Caribbean-Style Mango-Habanero Hot Sauce
Homemade hot sauce! We’re going Caribbean with this recipe, bringing in flaming habanero peppers, velvety mango, vinegar, honey, allspice and more. Drizzle it over chicken, shrimp or fish. Love it. It’s a way of life.
Not gonna lie. I’m kind of hooked on this sauce. I JUST made it and it’s half gone already. Dang.
Guess I’ll have to run out and buy another mango. No worries about the habanero peppers, though, because our habanero plants are producing like crazy now!
BIG WIN! Throwing my hands in the air and dancing sort of win. Bragging about my garden again, my friends, so please excuse me. I can’t help it. I get so happy this time of year with all the fresh produce, particularly chili peppers, popping out of the garden.
Preserving will very soon be upon us, but for now, I am having ZERO problem keeping up with the pace of the garden. Mostly because of recipes like this. Caribbean-Style Mango-Habanero Hot Sauce.
It is quite delicious and you’ll need to make a couple extra batches, methinks.
I mean, just look at it. Gorgeous, right? Absorb the vibrant color, the brightness of the orangey-yellow sauce in the bottle and the extras in the jar. Calling out to you. Begging to be eaten.
Do you hear it?
Hot sauce talks to me more than fresh produce. All those voices collected into a single bottle, singing together. Hot sauces are an ideal way to use up your garden ingredients.
So many possible iterations to play with. This particular recipe uses habanero peppers and mango as the primary ingredients. Unfortunately, we are unable to grow mangoes around here, but if we could, I totally would.
Round out the body and flavor of the hot sauce with garlic and onion, then flavor it up with a medly of seasonings, including allspice, ginger, cumin and sweet honey. And tangy apple cider vinegar, of course.
It’s slightly thick, but you can thin it out by either incorporating more vinegar or adding a bit of water to the mix. Or, strain it and discard some of the solids. You can serve this on pretty much anything, but for me it’s ideal over pork, chicken or seafood, particularly shrimp or white fish.
Or PORK! Just the other day I whipped up some quick pulled pork tacos for lunch with diced tomatoes and used this hot sauce to smother them. We didn’t need anything else.
The pork was great, but the hot sauce became the star. I love the mixture of ingredients. Cooks up super quick!
We have a video of the recipe below so you can see how it is made. Time to get cooking! Bring on the hot sauce!
Patty’s Perspective
THIS is the BOMB. It’s so versatile. It’s definitely a hot sauce, but I think you can serve this as a salsa if you wanted. I would eat it on anything and would use it all the time if Mike wasn’t cooking up all sorts of great stuff so often. I’ll have to ask him to make more.
Check out my other Hot Sauce Recipes, too.
Frequently Asked Hot Sauce Questions
Here are answers to some of the most common questions I get on other sauces:
How long will this sauce keep?
It should keep a few months easily in the fridge, or even longer. It’s all about the acidity. To be technical, target level ph for shelf stable foods is below 4.6 ph, but should probably be lower for home cooks, around 4.0 or so, to account for errors. If you’re concerned, add more vinegar to lower the ph. Sauces made with fermented chili peppers will last even longer.
The best ph meters that I recommend are from Thermoworks. Get yourself a ph meter from Thermoworks today. I am a happy affiliate.
Where’d you get that sauce bottle?
I find them locally sometimes, but I also order through Amazon. Here is a link to some bottles I like (affiliate link, my friends!): Swing Top Glass Bottles, 8.5 Ounce – Set of 4
Can I process this hot sauce for longer storage?
Absolutely. Just be sure to use proper canning/jarring safety procedures.
What should I do with hot sauce?
Aside from drizzling it over anything you please, here’s a post I did about How to Cook with Hot Sauce. As if you need even MORE reasons to eat hot sauce. I hope you find it helpful!
Check out These Related Recipes:
- Sweet Habanero Chili Sauce
- Pineapple-Jalapeno Hot Sauce
- Ti-Malice – Haitian Creole Hot Sauce
- Pineapple-Mango Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce
- Homemade Caribbean-Style Sweet Chili Sauce
- Sweet Pepper Chili Sauce
- Hawaiian Chili Pepper Water
- Caribbean Chicken
Check out more Hot Sauce Recipes or learn more about How to Make Hot Sauce.
