Oh, these pack a wallop. They are super hot, super sweet, and super delicious. A little goes a loooooong way. A really long way. We will be eating these for years.
My favorite preparation of these little babies is finely diced, mixed with cream cheese, and spread on a cracker, which you can see above. I needed just a couple tablespoons of the candied jalapenos plus a little bit of the liquid from the jar to 8 ounces of softened cream cheese. So good.
This recipe is adapted from Sydney’s Kitchen.
What You Need
- 3 lb fresh, firm jalapeno peppers, washed
- 2 c cider vinegar
- 6 c sugar
- 1/2 t turmeric
- 1/2 t celery seed
- 3 t granulated garlic
- 1 t ground cayenne pepper
What You Do
Wear gloves when you handle the jalapenos! Even if you think, “I’ve sliced jalapenos before without gloves and I was fine,” put on gloves. Three pounds of jalapenos is a lot of jalapenos. Wear the gloves!
Slice the stems off of the peppers and discard. Slice the peppers into rounds about 1/8 inch thick.
In a large pot, combine the cider vinegar, sugar, turmeric, celery seed, garlic, and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the jalapeno rounds and simmer for 4 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer the jalapenos (not the liquid) to clean, sterile canning jars. Fill the jars, leaving 1/4 inch of space from the top of the jar.
Increase the heat and bring the liquid in the pot to a hard boil. Boil for 6 minutes.
Ladle the boiling syrup into the jars with the jalapeno slices so the contents of the jar reach 1/4 inch from the top of the jar. Release any trapped air in the jars by sticking a chopstick or wooden skewer into the jar a couple of times. Add additional liquid if necessary. I had more syrup than I needed for the jalapenos, so I filled a couple of jars with just syrup. I had 6 half-pint jars of jalapenos and 2 half-pint jars of syrup when all was said and done.
Wipe the rims of the jars with a damp paper towel and close the jars with two-piece lids.
Put the jars in a canner and add enough water to cover the jars by two inches. Bring the water to a hard boil. Boil the jars for 10 minutes if you are using half-pint jars (15 minutes if using pints). At the end of the boiling time, remove the jars from the canner and transfer to a cooling rack. Let the jars cool for 24 hours without moving or disturbing the jars.
Store the jars for a month before eating.
Yum! I remember seeing something like this on the Pioneer Woman’s blog too . . .
I was intrigued by the addition of the turmeric . . . I’ve never thought to pair jalapeños and turmeric together before . . .