Candied Jalapeños Recipe

Candied Jalapeños ready to serve.

Call it “Candied Jalapeños”, “Jalapeño Candy” or “Cowboy Candy”, it’s just yummy!

Our nephew’s family joined us for a gathering and brought a tray, a block of softened cream cheese, and a jar of sliced jalapeños in a sweet, clear syrup, and dumped it over the cream cheese. There were crackers and tortilla chips to scoop up all of the textures and flavors. It’s a note of sweetness with a hit of hot jalapeño and cool cream cheese. A really addicting combination. This would be great to have on hand for holiday parties or gatherings throughout the year to make things easy.

Candied Jalapeños served on cream cheese with chips, a yummy snack.

Since the jalapeños produced really well in the garden, I knew I needed to figure this out and make some jars. In my first batch, I packed my jalapeños too tightly. Let the jalapeños have room for movement in the jar. The liquid is very flavorful and you’ll want some. Besides serving this combination as an easy and amazingly good appetizer, it’s also great on burgers, and can imagine it good on hot dogs, chicken, sandwiches…

A jar of Candied Jalapeños prepared and canned on the homestead.

Ingredients:

3 tsp. Minced garlic

3 lbs. Fresh sliced jalapeños

½ tsp. Celery seed

6 c. Sugar

½ tsp. Turmeric

2 c. Apple cider vinegar

Please be careful when slicing jalapeños. I wore gloves with a hole I didn’t know about. The burn on my hands lasted for hours, as if I were touching a hot oven. I’m now extra careful to make sure the peppers are dry and that my cutting board is dry also- so I’m less apt to have jalapeño juice get on my hands… & if I see liquid, I don’t drag my fingers through it.*

Remove stem and slice jalapeños. I left the seeds in.
In a large pot, add ingredients EXCEPT jalapeños & BOIL.
Reduce heat, stir and simmer for 5 minutes to dissolve sugar.
Add jalapeños, simmering for 4 minutes.
Fill clean, sterile canning jars with the jalapeños, leaving room for liquid. Fill leaving ¼” head space. Check for air pockets- remove and fill with more syrup if needed. (Save extra syrup for marinades- it can be canned too).

*You can stop here and let the jars cool for a day on the counter and store in refrigerator for 2-3 months. Allowing the jars to rest for 2-6 weeks helps the flavor.

*** Or you can use a water bath canner to preserve for a year. Process at a boil for 10 minutes for half-pints or 15 for pints. Let the jars set for about 4-6 weeks before using them. If you need more direction on canning, please check out this canning blog for tips or this book.