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 ¼ 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 ¼ 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.
I forgot to add the salt into my second batch, so I need to reprocess it?
It may still have turned out fine? I haven’t omitted the salt before, so I’m not exactly sure how the final product would be without salt. I’d be curious to hear if you finished it out or ended up reprocessing it.
I have a coolapeño plant that has given us so many peppers I’m not sure what to do with all of them. Do you think this recipe would be good with mild peppers like those or does the heat really make it?
I found this recipe a couple years ago when I had an over abundance of jalapenos from my garden, now I make it many times a year it’s so AMAZING!!! My family, friends and neighbours love it and r constantly asking when I’m making more!!! Its so so good!!!!
Oh that makes me so happy to hear!! Love that it has become a tradition. Thanks for sharing!
I have only ever used jalapeños. I imagine using a milder pepper would result in an overall sweeter jelly and different flavor too, obviously. If you aren’t a huge fan of heat, it might be a great option! If you end up using the coolapeno peppers, you’ll have to let us know how the jelly turns out. I’m curious to hear.
How firm is this jam? I want something that can be spread easily, like a tomato jam or a chutney. Could I add slightly less pectin, or is it already a softer set?
If it sets correctly, it should set like a jelly. So you could certainly try to tweak it to make it a softer set.
So easy and sooo good.
Thank you!! Glad to hear you enjoyed the jelly!
Can sure jell be substituted for the liquid pectin? Mix it in with the sugar before? Just wondering if this has been tried.
I have never tried using sure jell in this recipe. If anyone else has and has had success, feel free to share. I’ve only ever used the liquid pectin, so I’m not sure how it would turn out.
I used sure gell in my experimental batch because it was all I had. The conversion is 2 Tablespoons = a packet of liquid pectin. Whisk in with the sugar and it sets up just fine.
Ah! Thank you for sharing that!! Good to know.
Made this last year it was so good! My friends and family put their orders in for more this year!!!
Oh yay!! That is awesome. So glad the jelly is a hit! Thanks for sharing.
OMG! My hubby has grown a TON of jalapeños this summer. I posted a picture of a big bowl of sliced jalapeños that we were pickling and can I g, and two different people asked if I was making pepper jelly. Curiosity piqued and challenge accepted! I found your recipe and since we also have a lot of bell peppers, decided to try a small half batch as a test – no can I g, just a jar for the fridge. I started with OMG so I am coming back to that now – OMG, this is my new most favorite thing in the world! I’ve been eating it on havarti, put it on a pulled pork sandwich and got two days in a row now, have made PBJs for lunch with the pepper jelly, some apple butter I made a few weeks ago, and peanut butter. That is THE best adult PBJ I have ever had. No joke. This stuff is amazing and addicting. Even the hubby is enjoying it. So this week we’ll be harvesting more jalapeños and doing a double, triple or quadruple batch for canning. I am also going to experiment with doing a sugar substitute version. If you have tried that and have tips on which product to use (I am thinking monk fruit or allies) and whether more pe tin is needed, please let me know.
Oh this makes me so happy to hear!! I’m so glad you are a fan of the jelly. It really is unique and amazing! I haven’t ever tried using a sugar substitute before. I’d just encourage you to do a little research to find what will work best to still keep the texture of the jelly if not using real sugar. Maybe some other commenters have tried and can put in their two cents? Best of luck!! I’m glad you discovered this recipe. 🙂
To date, I’ve made two batches. The first batch set up great after sealing in the hot bath. The second batch did not set up properly and is more of a syrup. Any thoughts on what I may have done wrong to cause this? Thank you
There’s a few reasons why jelly may not set … it could be that it was under or over cooked. During the canning process, you want to make sure the water in the canner is almost boiling or fully boiling when you add the jars in. If the water is too cool and takes too long to come up to a full boil, this means your jars will be sitting in hot water longer then they should be, which can cause the pectin to break down and not set. The amount of sugar can also have an effect. Same with the amount of peppers used. So, I’m not exactly sure what caused it to not set. So sorry to hear the batch didn’t quite turn out that second time.
I have an over abundance of Anaheim peppers.
I’m going to try using them in place of the jalapeños.
Hopefully they will do just as good a job. Excited to make this.
Oh I’d love to hear how it turns out using the Anaheim peppers! You’ll have to let us know.
Did not set up; went by the recipe. I think it needed a much longer boil time. This has less flavor than if made with apple cider vinegar.
Sorry to hear you had trouble with the jelly setting. Thanks for the feedback and for giving the recipe a try!
Scrolled through first 2 pages of comments, not seeing a Q/A to my question. Has anyone measured the volume of chopped peppers they used? 10 Jalapeños & bell peppers chopped is approximately how many cups? I have a BUMPER crop of peppers this year with a wide variety of size. I’d like to trouble shoot ahead to make sure I have the right amount of pectin for a jelly that’s a good consistency. Thanks so much
Good question! I’d guesstimate that a cup of jalapeños is probably about 3 average sized jalapeño peppers. A cup of bell peppers chopped is about 1 large pepper. Not sure if that helps at all to determine the volume/cups. It probably will vary from each batch just depending on the size of peppers you use.
Thank you. All the safety info is much appreciated. The recipe is so easy to follow. I’m 70 years old and I surprised all of my kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids,and some friends. I got to feel like quite a hotshot with ALL their compliments! Thank so very much for giving me a way to please people with something so simple. Peace to you. Stay safe
why did all the peppers rise to the top of the jelly ?
I’m not exactly sure… I haven’t had that happen. Perhaps they needed to be chopped a bit finer?
I haven’t made the recipe, yet because it doesn’t state the yield. ie: number of 8oz jars to fill. Also, either the calorie count is incorrect or it’s for the entire recipe. This is the only reason I gave it a low rating.
The Jalapeno Jelly fills 6 (8 ounce) jars. You’re correct -the calorie count is for the entire recipe. I hope you enjoyed the recipe!
I made a batch of this last year. It was my first time canning and it came out perfect. I have a large crop of hot banana peppers this year and I was curious if anyone has tried making this with them and how it came out.
I haven’t ever tried it with banana peppers. I’d be curious to hear how it turns out if you use them!