If you try this recipe, please let us know! Leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #ChiliPepperMadness on Instagram so we can take a look. I always love to see all of your spicy inspirations. Thanks! — Mike H.
Caribbean-Style Mango-Habanero Hot Sauce – Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 habanero peppers chopped
- 1 mango peeled and chopped
- 1 small white onion chopped (about 3/4 cup)
- 4 cloves garlic chopped
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons honey
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon allspice
- 1 teaspoon ginger powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a food processor. Process until smooth.
- Add to a large pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Cool then transfer to serving bottles.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
110 comments
Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Have you tried to make this by fermenting the Habanero peppers first? What would that do to the flavor profile?
Jason, you can definitely ferment the peppers first. Fermenting mellows the overall flavor of the habaneros. Let me know how it turns out for you.
Mike … excited to give this a go. I am in the process of growing a variety of different peppers primarily for powders and sauces. I do have a question about this recipe. If I was to go the fermentation route, would all the solids be fermented together and then clearly the vinegar and spices added after the fermentation? Would the mango be fermented with the peppers or blended in post fermentation process.
Thanks for all the great ideas!
Shawn, you could certainly ferment the mango as well, though I really only ferment the peppers and add the fresh fruit after, as I prefer the flavor. Let me know how it turns out for you! Enjoy!
Great. But I wonder how long this recipe can be stored? How to preserve it?
Glad you enjoyed it! This hot sauce should keep a few months easily in the fridge, or even longer. It’s all about the acidity. To be technical, target level ph for shelf stable foods is below 4.6 ph, but should probably be lower for home cooks, around 4.0 or so (3.5 is better), to account for errors. If you’re concerned, add more vinegar to lower the ph. Sauces made with fermented chili peppers will last even longer.
Just made a batch with cold smoked honey and Trinidad Scorpion Cardi, very tasty and a good amount of heat, very easy to make
Cheers Brian
Nice! I love it, Brian. You’ll definitely get some heat with the scorpions! Enjoy.
I just want to tell you one thing: Your recipe is very very great. Thanks Mike!
Thanks so much, Michael! I appreciate it!
Just made a small batch. Smells wonderful. We had to substitute agave nectar for the honey.
Perfect!! I hope you enjoy it.
Just made this now but with papaya as I had no mango. Soooooo good. Thanks for the recipe Mike
Thanks, Milan. This would ROCK with papaya! Glad you enjoyed it.
Could one use frozen mangos
Absolutely, yes. Let me know how it turns out for you.
This recipe is amazing! This was my first time making chilli sauce and this recipe is very easy and delicious. I used four aji cristals as that is what I have growing. I can’t wait to make this again – I’ll probably use less chillies next time as it was pretty spicy.
Thanks, Haloom! I’m very happy it was that easy for you. This is a good one, and yes, easy to adjust the amount of peppers. Enjoy!
I had to go less on the heat (since my young kids eat it too and love it) so I only added one chilli pepper and a small yellow pepper but everything else as stated. It’s absolutely delicious!!! I could drink it straight from the bottle! 😀
Great, Iza! Glad you love it! I appreciate the comments.
Hi, This recipe sounds delicious. Does it use green (unripe) or ripe mango?
thanks 🙂
Gabby, I use ripe mango. Let me know how it turns out for you.
Thanks for the recipe Mike. This sauce is the best, a good amount of heat yet a lot of flavour. The only problem is that it doesn’t last long cos everyone loves it. I gave most of it away so I have to make another batch.
Cheers, Gary.
Cheers, Gary! Super happy you enjoyed it! Thanks for letting us know!
Made it today .. very good thanks 🙂 I had to substitute rice vinegar for apple cider vinegar and used twice as much peppers .. this was first time I made hot sauce with cumin, ginger and allspice .. the flavor they add is excellent. Overall turned out very nice! super hot n tasty 🙂
Thanks, Victor. Very happy you enjoyed it. Have a good one!
