“Sue, I wanted to let you know I absolutely love this recipe! It’s my go-to! I’ve shared the jelly I’ve made with family and friends over the last two years and they’ve absolutely loved it. Thank you for posting this recipe!” ~Steph
everyone needs a great hot pepper jelly recipe ~ and this one is so easy!
I’m excited about this recipe because it was truly easy and it turned out so well. And come on, you can’t start out the upcoming appetizer season without a good hot pepper jelly recipe. Paired with soft goat or cream cheese and crackers it’s an epic experience. It draws people in like a flies, and causes normally discreet friends and family to shovel, gorge, and wolf. All conversation stops until the plate is licked clean. It’s not pretty, but it is delicious.
hot pepper jelly doesn’t have to be complicated
If you already know and love hot pepper jellies and jams I think you’ll be excited about this one too. I’ve kept the steps to an absolute minimum.. Maybe it’s just me, but the directions that come in those pectin boxes drive me crazy. They are so convoluted and there are so many charts! I bypassed all the charts, and I’m giving you a quick way to get hot pepper jelly into your belly asap. 🙂 And then you can customize it to whatever hot and sweet peppers you have on hand. If you’re the canning type, can up a bunch of it, it will make fantastic holiday gifts. I made enough to last in the fridge for a few weeks of gorging.
I love peppers of all kinds!
I’ve blathered on about my love of peppers before, so I’ll keep it short. I just think they are not only beautiful, but so versatile. Mid to late summer is the best time to find them at farmer’s markets, but of course you can get them year round in the supermarket. I go crazy picking out a rainbow of colors. For this jelly I used a handful of jalapenos for the heat, and an assortment of bell peppers for sweetness and color. All it takes is a few pulses of the food processor to get them finely minced.
the peppers stay colorful and crunchy in my hot pepper jelly recipe
What I love most about this recipe is that there’s no long cooking of the peppers. I just bring the pot to a boil, stir in the pectin, and let it cook for 1 minute. That’s it. All the recipes I researched cooked the peppers for a full 10 minutes before adding the pectin. I took a chance and sidestepped all that. It was perfect. And this way the peppers stay fresh and bright.
what you’ll need
- 8 jalapeño peppers
- 12 oz assorted colorful bell peppers, weighed after trimming
- 2 cups white vinegar (or cider vinegar)
- 3 cups sugar
- 1.75 ounce box no sugar needed pectin
working with jalapeños
Jalapeños are not all created equal. Some jalapeños are hot, some are not so much. There’s no real way to tell until you taste. But since the whole point of hot pepper jelly is the heat, I suggest erring on the more is better side. For some serious heat you can substitute habanero or Serrano peppers.
- The heat in jalapeños peppers is concentrated in the seeds and inner ‘ribs’. Keep them for a hotter result, and for a milder jelly, remove them and just use the green flesh.
- Jalapeños get hotter as they get older, so the smoother and glossier the pepper is, the milder it will tend to be. If the pepper is striated (has fine white lines on it) and slightly wrinkled, expect more heat.
- To test the heat of your peppers, slice one open and touch the tip of your tongue to the exposed area.
- After working with hot peppers, be sure to wash your hands well; the spicy oils can burn if you touch your hands to sensitive areas like your eyes or nose.
tips for making my easy hot pepper jelly recipe
- IMPORTANT — Make sure you buy the right pectin for this, I used this one which is specifically for lower sugar jams and jellies. It really does make a difference is how reliably this recipe ‘jells’.
- Use any color sweet peppers you like, all red, all green, or all yellow make a pretty hot pepper jelly, too.
- If you really like it hot, use Serrano or Habanero peppers in place of the jalapeños.
- This recipe is formulated as a small batch recipe, I haven’t measured the ph to insure that it’s safe to can.
- For longer storage you can freeze your jelly. For freezing, be sure you leave some empty space at the top when filling your jars to allow to expansion in the freezer.
Easy Hot Pepper Jelly Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 jalapeño peppers
- 12 oz assorted colorful bell peppers, weighed after trimming
- 2 cups white vinegar (or cider vinegar)
- 3 cups sugar
- 1.75 ounce box no sugar needed pectin
Instructions
- Wash the jalapenos and trim the stem end off. Remove the seeds if you want a milder jelly. I recommend using the whole peppers, seeds and all. Give them a rough chop and then pulse them in the food processor until they are finely minced. Be careful, the fumes will be strong, and make sure to wash your hands well after working with hot peppers. Put the peppers into a heavy bottomed pot.
- Wash and trim the bell peppers, and remove the inner ribs and seeds. Give them a rough chop and pulse them in a food processor until finely minced. You may want to do this in batches, because I find you get a more even chop if you don’t crowd the bowl. Add the bell peppers to the pot with the jalapenos.
