How to Make Pickled Jalapeños
Are you growing jalapeños? Here’s how to make pickled jalapeños – it’s so easy!
This year, we planted quite a few peppers and tomatoes, all in two rows. Sadly, one of those rows, not more than six feet from the second one, shriveled up and died.
But fortunately, the jalapeño plants were all in the row that thrived.
Which means most of our pepper picking has been jalapeños, so we’ve been making our own chipotle peppers, and pickled jalapeños. Between the two, we should have no problem adding a little heat and flavor to our dishes this winter!
One of the things I love about pickling is that it’s such an easy way to preserve small batches of produce.
For instance, if you have just a few plants, you may have enough peppers to pickle a pint or two at a time, and you can do that in just a few minutes. In fact, last year, I did exactly that, making my pickled jalapeños 2 half-pint jars at a time, while the bulk of my pickling went into larger, more involved batches of old-fashioned bread and butter pickles with the enormous amount of cucumbers we had growing.
For those batches, I split the recipe below into quarters: 3/4 cup vinegar, 3/4 cup water, and 1 tablespoon of salt. After packing the sliced peppers into the jars, I poured the nearly boiling brine over them, screwed lids on, and turned them over to sterilize the lids for a few minutes before flipping them right side up and letting them cool and seal.
Anybody can pickle. All you need is a vegetable, vinegar, salt, and jars.
Red or green pickled jalapeños
You’ll see in my jars that some of my peppers are red, and some are green. Red jalapeños are simply ripe, whereas the green ones will turn redder the longer they hang on the plant, or sit on your countertop.
I think the red and green mix is pretty! But it’s just a matter of personal preference – you can pickle either.
PrintHow to Make Pickled Jalapeños
Do you love all things pickled? Then you’ll love these pickled jalapenos! Red or green, they’re all super delicious!
Ingredients
- Jalapeños – about 2 lbs
- 3 cups water
- 3 cups white vinegar
- 1/4 cup salt
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed (optional)
Instructions
- In a sauce pan, bring water, vinegar, salt, and garlic to a boil
- While it’s heating, slice jalapeños
- Pack slices jalapeños into clean canning jars – I like to use half pint jars since we don’t use many pickles at a time
- Pour nearly boiling brine over jalapeño slices to fill the jar, leaving 1/4-1/2 inch of headspace
- Fit clean lids and rings onto jars, screwing ring down tightly
- Flip jars over for two minutes to sterilize top of jar
- Turn right side up and allow to cool completely and seal. This type of canning is recommended only for short-term storage, or keeping refrigerated, so…
Water bath canning for long-term storage
- Follow steps one through 5 above
- Fill water bath canner with hot water (your canner water needs to be nearly the same temperature as the brine in your jars)
- Fit with canning insert to keep jars off of the bottom/heat source of your pot
- Add jars of jalapeño pickles, being sure they do not touch each other or the sides of the canner
- Be sure that water covers jars by at least an inch
- cover and bring to a rolling boil
- Boil 15 minutes
- Remove from heat and allow to cool completely if possible before opening
- Store in your pantry
Enjoy!
Luv your recipes!
I love how you made pickling jalapeños sound like a fun little science experiment—boiling brine, flipping jars, and all! I’m definitely giving this a shot, especially since my jalapeño plants are behaving like divas and only producing a handful. Plus, the idea of mixing red and green jalapeños just to make my jars look like a spicy traffic light? Genius move. Thanks for the easy-to-follow guide—my kitchen is about to get a whole lot zestier!
I’m officially obsessed with the idea of pickling jalapeños in half-pint jars—perfect size for when I want just a little spicy kick without turning my whole fridge into a jalapeño jungle! Also, flipping the jars to sterilize the lids? Genius move. I might start pickling everything just to practice that fancy jar-flip trick. Thanks for making me feel like a canning ninja!