So You Need a Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe
You definitely came to the right place, because this page is going to give you more than just a habanero hot sauce recipe.
The recipe is below for the impatient, but if you don’t read this whole thing you’ll be robbing yourself of some hard earned hot sauce knowledge that I’m giving for free.
It’s going to give you knowledge that you can use to create any habanero hot sauce, or any hot sauce, of many kinds.
It’s designed to make you not so afraid of the kitchen and actually give in to experimentation and discovery!
Every time I post the things that I experiment with to various social media and online discussion venues, the predictable barrage of “Recipe?”, or “Can I have a recipe?” are hurled by various people. There’s nothing wrong with that, but what it did was make me wonder what is it that makes so many people dependent on the actual recipe.
Let me explain.
Everyone looks for recipes.
Actually, I’m no exception.
A recipe is a quick measurable formula that you can use to make something that someone else had invented or tweaked and it’s a great way to quickly get a formula and plan to create what they created on your own.
My whole little peeve about recipes isn’t about recipes themselves, since I am going to give you somewhat of that below, but it’s when people totally rely on them.
Good food and kitchen prowess was born of experimentation, not just slavishly following a recipe that someone else created.
I want you to open your mind and your kitchen to the endless possibilities that await when you let go of formulas just a little bit and begin to experiment and discover things for yourself.
The Object of the Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe
First off, you should learn something about the habanero pepper that is the center of this recipe that you want. How can you make a recipe about something you may not know enough about. I wrote an article about habaneros so go read that and then come back to this.
This is a very hot pepper and you have to know what you’re getting into when making a sauce based around such a searingly hot pod.
The other object here is to decide what kind of habanero hot sauce that you want. Not all sauces are created equal or are even the same type. If you think that all hot sauce is is some hot sauce, you’re sadly misinformed.
The big differences are basically how hot you want the sauce, since you can kind of control the overall heat level by controlling hwo much habanero that you use, and also do you want a traditional salty sour sauce or a sweet fruity sauce as your base.
This is important since the kind of food that you are using it on will be experienced in a totally different way based on these two crucial criteria.
So, don’t ignore the criteria, man!
While hot sauce can be used equally well on vegetarian or carnivorous cuisine, it’s the meat based dishes that are slathered with the stuff most often in places like the United States and other Western nations. The meats most spiced up would be pork, poultry, and also fish.
You have to decide what you want the sauce to taste like before the heat is added. Do you want a brown sweet barbecue type of sauce, or a tropical fruity type of sauce to make a Pacific islands type of pork or fish recipe shine, or maybe you want the traditional salty sour hot sauce for your morning eggs… It’s ALL up to you.
Another thing is that when you are in the kitchen, don’t be afraid to experiment. You can always turn the heat off the main recipe, scoop some out into a smaller pot, and throw in some other flavors to see what happens before taking that step with your main recipe. Likewise, if it’s a disaster, you haven’t messed up your big batch with the mother of all mistakes.
These recipes as written will produce a pretty good habanero hot sauce, but through tweaking and experimentation you can make them unique and better for YOU.
Equipment:
You’ll need a medium-large pot, a ladle, a large stirring spoon, a strong food processor or blender, and jars and another pot for sterilization boiling if you want to preserve the rest. Latex or other gloves so that hot pepper stuff doesn’t permeate your skin, and do not touch your eyes.
When cooking hot sauces you will want fan on and maybe windows open to avoid turning your indoors into a tear gas test site.
The Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe (s)
I’m going to give you a few and you can tweak then till your heart’s content.
Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe #1 – Barbecue
When I mentioned meats above, I left out beef. Well, with this recipe you can use it as a spicy BBQ sauce or just dip the morsels into the sauce at the table, your choice.
This recipe used sugar, but you can always switch to a sweetener like one of the artificial ones or the natural plant based non sugar sweetener called Stevia. It won’t give the darker color of the dark brown sugar, but you can perhaps use something like soy or Worcestershire sauce for that. You’ll have to experiment with the amount since these other sweeteners don’t always match sugar exactly. and too much Stevia can be bitter. Go by the guide on the box.
Ingredients:
1/2 lb green bell peppers
1 cup of chipotle powder (chipotle is a smoked jalapeno and you can buy it ground up. If you can’t find, then get some liquid smoke and just smoke up the recipe with that. The chipotle powder will also add heat, but since we’re using habanero in this it’s not like the chipotle heat matters ALL that much anyway)
1 clove garlic
10 habanero peppers
4 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon onion powder
Cut up the bell and habanero peppers. Wear gloves for the hot ones. Put the produce and vinegar in a strong food processor or a fast liquefying blender and blend until as smooth as you can get it.
Place the blended ingredients in the pot and start the heat on low.
