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How to Pickle Jalapeños: Easy Canning Recipe

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How to Make Pickled Jalapeños

Pickled jalapeños are easy to make! This recipe is perfect for beginners. It makes two small jars of spicy pickled jalapeños rings.

How to Make Pickled Jalapeños | Photo of Homemade Canned Pickled Jalapeños

Today we’re talking about canning jalapeños! If you have an abundance of jalapeños coming out of the garden, this recipe is for you. Don’t despair if you don’t grow jalapeños. Find a local grower, buy a pound or so and you’re set to go.

This recipe makes shelf stable pickled jalapeños. So you’ll need some familiarity with water bath canning. If you’ve never canned before, check out this tutorial on water bath canning.

The Basic Steps for Canning Pickled Jalapeños

Making homemade pickled jalapeños is easy but it does take some time. Here are the 10 basic steps.

  1. Clean the kitchen. This is an important step when canning.
  2. Slice the peppers into rings. Wear gloves while you do this. It prevents burns.
  3. Heat the canning jars for 10 minutes.
  4. Make the brine.
  5. Pack the peppers tightly into hot jars.
  6. Add pickle crisp. (optional but highly recommended.)
  7. Ladle brine into the jars.
  8. Remove air bubbles.
  9. Wipe rims and apply lids and bands.
  10. Process jars in a water bath canner.

What Do Pickled Jalapeños Taste Like?

It depends on the style of “pickling” used. This recipe uses a vinegar brine. They taste hot and spicy with a nice vinegar kick. Naturally fermented jalapeños, which aren’t common,  have a distinctly different flavor. They’re pungent and taste strongly of pepper. If you’ve ever purchased pickled jalapeños at the store, chances are you’ve enjoyed a vinegar-brined pepper.

Selecting the Peppers

Use firm, unbruised peppers. Discard any peppers that show signs of mold. Clean all peppers thoroughly to remove dirt before canning.

Can You Use Jalapeños with Lines (Striations) On Them?

Yes! Homegrown peppers often have lines on them. These striations are normal and usually indicate a hotter pepper. As long as the pepper is firm with no mold, it’s safe to use.

Can You Use Red Jalapeños?

Picture of Homemade Red Pickled Jalapeños

Yes! Fully ripe jalapeños turn red. They are hotter than green jalapeños peppers and work great for pickling. Each year a few dozen jalapeños get away from me in the garden and turn red. When pickling, I make a jar or two of just red jalapeños because….I like the way the look. Again, be sure to only use peppers with no signs of spoilage.

How to Make Brine for Pickled Jalapeños

The brine for this recipe is simple to make. For one pound of jalapeños, combine three cups of white vinegar and one cup of water. If you want, add one tablespoon picking salt and bring the mixture to a boil. (The pickling salt keeps the canned jalapeños from turning cloudy. If you don’t want to buy a box of canning salt, you can use Kosher salt. Just expect a cloudy appearance in your jars.) Adding salt is optional but it adds a nice flavor.

As with all canning recipes, don’t adjust the brine. Peppers are low in acid. That means for waterbath canning, you need to use a brine that’s at least equal parts vinegar to water. This is key for safety. There is no wiggle room here–unless you want to give your family botulism, which I know you don’t! This recipe uses three parts vinegar to one part water.

How to Pack the Jars

After heating your clean pint jars, it’s time to pack them. Notice I said “pack”. You really want to get as many pepper rings into the jar as you can. Of course, take care not to overly force the slices into the jar–there’s no need to crush or bruise them.

After adding as many slices as you can, use a clean chopstick to poke the slices down. You can often get an extra handful or so of slices into the jar after poking them down with a chopstick.

How to Make Pickled Jalapeños Crisp and Crunchy

One of only problems with homemade pickled jalapeños is they can turn out mushy. No one wants a mushy pepper! To keep the pickled jalapeños crisp and crunchy, use Pickle Crisp by Ball or Mrs. Wage’s Xtra Crunch. Both products are calcium chloride, which is a type of salt that keeps canned produce firm, among other things.  To use, add 1/4 teaspoon per pint to keep the peppers crisp.

I didn’t use pickle crisp one year. (To be honest, I was being lazy. I didn’t want to run out and buy a jar.) That year, we ate peppers that tasted amazing but were mushy. The next season, I bought the pickle crisp. It made a huge difference! If you want crisp jalapeños peppers, get yourself a jar.

How to Make Pickled Jalapeños Less Hot and Spicy

Some folks ask how they can make their pickles jalapeños less hot and spicy. I hate to be the bearer of bad news here but…the level of heat and spice depends on the peppers themselves. You can try slicing the peppers in half and removing the seeds. This tends to reduce the heat level. However, expect your peppers to still be hot. This step takes a bit of time and, since you’ll need to slice the peppers in half to de-seed, you won’t get round rings.

How to Use Pickled Jalapeños

My answer to this is on everything! Seriously, I love these things so much. A better answer is that you can use pickled jalapeños on tacos, burrito bowls, nachos, pizza, or any place you want a little heat.

How to Make Pickled Jalapeños | Photo of Homemade Canned Pickled Jalapeños
5 from 4 votes
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Pickled Jalapeños

Homemade Pickled Jalapeños are easy to make! This simple recipe, which uses the waterbath canning method, makes tasty and crisp homemade pickled jalapeños slices. 