I made this exactly to the recipe and it tasted OK. The color was not bright orange. I added and extra fresh Mango, but I think the Cumin and allspice change the color. Plus all I can smell and taste is vinegar. I don’t know what happened. I did triple the recipe but the only change was the extra Mango. I’m thinking maybe Mango Puree would work better??
I’m very sorry to hear it didn’t turn out for you as you hoped. I can’t do anything about the vinegar flavor, as that is the intention of the recipe. It uses vinegar. You can always dial back on that to your preference if you ever try to make it again. The color is most likely because of the overall heat. If it was boiled too long or with too much heat outside of a low simmer, the bright orange color will turn a darker brown, as would happen with most foods like this. If you do try again, try very low heat. Again, sorry it didn’t turn out how you hoped.
Can’t wait to try this. Has anyone tried putting the peppers in a smoker before doing the recipe? Curios how the smoke and mango would work together.
Smoking the peppers would certainly add a nice flavor element. Give it a try and let me know how it turns out for you! I love the idea.
This is the second year in a row I’ve made this recipe. I added an additional habanero – love the heat! Great recipe! Thanks!
Excellent! Glad you like it, Mark!
Thank you for such a delicious recipe. I generally don’t care for the taste of habeñero, but when you combine them with mango they come alive.
Thanks, Kevin. I agree, perfect pairing!
1st time I’ve made something like this and trying to figure out why I’m tasting so much of the apple cider vinegar. I triple checked that I used correct amount and I did. Any ideas?
Landon, you can strain out some of the vinegar and reprocess, or you can reprocess the batch with extra peppers and mango. Let me know how it goes.
Vodka instead of vinegar after it is cooked tastes marvelous and it can stay on the table. You may have to get used to the flavor of the ingredients instead of the vinegar.
Thanks for the suggestion, Kirk! Something to try.
Good recipe! I doubled the recipe and only had 5 habaneros but added 3 ghost peppers and some jalapeños I had to do something with. Added a little white pepper and a peach as well. Turned out great
Excellent, Jacob! Glad you enjoyed it! I love to hear this. Enjoy!
How long will this keep refrigerated, and can it be canned? I have +- 5 pounds that I need to do something with!
Diane, the sauce should keep a few months easily in the fridge, or even longer. It’s all about the acidity. To be technical, target level ph for shelf stable foods is below 4.6 ph, but should probably be lower for home cooks, around 3.5 to 4.0 or so, to account for errors. If you’re concerned, add more vinegar to lower the ph. Sauces made with fermented chili peppers will last even longer. Yes, it can be canned, but again, check the acidity with a proper pH meter first. Or, use a pressure canner.
So you made a completely different sauce than the recipe is what you are saying?
This is the best hot sauce recipe! I have made this a few times now & it’s a crowd pleaser for sure. Made it once with ghost peppers & it was just as delicious. #YUMMO!
Excellent news! Thanks so much!
Made this today because it sounded delicious! Doubled the recipe even! It came out beautiful! It was pretty hot but might have something to do with me doubling the recipe including double peppers??? I don’t know! Still super excited about the results! Freaking delicious!!!!
That’s great, Brandy. Super happy you enjoyed it! I love it.
It was a hit, I was afraid I would not eat it as it would be too hot for me. I love it and my husband loves it. I didn’t change the receipe at all and doubled it. I bought by accident the Haberno plant when getting peppers for my garden, but I ran with it and when it produced, it produced big and I hate to throw anything away. The only question was how big the Haberno peppers were you were using, so I only put 7 in the double batch, it had some heat. We have used it on meat, eggs, fish, it was so good I got more Mangos and will try it now with fresh ginger. I would have posted a pic, but my container is not as attractive as yours. Thanks for sharing. Next year I will plant them on purpose because I now have a purpose for them.
This is GREAT to hear, Sherry! I’m glad you took a leap and kept the habaneros! They’re so productive and fun to cook with, even if they do have quite a bit of heat. Glad you liked the hot sauce! It’s one of my favorites. I hope it makes its way into your regular rotation.
