For me, hot sauce conjures up street tacos, ice-cold Coronas with lime, and a hint of a runny nose. Maybe a tear or two. You don’t have to make this from the hottest chiles you can find. But if you do, don’t say I didn’t warn you! I figure if I’m going to make it, I might as well make it hot.
Just a drop or two is enough for me, but The Hubs goes full-tilt bottle on this stuff. He recently referreed a hot wings eating contest at work, with the guys competing in a doofusly Man vs. Food kind of way. One of the contestants said that this sauce was hotter than anything he’d ever eaten. So there.
I adapted this recipe from Martha Stewart Living magazine.
Suitable for:
vegan, gluten-free, low-sodium, reduced-sugar diets
Not for:
migraine diets
What do you like hot sauce on? How hot can you stand it?
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How to make wicked hot sauce
Ingredients
- 8 hot chiles (Habañero or similar)
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp agave syrup honey, brown rice syrup
- 1 tsp sea salt (omit for low-sodium diets)
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Wearing gloves, wash the chiles and remove the stems. I leave the seeds and ribs in for maximum hotness. If you want less heat, remove the ribs and seeds and use less spicy peppers, like cayennes.
- Put everything into a non-aluminum pot (aluminum or copper will react to the acid and make it taste terrible and metallic). Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer.
- Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring a few times, until everything is tender. Let it cool.
- Put in a blender and blend until super-smooth.
- Pour into a freshly washed glass bottle and refrigerate. Lasts about six months.
Notes
- 20 calories
- 0 g fat
- 0 g saturated fat
- 0 g monounsaturated fat
- 0 g polyunsaturated fat
- 0 g trans fat
- 0 g cholesterol
- 281 mg sodium (0 mg sodium with salt omitted)
- 10 mg potassium
- 5 g carbohydrate
- 0 g fiber
- 1 g sugars
- 1 g protein
- 3 Weight Watchers Points Plus
Thanks for sharing this link with me! If I can find the right kind of peppers I might have to make a batch :) I love that it’s full of only clean ingredients!
You are welcome. I was so surprised to learn that white (distilled) vinegar is made from GMO corn. It got me on the road to making my own condiments.
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I just tried this recipe last night, and after simmering for about 15 minutes, it had all reduced to probably less than 1/4 cup of ingredients. I tried blending it then, but there wasn’t enough liquid to allow it to get smooth. I’ll probably just put the mixture in some other hot sauce I’ve already made, but I wonder if you have any ideas for me to try OR avoid the next time?
First of all, thank you for trying my recipe AND for letting me know you had a problem! I have never had that problem before. I have two suggestions. First, bring it just to a boil and then turn it down to low. I think your “simmer” was much higher than my “simmer.” Second, put a lid on the pot next time to keep the moisture from evaporating. Good luck next time and keep me posted!
Do you think that it ALL must cook together? I’m thinking of saute-ing the garlic and peppers together until tender. Then warming up the vinegar, salt, and honey so that they will be well mixed. Then putting those two into the blender until smooth.
Jeff, it does help the peppers to cook in the vinegar, but you can feel free to try variations and report back!
This looks easy enough, and I love hot sauce. I will definitely give this a try. I may even share some with my dad.
If people had any idea how easy most condiments are to make, the food companies might go out of business!
You are one brave cook – but I already knew that ;) It’s a little too spicy for me, but maybe without the seeds I could try it.
Try it with one or two cayenne and a bell pepper then. You can adjust the heat to your taste!
I’ve been wanting to make habanero hot sauce since having some homemade sauce in San Diego last year… That one also had carrots in it, so I’m going to try to adapt your recipe a bit.
Thanks for sharing it!
Love the idea of adding carrots. You know I’m the queen of recipe adaptation, so go for it and let me know how it turns out!
I LOVE hot sauce! Thanks for sharing this recipe. I’m definitely going to try making it :)
Shannon, if you try it, I would love to know what you used it in or on. Thanks for commenting!
I tried the recipe with banana peppers, habaneros, and a jalapeno and it turned out really spicy and really good. I’m thinking next time (there will be one) that I will roast the peppers first for more flavor then continue with the recipe and that would be really fun. Thanks for sharing a great recipe!
Shannon, that’s great to hear. So glad you liked it and I love the way you renovated it. I agree, roasting the peppers would add another layer of deep flavor.