Jalapeño-Serrano Hot Sauce Recipe

Vinegar pulls flavor and heat from green peppers in this scorching hot sauce.

Updated May 08, 2019

Although I wasn't over my hot sauce kick, I was over red peppers this week so I changed things up by going green, turning to the more common green serranos and jalapeños as heat sources.

Looking to be more traditional—by American standards at least—I used a process that's more of a pepper-vinegar infusion to create this thin, drizzly sauce that packs immense heat along with great flavor.

Puree together the peppers, garlic, salt and vinegar, then let it stand for three days and finally strain it to arrive at the final sauce. The jalapenos provided a great fruity flavor, while the serranos upped the heat factor.

So enamored with my creation, I used almost the entire batch trying to turn it into a really killer wing sauce. Unfortunately that pursuit did not turn out as well as I had hoped, but the sauce still reigned supreme as a condiment for empanadas, eggs, and just about anything else you'd want a hot sauce for.

Recipe Details

Jalapeño-Serrano Hot Sauce Recipe

Active 10 mins

Total 72 hrs

Serves 32 servings

Makes 2 cups

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Ingredients

15 medium jalapenos, roughly chopped
5 serrano chiles, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 cups distilled white vinegar

Directions

Place jalapenos, serrano chiles, garlic, and salt in the workbowl of a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. With the motor running, slowly add in vinegar through the feed tube. Process until smooth.
Transfer chile mixture in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute, remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Pour mixture in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid and let stand in a cool, dark place for 3 days.
Pour sauce through a fine mesh strainer into a medium bowl, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Pour into a clean glass jar, discarding drained solids, and store for up to 6 months in the refrigerator.

Special Equipment

Food processor

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
6	Calories
0g	Fat
1g	Carbs
0g	Protein

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 32
Amount per serving
Calories	6
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0g	0%
Saturated Fat 0g	0%
Cholesterol 0mg	0%
Sodium 237mg	10%
Total Carbohydrate 1g	0%
Dietary Fiber 0g	1%
Total Sugars 0g
Protein 0g
Vitamin C 1mg	3%
Calcium 7mg	1%
Iron 0mg	1%
Potassium 18mg	0%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.