I made this with madame jeanette peppers, as they’re my favourites (and roughly the same level of spicy as habaneros). I loved it! I think the inherent fruitiness that madame jeanettes have really added to the deliciousness of the sauce. I think for me personally, next time I’ll add fresh ginger instead of dried.
Great, Milou. Fresh ginger works just right for this recipe. I appreciate it!
I made this almost exact I did however substitute agave nectar for honey I also added 2 Dave’s gourmet ghost peppers and a cup of fresh pineapple and 2 large sweet peaches and half a cup of cilantro and oven roasted garlic so good sweet heat I make it all the time and to change it up I’ll substitute the golden fruit for blueberries so delicious as well
That’s great, Darcy. I’m glad you’re able to play with the recipe. Nice! I’ll have try this with blueberries.
I do like different hot sauces and this one jumped to the top of the list. Sadly struggled to find Habanero’s even at the bigger supermarkets. So substituted for Birds Eye (used about 8). The flavour was amazing with a nice heat to it. This one will be getting used again and again…..
Lack of Peppers can be frustrating here!!
Great, Craig. I wish you had access to more peppers!
Craig Wilson where do you live that you can find bird’s eyes but not habaneros? I have to order bird’s eyes on amazon.
Gave this a crack today, actually as an afterthought as I had a ton of chillis left over from a batch of ultra hot sauce I made earlier. Used 3 large bhut jolokia (ghost peppers) and 4 good sized red habanero, all home grown. Used 200g of frozen mango and added a carrot into the mix (mainly as it was in the fridge and needed using up!). Stuck to the recipe otherwise though I didn’t add the honey til the cook stage to stop it gunning up the blender. Really impressed with the result and it’s got a beautiful orange colour from the yellow mango, orange carrot and red peppers blending together. It’s got a serious kick without being masochistic and overpowering the complexity of the flavours. Definitely gonna repeat this one!
That’s GREAT, David. Super happy you like it. It’s definitely one of my favorite hot sauce recipes. Lots of habaneros for me.
Made my third or 4th batch today, a double batch with 3 small fresh mangos this time. I didn’t have any carrots and without them the colour is noticeably less vibrant, however the taste isn’t affected much at all. I still think they’re a worth addition for the colour alone though.
Great, David! Carrots add a touch of sweetness and also some body to the sauce, but you are correct, not a huge flavor component. Glad you enjoyed it!!
Doubled the habanero because I love hot and I thought I wasn’t a moron. Next time I will not double the habanero! Great stuff though.
Haha, I hear ya! Always tempting to spice things up even more!
Hey I’m looking forward to trying this recipe out soon, but i was wondering, when it calls for a white onion, does that mean a whole white onion? The onion I bought is about the size of a baseball, just seems like a lot of onion to me, but I could be wrong.
Deter, onion is one of those ingredients that sort of a “to preference” ingredient. With this recipe, being so large, I would only use a quarter or half of the onion. Let me know how it turns out for you.
Oh man I wish I read this before I made it.
Right now this sauce tastes like an extremely hot onion.
Sorry, Liam. You can always make an extra batch without onion and combine the two.
Awesome sauce, Thank you so much
Thanks, Ken!
Mike,
this has got to be my all time FAVORITE hot sauce. This stuff is incredible. Thank you for this recipe. It really does go good on everything and tastes amazing just plane. I made a small batch, skeptical at first. As soon as I tasted it I bought 2 more mangos and made another double batch. I have bottles of the stuff now, and unfortunately it is disappearing a lot faster than I want.
Thanks for this winner of a sauce!
Excellent, Steven! Super happy you love it. It’s one of my favorites for sure. Enjoy!
I made this last night, first time I’ve ever made hot sauce. This is an absolutely terrific recipe.
I had to use canned mango (200 grams). It does not have the great flavor that a ripe mango has, so I went a bit heavier on the honey, not that it adds mango flavor, but it adds some of the sweetness that was lacking.