Stir in the brown sugar, salt, and chipotle powder. (this is where you substitute the Stevia, other sweetener and add some soy or Worcestershire sauce if you can’t use chipotle)
Stir often as you bring it up to a low boil/simmer. Put the lid on and keep tabs on it.
Your sauce should have a brownish tint to it from the mixing of the green peppers and the brownish chipotle powder or other substitutes and the brown sugar.
You will want to taste it and see if the sweet/sour balance is there for you. This is where you can tweak to your taste. Your taste and mine are different and this is where you learn to not become completely dependent on any recipe.
Once the blended mixture is all combined and simmered for about a half hour, let it cool a bit and transfer it to the blender again for a very well blending and then back int he pot for another 15-20 minute simmer. It’ll be real smooth this way.
This sauce will be a sweet and tangy hot barbecue sauce which is perfect on beef or pork that is grilled or barbecued.
Habanero Hot sauce Recipe #2 – Tropical Variants
This is a sweet hot sauce that will be great for things like tropical or Hawaiian pork, or fish tacos. It’s great for poultry dishes too.
Pick your tropical fruit combo:
Ripe Sweet mangoes
Ripe Sweet papaya
Ripe sweet pineapple
You can use only one or you can mix them. For mixing I would say that you can mix the mango and pineapple quite effectively. I have made mango only and mango pineapple hot sauce to great fanfare. Papaya is great by itself or mix in some guava if you really like tropical flavors.
For ratios, for a decent batch, I would say to use a whole peeled pineapple and 10 peeled pitted mangoes, and half that for a smaller more mangeable batch. I will use the large batch below so if you cut in half, but all ingredients in half. Again, taste when in the works so you can adjust to your personal taste and consistency.
Fruit Base [Insert your Fruit/combo here – the equivalent of 20 peeled pitted mangoes, or 10 mangoes and one pineapple, or three papaya, or 2 papaya and 5 guavas]
5-10 habanero peppers – gauge for your heat tolerance. Remember, you can start with one and then when cooking taste it and you can scale up by blending more and adding them later. It’s up to you.
2 cups dark brown sugar (you can substitute the equivalent non sugar sweetener if you really want. Just use the equivalent to this many cups of sugar)
2 tablespoons powdered citric acid (you can get this in the canning/preserving section of stores like Walmart) It’s a natural perservative that is great when you aren’t using vinegar. It can add a pleasant sourness but if you use too much it can make things too tart.
1 clove garlic (remember, this is a hot sauce, not a fruit preserve)
Blend up the produce in a blender or fruit processor and blend it up really well.
Transfer to a pot and get it to a simmer.
Stir in the sugar and citric acid.
Simmer for about a half hour to 45 minutes with lit on but ajar to let steam out.
Turn off heat and let cool a bit.
Blend it all again really well. Once it’s cooked a bit the fibers break down and you can blend it smoother.
Transfer back to the pot and simmer low with lid on ajar for about 20 minutes.
Again, taste it and if the sweet to tart balance is great then great. If not you can always stir in some more sugar in 1/2 cup increments and taste it to make it sweeter or add a little more citric acid in 1 teaspoon increments to make it more tart, or both. There are no wrong answers here if it’s pleasing to your taste.
If you want to jar/can the excess, then you have to have it at boiling temperature as you ladle/funnel it into boiled jars/lids and then boil the sealed jars in another pot of hot water. This bears repeating and this is not a canning tutorial since you can learn that elsewhere.
Habanero Hot sauce Recipe #3 – Sour Sauce
This is the basic hot sauce that many people think of when they think of hot sauce. It’s a sour salty sauce that you can use on anything from eggs to fried chicken wings.
5-10 red/orange habanero peppers1 pound red bell peppers (red because the green ones have a diff’t flavor and they will mess up the color)2 large garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1/2 cup white or apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons tomato paste
4 tablespoons honey (if you don’t like honey, use 4 tablespoons of dark brown sugar)
2 tablespoons of kosher saltSame deal here. Cut up and grind/blend the produce & vinegar in a food processor or high speed blender.
Transfer to pot and bring to a boil then a simmer and stir in the other ingredients.
Simmer with lid ajar for about a half hour.
Turn off heat and let cool a bit.
Blend again to make smooth.
Back in the pot to simmer for another 1/2 hour.
Taste and adjust as above, or use as is.
There you go. Three types of habanero hot sauce for the price of one (really none since I’m not charging for it.
Again, these recipes are meant as a starting point and you are encouraged to alter and tweak them to your liking!
Always open the windows and put the fans on when cooking with hot peppers. Some people may have to wear eye goggles to protect from the airborne burn.
Write your experiences below and share this out to your social networks via the share buttons.
Until next time…
Looney Foodie out.