- Add the vinegar and sugar to the pot and stir to combine. Bring the pot up to a boil, and then add the pectin. Boil, stirring, for one minute.
- Ladle the hot liquid into clean jars and set aside to cool before capping and refrigerating.
- If your pepper bits float to the top, you can give the jelly an occasional stir as it cools to distribute them more evenly.
- When the jelly is cool, cap and refrigerate the jars. They will thicken as they cool, and even more as they chill.
- Serve with plenty of creamy goat or cream cheese, and crackers or grilled slices of baguette.
Hi , i love this recipe , i just wondered f i could add chopped fresh garlic when boiling the peppers to give it garlicky flavor with a dash of black pepper . you think it would work ?
If you’re making a refrigerator batch, meant to be eaten within a few weeks, then you can add garlic. Don’t add garlic if you’re planning to can this recipe, it may alter the ph and make it unsafe. But for short term consumption, go for it!
How would I go about freezing it?
You can freeze jelly in plastic or glass containers, or even zip lock freezer bags. Be sure to leave 1/2 inch headspace in jars to allow for expansion.
8 jalapeno peppers equal how many cups?
Sorry Dorothy I didn’t measure the peppers out in cups, but you’ll be good to go with 8, it isn’t essential to get the amount super exact.
This recipe was super easy! After chilling overnight my jelly is not as thick as I thought it would get! Is there anyway I can thicken it a little more ?
You might wait at least 48 hours, as it can sometimes take jam that long (or longer!) to fully set. But if it’s still too loose for you, you can actually reheat it and add more pectin to thicken it…first heat the jam, and add a tablespoon of pectin. Boil for another 5 to 10 minutes. You might also try the simplest method which would be to boil the jam longer until it physically thickens. Hope this helps Diane!
Probably a silly question. I just made this recipe and it’s cooling as I type this 🙂 however, I’m really worried about botulism. Is that something to be worried about with this recipe? I did not can it, just made it as directed above.
If you don’t can this recipe it should be kept in the refrigerator and eaten within a couple of weeks.
Hello Sue, I ran across your recipe for the “Super Easy Hot Pepper Jelly” this weekend. Coincidentally, I’ve got four potted jalapeño plants, that are right now, yielding so many peppers, that I don’t know what to do with them. So, good timing. I went right out and got some of the recommended “pectin”, plus three medium sized bell peppers (1 red, 1 yellow & 1 orange). And just for reference, the 3 bell peppers, after removing the cores & seeds weighed a little over 16oz, so I set some aside for my wife’s salad making, and chopped/minced up the rest (12.8 oz), along with 9-10 very fresh jalapeños.
I followed your directions to the letter, and voila, P-E-R-F-E-C-T Pepper Jelly !
Wow, that was “super easy”.
Oh, and I ended up with a bit more than the 4 cups (maybe 5), but certainly not a problem. This is really good, and it is quite pretty. Just for the heck of it, I froze one of the jars, just to see how that goes (I did not cap the jar prior to freezing, just to be safe, but capped it the next morning)
Again, excellent, and thanks for a great recipe….???
You’re so welcome Nick, your fresh peppers must have been delish!
Hello Sue,
I just got done making the jelly. As I am a ghost pepper aficionado I used 4 ghost peppers instead of the jalapenos. I like to say that it came out great. Thanks for pinning this recipe.
German
Oh wow, I’ve been too chicken to try ghost peppers, you’ve inspired me to try!
Hi Sue! Does the 12 oz of bell peppers include their stem and ribs or is it 12 oz when they come out of the processor? Many thanks, Suzanne
I weighed them after trimming, but before processing.
Hello can I add fresh fruit to this recipe ? And can I use certo liquid? Thank you
I’m not sure fresh fruit would work in this jelly Annette, and I’ve only had the best results with the dried pectin.
Annette, did you try the fresh fruit? I am here reading comments to find answers to the same questions. I have a bunch of berries to use so I was just going to substitute the bell peppers with same qty of other fruit and continue with the hot peppers. Maybe it’s in the type of pectin that makes a difference?
Hi Sue,
One way to tell if a jalapeno is hot is to look for the striations on the pepper. The more striations, the hotter the pepper. I was told this a few years ago, and it’s generally true. Generally, but perhaps not 100%.
Great to know, I’ll put that to the test!
If a pepper has striating on it, that means the pepper had uneven watering during its development on the vine.
If you don’t have a scale about how many cups of peppers will this be once chopped ? Thank you
This is a recipe from a while ago, but as a rough estimate you can use 2 good sized bell peppers.