If you’re a home veggie gardener or just a farmer’s market fanatic, you’ll understand the dilemma that happens when you have too many hot peppers on your hands. This honestly happens to me almost every year because it’s only the two of us and there are only so many hot peppers we can consume in the course of a season. So, when autumn rolls around and we are inundated with hot peppers, my go-to solution is to make homemade hot sauce.

Why homemade hot sauce? Because we truly enjoy a great hot sauce and there are not many things easier or quicker to make. I love playing around with making hot sauces with different varieties of hot peppers and if you’d like to check out one of my other hot sauce recipes, this one has a little bit of sweetness added to it. Making homemade hot sauce isn’t just about the heat but bringing in the right mixture of heat, flavor, and texture. Also, one hot sauce recipe isn’t going to cover all of your hot sauce needs so it’s good to have a few different recipes in your arsenal.

This summer I grew Black Hungarian Peppers and Orange Jalapenos that I grew from seeds I purchased last fall from Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seed Company. As the summer comes to an end here in Northern Illinois, I’m once again blessed with a plethora of hot peppers and all I had to do was take a good look at them to know that they were going to make an amazing homemade hot sauce; I mean look at all of those colors!

Easy Homemade Black Hungarian Pepper and Orange Jalapeno Hot Sauce Recipe

• 1 3/4 lb. hot peppers (about 40 medium peppers) For this sauce I used 28 black Hungarian peppers that had turned red, 2 black Hungarian peppers, and 10 orange jalapenos.
• 4 large cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 cups white vinegar

Directions

• Cut the stems off of the peppers and discard.
• Cut peppers in half lengthwise.
• Add peppers (and any seeds), garlic, salt, and vinegar to a medium-size saucepan. The vinegar should NOT fully cover the peppers at this point, which is good – you want the end result to be a thick hot sauce.
• Bring mixture to a boil, reduce to a rolling simmer, and cook for about 40-50 minutes, stirring and smooshing the peppers occasionally, until the peppers are fully softened. It’s a good idea to turn on the vent over your stove while these are cooking, as the fumes tend to be a bit intense.
• Remove from heat and let cool (to speed up the cooling process, fill a sink with a few inches of cold water, toss in a dozen ice cubes, then set the pan inside the ice water).
• Once cool, use a ladle to transfer the peppers and liquid to a food processor (or blender) and puree for a few minutes until fully smooth and blended.
• Place a fine-mesh sieve over a glass or stainless bowl (this will stain plastic-ware) and pour the mixture in, straining and pushing the liquid through the sieve with a spatula or flat spoon.
• Pour the strained hot sauce into a glass bottle or jar and refrigerate until ready to use.

This makes an absolutely beautiful thick and tasty hot sauce, If you feel that your mixture is still too thin after cooking and straining, return the mixture to a pan and simmer until thickened to your desired consistency. This was plenty thick for me and that’s why you don’t want too much vinegar when you start.

Easy homemade hot sauce in under an hour? You betcha! Now you know just how easy it can be. The mixture of these peppers is perfect; they bring an intense heat combined with a real depth of flavor that will be great on chicken wings, pizza, drizzled into a noodle bowl, and more.

You really can customize this hot sauce to the type of peppers you prefer or have on hand. And if you want to make this a sweet heat hot sauce, substitute a carrot for a few of the peppers before cooking. Easy, right?

Never, ever be afraid to play with your food. Enjoy!