“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.
Can lime juice be used instead of vinegar for the acidity? If so, do I use the same amount of lime juice as vinagar? I have a high producing lime tree this year.
Yes, you can use your fresh lime juice. You’d use the same amount.
I’m a wimp when it comes to spicy food but this recipe is DELICIOUS!! I tried it over cream cheese and I couldn’t stop eating it. It was super spicy (left all seeds & membrane) but I think the cream cheese helped with the heat. I’ve already canned 3 batches. Thanks for the delicious and SUPER easy recipe.
It really IS addictive!
Just tried this recipe for the first time tonight. Cut up the bell peppers by hand, so they are a little “dicey,” as it were. I cut back on the amount of jalapeños and added about a 1/2 Tbsp. Of peri-peri sauce (an African pepper sauce I found in my local grocery store). The jelly seems plenty hot for me; I will be waiting for feedback from others when I share the jelly. I am giving it 4 stars because I don’t really know what the reactions will be to this. I may come back and amend my rating later!
I had to use Certo as Sure Jell is not available in Canada
how much did you use? I’m having a hell of a time getting mine to set, it just won’t.
Hi Sue Just made this recipe. Its a bit vinegary as I have tasted as its starting to cool. Will that dissipate?
The flavor of hot pepper jelly should be a balanced combo of sweet, hot, and acidic, so definitely has a vinegar bite to it, but that shouldn’t be overwhelming. Make sure you added the full amount of sugar, and peppers, which balance out the vinegar.
OMG this is so good. I made a triple batch using only 1 bell pepper (for color), jalapeño and Hungarian hot wax. Poured on a block of creme cheese & it was like crack. Thank you!
I can only imagine 🙂
I used your recipe to make my first jelly ever. It’s sat up just fine the way it was written. And I must say it is some damn good jelly! Thank you for breaking it down the way you did I will definitely be doing it again. I made this batch without any sweet peppers. And the heat is perfect!
I followed the recipe pretty exact but I added some banana peppers in. Also my bell peppers were kind of watery and now my jelly is not jelly it’s still liquid. I made it yesterday. What should I do? It has great smell and flavor just not the right texture.
When jelly doesn’t set you can actually put it back on the stove and add a bit more pectin, then boil again.
How long will this keep in the fridge? Both before opened and after?
I have some leftover hot peppers from making salsa already chopped. Approximately what is the quantity needed? 4 cups? 2.5 cups?
You can use approximately 1 to 1 1/2 cups hot peppers.