Easy Hot Pepper Jelly Recipe • foolproof! (2024)

everyone needs a great hot pepper jelly recipe ~ and this one is so easy!

I’m excited about this recipe because it was truly easy and it turned out so well. And come on, you can’t start out the upcoming appetizer season without a good hot pepper jelly recipe. Paired with soft goat or cream cheese and crackers it’s an epic experience. It draws people in like a flies, and causes normally discreet friends and family to shovel, gorge, and wolf. All conversation stops until the plate is licked clean. It’s not pretty, but it is delicious.

hot pepper jelly doesn’t have to be complicated

If you already know and love hot pepper jellies and jams I think you’ll be excited about this one too. I’ve kept the steps to an absolute minimum.. Maybe it’s just me, but the directions that come in those pectin boxes drive me crazy. They are so convoluted and there are so many charts! I bypassed all the charts, and I’m giving you a quick way to get hot pepper jelly into your belly asap. 🙂 And then you can customize it to whatever hot and sweet peppers you have on hand. If you’re the canning type, can up a bunch of it, it will make fantastic holiday gifts. I made enough to last in the fridge for a few weeks of gorging.

I love peppers of all kinds!

I’ve blathered on about my love of peppers before, so I’ll keep it short. I just think they are not only beautiful, but so versatile. Mid to late summer is the best time to find them at farmer’s markets, but of course you can get them year round in the supermarket. I go crazy picking out a rainbow of colors. For this jelly I used a handful of jalapenos for the heat, and an assortment of bell peppers for sweetness and color. All it takes is a few pulses of the food processor to get them finely minced.

the peppers stay colorful and crunchy in my hot pepper jelly recipe

What I love most about this recipe is that there’s no long cooking of the peppers. I just bring the pot to a boil, stir in the pectin, and let it cook for 1 minute. That’s it. All the recipes I researched cooked the peppers for a full 10 minutes before adding the pectin. I took a chance and sidestepped all that. It was perfect. And this way the peppers stay fresh and bright.

what you’ll need

• 8jalapeño peppers
• 12ozassorted colorful bell peppers,weighed after trimming
• 2cupswhite vinegar (or cider vinegar)
• 3cupssugar
• 1.75ouncebox no sugar needed pectin

working with jalapeños

Jalapeños are not all created equal. Some jalapeños are hot, some are not so much. There’s no real way to tell until you taste. But since the whole point of hot pepper jelly is the heat, I suggest erring on the more is better side. For some serious heat you can substitute habanero or Serrano peppers.

• The heat in jalapeños peppers is concentrated in the seeds and inner ‘ribs’. Keep them for a hotter result, and for a milder jelly, remove them and just use the green flesh.
• Jalapeños get hotter as they get older, so the smoother and glossier the pepper is, the milder it will tend to be. If the pepper is striated (has fine white lines on it) and slightly wrinkled, expect more heat.
• To test the heat of your peppers, slice one open and touch the tip of your tongue to the exposed area.
• After working with hot peppers, be sure to wash your hands well; the spicy oils can burn if you touch your hands to sensitive areas like your eyes or nose.

tips for making my easy hot pepper jelly recipe

• IMPORTANT — Make sure you buy the right pectin for this, I used this one which is specifically for lower sugar jams and jellies. It really does make a difference is how reliably this recipe ‘jells’.

• Use any color sweet peppers you like, all red, all green, or all yellow make a pretty hot pepper jelly, too.
• If you really like it hot, use Serrano or Habanero peppers in place of the jalapeños.
• This recipe is formulated as a small batch recipe, I haven’t measured the ph to insure that it’s safe to can.
• For longer storage you can freeze your jelly. For freezing, be sure you leave some empty space at the top when filling your jars to allow to expansion in the freezer.

Easy Hot Pepper Jelly Recipe

This easy small batch refrigerator recipe makes use of both sweet and hot peppers for a colorful, confetti-like look and and an intense spicy kick. It's going to be your new favorite appetizer!

Nutrition

Serving: 1 Tbsp · Calories: 42 kcal · Carbohydrates: 10 g · Protein: 0.1 g · Fat: 0.1 g · Saturated Fat: 0.01 g · Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.01 g · Monounsaturated Fat: 0.001 g · Sodium: 2 mg · Potassium: 16 mg · Fiber: 0.2 g · Sugar: 10 g · Vitamin A: 185 IU · Vitamin C: 9 mg · Calcium: 1 mg · Iron: 0.1 mg

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although The View from Great Island attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.

Did You Make This?We love seeing what you’ve made! Tag us on social media at @theviewfromgreatisland for a chance to be featured.