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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.
This is the best! Had a half pint jar left over that didn’t fit in the water bath. We ate it a couple days later with cream cheese and round crackers and my fiance raved about it! We are making a double batch today.
Mmmm such a fun way to use the leftovers. I’m so glad you love the jelly recipe!
First thank you so much for posting this recipe. Every one loves it and keeps asking for more. Question: On the web page when I use the tool to double the recipe everything doubles EXCEPT the pectin..It goes to 8 Ounces…yikes. Is that correct? Have you double or tripled the recipie? so if i want 12 half pint jars is it just 2 – 3 ounce packs or is it 8 oz total? could it be off because of the way you wrote the recipe? ( 1 3 ounce pack vs 3 ounces (1 packet))? again thanks for the post.
Oh I’m so glad that you enjoy the recipe! You know, I haven’t doubled it before, but I would suggest just doing 2 3 oz. pouches of liquid pectin. That way it is exactly double of what the original recipe calls for (which we know works!) Best of luck and again, so glad you enjoy the jelly!
Love, love, love this recipe. If you follow the directions, it comes out perfectly! It is great mixed with cream cheese snd served as a dip.
Mmmm yes! That is a great way to serve it. So glad the jelly turned out well for you. Thanks for sharing!
What is a serving?
I’d say a serving is about 1 Tbsp. Nutrition facts are for the recipe as a whole.
Recipe just says salt, but should I use canning salt?
You can if you would like but regular salt will work just as well. It just depends on your preference.
Jelly did not set. Made a habanero jelly at same time. Pretty much the same ingredients, although it called for 2-3oz packs of pectin. Habanero jelly turned out great. Really bummed!
Sorry to hear the recipe didn’t go quite as planned. There are various reasons why jelly may not set — temperature, pectin problems or incorrect measurements are a few. But thank you for giving the recipe a try!!
Well I was excited I made 6 Jars of this and it didn’t set. Still liquidy… what did I do wrong? Am I supposed to stir it at all while it’s boiling or not? Did I have to do the water bath in order for it to set, because I thought that was just to give it storage life? Am I supposed to let the Jars cool down and then put them in the fridge? Or do they just sit out at room temperature for a certain amount of time?
Hi Ashley! Yes, you can stir while it’s boiling. How long did you let the jelly set? Sometimes it can take 24-48 hours for it to completely set. I would just leave the jars out at room temp for at least 24 hours. If they are still not seeming to set after that, try refrigerating them. Sometimes that helps it to jell. The cause for the jelly not setting could be a few different things — not exact measurements, undercooking, overcooking (can break down the pectin). Hopefully after giving it some time, it set up a bit more!
I used small, sweet mini red and orange bell peppers because that was what I had on hand. I also have extremely hot homegrown jalapenos so I thought it would be a good balance. Maybe I boiled on too high a temp, or something not quite right, as I only got 4 half pints- but the jelly is AWESOME! I’ll try this again with a bigger batch as I have way too many jalapenos.
Thank you for trying it 🙂 So happy you liked it!
Can I eat it right away? Or do I have to can it? Thanks
I made this the other day and it was my first time attempting to make any type of jelly! This recipe was so easy and the jelly was delicious! I sent some to my mom and she shared with other family members and they all loved it too!!!! Amazing! I have 1 question can I use less sugar and it come out same consistency?
Oh, that makes me so happy! Thanks for sharing the recipe! Honestly, I wish I knew for sure, since I have not tried. I don’t think it should.