thought of pickling sweet peppers before! I will have to try this recipe out.
Marcyann
You should warn people to wear plastic food grade gloves while working with hot spicy peppers. I found out the hard way when my husband failed to mark a highly hot pepper in the garden…I thought it was sweet–not!
My hands burned for 2 days until I got some Aloe Vera on them. Still remember that burning. Yuk!
Prairie Pat
I second that! I may be particularly sensitive, but this happened to me a few years ago slicing about fifty sweet peppers for freezing. My fingers felt like they were on fire for several days and nothing helped but lidocaine. It didn’t feel like my fingers were being burned while I was prepping things, but afterwards, I was miserable.
Kevin Maher
Yea? tonight I was outside with some garlic rosemary bread, cheese, balsamic vinegar, and salt. I picked a tomato and a pepper and had a snack. the first bite if the pepper was just wonderful, the second slice was one of the hottest peppers I ever tasted. Wow. a few minutes later, a bug flew into my eyeball, and I wiped it away. With the hand I touched the pepper with. I thought I was blind for life. Boy did that suck.
Michelle
Do you think this would work with banana peppers? You have great articles- I am constantly using them here at home.
Admin
Thank you! Yes, you can use banana peppers instead.
Betty
Notice some have pics look like they may have onions on top? Can onions be added as well?
Admin
Sure thing!
Veronica
When your done with the canning of the peppers how long can they stay on your self ? First time canning peppers
Ashley Adamant
They should maintain quality for about a year. In a technical sense, they’ll “keep” (as in not spoil) for much longer than that, but after a year they start to go downhill quality wise.
Brandi Lins
How long do we let the peppers & veggies sit before we can eat? Thank you.
Ashley Adamant
I’d say at least a week for the best flavor, but two would be better. You can eat them right away, but they won’t taste all the way pickled.
Linda Merrill
You state you like to use strips of peppers, but the recipe calls for diced? Is it safe to use the same recipe for strips of sweet bell peppers.?
Ashley Adamant
Strips or diced, either is fine. Similarly, you can use either sweet or hot peppers.
Nancy
Can a sprig of dill be added to each jar? (planted dill a number of times meaning I still have some to use.
Admin
Oh, for sure! A touch of dill would be delightful in this recipe!
Robin
My grandma and mom always canned bell peppers by stuffing jars then adding the boiling liquid on top of the peppers, garlic, dill and I know it’s strange but they added one anchovy. These were the only thing outside of Applebutter that they didn’t place in a water bath. I want to try the Peppers but not sure now of the correct process.
Administrator
If you follow the instructions here and process them in a water bath, you should be good to go. Adding hot foods to jars will often seal the lids but this doesn’t mean that they have been safely processed.
Anna
Are the peppers Crisp or are they soft
My aunt always pickled peppers and they were nice and crisp but I think she never put the in the water bath
Thank you
Ashley Adamant
If you want them really crisp you’ll need to make them as a refrigerator pickle (rather than canning).
Craig
And how do you do that, a refidgorster pickle?
I to like a crisp, and crunch to all my pickles. Not mushy pickles here😊……..
Administrator
You would just put them straight in the refrigerator rather than canning them.
Craig
Have you ever pickled saugages? Or pepperonis?
As I would to make these…..
Administrator
I have not personally tried pickling sausage or pepperoni.
Amanda
I have made this recipe 10 plus times! The peppers are addicting! I like to sprinkle a little bit of chopped up habanero to spice them up slightly! Thank you!
Administrator
That’s great! So glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Jordan
Can you use only hot peppers? New to canning, but have been reading the the Ball blue book guide to preserving. I was reading generally you can sub peppers as long as you don’t add more or less so just wanted to clarify to make sure I can do pickled peppers that will have serrano, jalapeño, poblano, and mexibell peppers.
Ashley Adamant
All types of peppers are fine for this recipe, hot or sweet. You can sub hot peppers for sweet peppers, and the other way around too. Just don’t substitute them for other ingredients (ie. don’t use peppers in place of onions, etc).
Mary
Hello, I want to add garlic and oregano. Do I add it raw to the peppers or put it in the brine and boil? Thanks, Mary
Administrator
Pickling spices are typically added into the jars before filling.
Dianna
Can you fire roast or char bell peppers and then pickle them using a water bath method? I have a pressure cooker but it is not acceptable for canning by the powers that be (I checked). Therefore, I am left with a water bath method for canning. I would love a pickled version for my needs but don’t know if I can char them first and remove some of the burnt skin.
Administrator
Yes, you can definitely roast and peel the peppers before pickling and canning.
Jean Strickland
Think dairy when dealing with hot peppers. Coat your fingers or whatever is burning with milk, yogurt or sour cream and leave on for a few minutes. I’ve even splashed milk in my eyes after rubbing them with my fingers while dealing with the peppers. Pain stops very quickly and is much more effective that water or soap and water.
Esi Ann
Hi 🙂 So excited to find your website! I am using pint sized jars. How long would I water bath them? Have only done 1/2 pints before. Thank you!!!
Administrator
Pints and half-pints are processed for the same amount of time.
Lorena Bertrand
I have always used white vinegar, but recipe calls for apple cider vinegar. Can white be used?
Administrator
Yes, white vinegar is fine.