Keyword pickled jalapenos
Prep Time 50 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 2 pints
Calories 18 kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 pounds jalapeños peppers
  • 3 cups white vinegar (MUST be 5% acidity)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon pickling salt, optional
  • Ball® Pickle Crisp or Mrs. Wages Xtra Crunch, optional

Instructions

  1. Slice Peppers: Wash peppers and cut off steams. Slice peppers into 1/4-inch thick rings. Wear gloves for this step to avoid burning your hands. And do NOT touch your eyes or any other sensitive body parts.
  2. Heat Jars: Place a rack into the bottom of a large pot. Fill pot with enough water to cover jars. Submerge jars in water. Bring water to a simmer, 180 degrees. Simmer jars for 10 minutes. (Since the peppers process for 10 minutes, you don’t need to boil the jars.)
  3. Prepare the Brine: While the jars heat, combine vinegar, water, and salt medium saucepan. Boil for five minutes.
  4. Pack Jars. Remove jars from the water. Pack the peppers into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Add 1/4 teaspoon Pickle Crisp to each jar, if desired.
  5. Add Brine. Ladle brine into jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Using a wooden chopstick, bubble tool, or soft rubber spatula, remove air bubbles. Measure headspace. Add more brine if needed.
  6. Clean Rim and Apply Lids. Wipe rim with clean, damp cloth. Place lid on jar. Screw on band to "fingertip tight." You should feel some resistance but you don't want to crank the band on too tight. 

  7. Process Jars. Lower jars into pot. Water should cover jars by 1 to 2-inches after all jars are in the pot. Cover the pot. Return water to a boil. Process for 10 minutes. (Start the timer once the water returns to a boil.) Be sure to maintain a rolling boil during the entire 10 minute processing time.

    When processing time completes, turn off the burner and remove lid. Wait 5 minutes before removing jars from the pot. Lift the jars out of the water straight. Avoid tipping the jars. Place hot jars on a towel-lined counter or wood cutting board. Allow jars to cool for 24 hours.

  8. Check Seals. Press the center of the lid. It should not move. Remove outer ring. Gently try to lift the lid off the jar. It should not move. Wipe jars. Label. If any jar didn’t seal, place into the refrigerator and enjoy within a week or so. 

  9. Store: Place jars in a cool place out of direct sunlight. For best flavor, wait six weeks before enjoying the peppers. 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Your recipe sounds great I’m going to try it I have done peppers in the past and instead of slicing them in half I use a apple peeler I cut the end off of the pepper and take the apple peel and put it down inside and rotated around and pull out this the internal parts with the seeds works pretty good and goes pretty quick and you still get nice sliced rings

    Reply

    • If you waterbath preserve the peppers according to the directions, they may be stored in the jar for up to one year.

      Reply

    • If you waterbath preserve the peppers according to the directions, they may be stored in the jar for up to one year.

      Reply

  7. We have so many jalapenos this summer and canning them is the way to go. I don’t want to see food wasted. I grow organically to enjoy the veggies knowing they are not adulterated by toxic chemicals. But when you have too many of them they should be stored for when veggies won’t grow. We love this simple recipe and taking the seeds out of them first tames the heat and allows us to eat them to our heart’s delight. These pickled jalapenos are great to snack on too. It’s difficult to stop eating them they are so good.

    Reply

    • They don’t require cooking. They go into the jar raw. Since the jars are processed for 10 minutes, they soften during processing. (Using pickle crisp helps keep them a bit firmer.)

      Reply

  9. I think your suggestion that you don’t have to separately sterilize the jars is misguided and potentially unsafe. You should always start with sterilized jars. Follow Ball or similar canning best practices to avoid spoiled food and food poisoning.

    It would be helpful to include the number of jars and size jars this recipe makes. Maybe it is there and I missed it.

    Reply

    • Hello! Safe canning is a top priority for me. I always follow the National Center for Food Preservations guidelines. Here’s what they have to say about sterilzing jars:

      “In order to actually sterilize jars, they need to be submerged in (covered by) boiling water for 10 minutes. When the process time for canning a food is 10 minutes or more (at 0-1,000 feet elevation), the jars will be sterilized DURING processing in the canner. Therefore, when process times are 10 minutes or more at this altitude, pre-sterilization of jars is not needed. It doesn’t hurt your product to do it anyway, but it does require additional time and energy and is unnecessary.”

      You can read more here.

      And here’s what Ball Jars has to say on the subject: Sterilizing Ball® jars and lids is not necessary for home canning. Processing in your canner for 10 minutes or longer will sterilize the jars and lids. However, we do recommend that you pre-heat your jars to avoid thermal shock breakage that may occur as a result of drastic temperature changes while filling the jars with hot food.

      You can read more on Ball’s site. (It’s listed under FAQs at the bottom of the page.)

      As for the yield, it’s listed with the recipe. This recipe makes two pints.

      I hope that helps.

      Reply

  10. I look forward to trying this recipe. I like the way you answer all the questions.
    I’m going to the store and buy that ingredient to make it firm or crunchy.
    Thank you
    Frances

    Reply


  11. Hello pickled 17 pints of jalapenos using your recipe they turned out wonderful,. I am glad I stayed with the 3 cups vinegar to 1 cup water the taste is awesome. Just a note if someone has a hard time finding Mrs wages extra crispy as I did, in the bag it is called Mrs wages pickle lime for extra crispy. Thanks again for the great recipe. Now I need one for dill pickles

    Reply

    • Hello! Pickling lime and pickle crisp are two different ingredients. Please be sure to check the package to ensure it was used correctly.

      Reply

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