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Jalapeño Jelly is a delicious sweet and spicy spread for toast or crackers and can even be used as a glaze or sauce on meats.
This sweet and spicy jelly is great for so many reasons – especially a topping! We love to use it to serve with cream cheese and crackers. If you love jalapeños, you’ll love our Jalapeno Poppers and Dip.
Aka hot Pepper Jelly
If you love jams and jellies, you are sure to love this Jalapeño Jelly aka Hot Pepper Jelly!
Yes, the flavor is a little different than your typical Strawberry Jam but it is so good! The sweet with the heat is addicting! It’s great for pouring over cream cheese and serving with crackers or for basting on your meats.
What is Jalapeño Jelly? This jelly is really more of a jam. It is made up of jalapeño peppers, bell peppers, lots of sugar, vinegar, and pectin. While you may be tempted to reduce the sugar, don’t. This is meant to have lots of sugar. It’s a jelly! It also helps to perfectly balance out the heat from the jalapeños.
How to Make Jalapeño Jelly?
PREP THE JALAPEŃOS: (I recommend using rubber gloves when handling) Cut off the top of the jalapenos and remove the veins and seeds from half of the jalapeños. The veins and seeds are where more of the heat comes from and I have found that the perfect balance of heat and sweet in the jam comes from leaving the seeds and veins in half of them.
PREP THE BELL PEPPERS: You can really use whatever color of bell peppers you have on hand but I like the color and taste that one green and one red gives to the jam. Remove the stems and center. You can leave the veins but I like to cut mine out. Then roughly chop into large chunks since you’ll be pulsing them in the food processor.
FINELY CHOP PEPPERS: You can do this by hand but it will take a while. I recommend pulsing the jalapeños and peppers together in a food processor or blender. Chop until fine.
DRAIN: Pour the peppers into a mesh strainer to take off excess liquid so that your jam isn’t runny.
COOK: Add the drained peppers to a large 4 quart pot along with the sugar, vinegar, and salt. Bring it to a boil and boil for 10 minutes over medium-high heat.
ADD PECTIN: Stir in the liquid pectin and boil for 1 more minute. Remove pan from heat.
How to can Jelly:
Start out with sterile equipment. You’ll need to wash the jars and lids in hot soapy water (or run them through the dish washer).
The jars need to be warm when adding the hot jelly or they could crack. To keep the jars and lids hot and sterile, place them on a rack in a pot of boiling water. When the jam is done cooking, remove the jars, draining off water, and place on a towel.
Ladle jam into the jars using a wide mouth funnel. Be sure to leave 1/4 inch space from the top of the jar so there is room for expansion.
After filling the jars, wipe the rims with a paper towel and then top with the lids. Screw on the lids using just your thumb and index finger. This will ensure that they are on but not too tight.
Place the jars back into the pot of water on the rack and bring it to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes. (Add 1 more minute for each 1000 ft elevation above 1000 ft.) Remove and place on the towel about 1 inch apart. After a few minutes you should start to hear the cans seal with a pop. Leave the jars untouched on the counter for 12 hours.
Check the seal:
To see if your can is sealed, touch the middle of the lid. If the lid springs back up when you remove your finger you do not have a seal.
To check for a proper seal, remove the the ring of the lid and lift the can up off the counter 1-2 inches while holding the edges of the lid. If the lid stays attached then you have a good seal and it can be store for 12 months in the pantry.
pepper Jelly Uses:
There are a lot of surprising ways to use this sweet and spicy jelly, believe it or not!
- Glaze your steak, pork, or salmon with it. Pretty much any meat recipe that calls for a glaze will do really well with this hot pepper jelly.
- Put it on top of vanilla ice cream.
- Use it like regular jelly and make a spicy PB&J!
- Put it on top of cream cheese (or mix them together) to make a cracker spread (similar to our green chili cream cheese dip).
FOR MORE JALAPEñO RECIPES, CHECK OUT:
Jalapeno Jelly Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
- Place all peppers in a food processor and pulse until peppers are finely chopped. Empty into a mesh strainer and drain off excess liquid.
- Place the chopped vegetables in a large stock pot and add in the sugar, vinegar, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil for 10 minutes. Add the pectin and boil 1 more minute. Remove from heat
- Ladle jam into hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Top the jars with the lids and then seal jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
- Jelly that is sealed properly can be stored on the shelf. If a seal did not form or if you opened the lid and broke the seal, jelly can be stored in the fridge. Let jelly rest 1 day to fully set up.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
So delicious and easy to make. I did use twice the amount of pectin but it came out perfect 👌
I haven’t made hot pepper jelly in years, but in my previous attempts I never heard of adding salt. What’s your reasoning for the salt…what does it do? And is it optional?
We think it just adds to and enhances the flavor, but you could omit it if you prefer.
This is a huge hit with everyone that eats it!! Amazing!
Thank you so much for this…it is now part of my yearly garden harvest recipes. Words just can’t describe the taste, the perfect match between sugar and spice. I had only pectin powder, so added by small amounts and ended up using the full 2 oz box (57 grams), it came out beautifully, just the perfect jelly consistency. I also used a yellow bell pepper instead of green…less tart I would guess…it won’t last long around here for sure. Keep up the great recipes
Thank you for sharing! I’m so glad to hear that the jelly is a favorite!
I made this in two batches – one with white vinegar, jalapenos and serranos, and one with apple cider vinegar and serranos only. I think I liked it even better with apple cider vinegar. It seemed to make it sweeter, while the serranos brought some definite heat.
Thanks for sharing what you did! So glad you enjoyed the jelly!
What happens if jelly is too thick once it cools?? Can I add anything to thin it. Am hoping there is a fix!!
You should be able to thin it a bit with water or fruit juice. I’m sure you could do a little internet search of just what to do to salvage it!
Update to my comment left earlier.
I was concerned that my jelly would not set however I am happy to report that by squeezing out the pepper juice in a cloth worked great.
My co-workers love your jelly recipe and asked me to share it with them.
Yay!! So so happy to hear that! Thanks for sharing.
I love your recipe it tastes sooooo delicious!! I gave away so many of my first batch I had to make it twice. The first batch did not set 🙁 first time it’s ever happened to me. So I redid it following the directions on the Certo package and it worked.
I just finished my second batch when draining the peppers this time I put in a towel and squeezed out the juice first. When I took the jars out of the bath the jars seem to be very runny I’m hoping they will set up this time. I’ll keep you posted.
My jelly did not set either so might want to really squeeze out the liquid from the peppers or reduce the vinegar by using pickling vinegar.
For my first time making jelly or canning anything ever this recipe was awesome! Thanks for the easy directions. It came out perfect! Very tasty!
You’re welcome! So glad you gave the jelly recipe a try!
Can I use only jalapeno peppers?
Do you have to use liquid pectin? I only have sure jell at home
I would recommend using liquid pectin.
I suppose you could. The sweet bell peppers give the jelly a wonderful flavor though! I would recommend including them.