I was able to use home-grown onion and garlic. I am somewhat of a chicken with heat, so I used 3 home-grown habaneros. I would describe the result as “mild”, really just about right for me.
Thanks, Mike. This is a true keeper.
Great, Robert! Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
OMG this is AMAZING. THANK YOU!
Thanks, Cheyann!
My peppers are coming in quite small, and I’m not sure how they compare to regular sized peppers. I’ve never bought them, just grew them on a lark and now they’re coming in like crazy!. I’d love be to try this recipe. Does anyone have an ounce equivelent for the peppers?
Linda, the recipe is pretty forgiving if you use extra peppers. If they’re small, I’d say use 5-10 of them. You can easily use more.. Let me know how it works out for you.
Used Peruvian White Lightning to make the Caribbean sauce. Used pineapple instead of mango and oh my. The taste on the tongue is magical, but once the complexity gets to the rest of the taste buds, it is better than anything i have had before…many thanks
Excellent!!
A great sauce. I grew Carolina Reapers and Cayenne, I used 1 reaper and 4 cayenes. The layers of flavour are great. Thanks so much. More to come.
Awesome, Brad! I love the addition of the Reaper. Nice.
Followed the ingredients and instructions, very easy and came out exactly as discribed. Hot and delicious, tangy, sweet sauce!
I even upped the number of peppers as I have an abundance which I need to use before they spoil.
Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work,
I love chilipeppermadness
I appreciate it, Richard. Glad you enjoyed it. See you around the site!
If i were to ferment this habanaro mango jerk sauce, would all ingredients ferment together?
Janet, if you want to ferment for this recipe, I would just ferment the peppers or you can ferment the first 4 ingredients. See this link for How to Ferment Chili Peppers.
This sauce is great but VERY hot. I love mango habanero sauce, but in the future I would probably half the amount of habaneros to bring it down from an extremely hot spice level.
Oh yes, habaneros have a very nice (HOT) heat level, as indicated in the recipe notes. Thanks, Sarah!
Hi!
I simply Love your recipe!
can I substitute distilled vinegar for the apple cider?
Would you mind giving some substitute ingredients if possible in the future .
Keep up the good work
Luz, yes, you can use distilled vinegar instead. No problem at all!
Can someone please explain how long to process for in a water bath to make this safe?? Leaving instructions stating “just process according to canning” isn’t helpful. How long for? Is there enough acidity in it?
Jenny, refer to this page for proper canning/jarring procedures: https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/preserving-chili-peppers/canning-or-jarring-chili-peppers/. Note that acidity is discussed in the post, and you should always measure your ph if you’re going to process the hot sauce. It’s best under 4.0 for home use. This particular sauce was about 3.5 when I measured it, but be sure to measure your own.
Really quick and easy to make but full of awesome flavor. Going to be a crowd pleaser come Christmas time here in Australia.
That’s great, Chris! Thanks for sharing! I greatly appreciate it.
looks amazing!
Thanks!!
Sounds amazing!
I wonder if this sauce would be even more shelf stable if I partly replaced the apple cider vinegar with the pickling juice of my big jar of store-bought Jalapenos, since it has sodium benzoate in it? Also it is ofcourse infused with a nice jalapeno flavour. Sounds like a win to me.
I’m only in doubt about maybe mixing both apple cider and the pickling juice for flavour.. would that taste weird? should I just omit the apple cider completely?
You can certainly try it, Frank. I don’t believe it would be any MORE shelf stable, and I’m not sure how it would be affected as the brine would be already used, heated/processed, etc, but for a short term sauce solution, I’m sure it would work. It might be a nice flavor infusion. If you try it, let me know how it turns out.
Finally made this. Had yellow Habs instead of orange, did 8, Substituted brown sugar for the honey, added some lime, pineapple and some crushed dried ghost pepper. It’s hot alright. Seems to be a slight bitter note to it. Could it be the dried ghost pepper? Or maybe the ginger powder, I know that it’s a bit older already. The bitterness is luckily fading a bit now. Awesome sauce.
Great, Franks! Glad you enjoyed it. Sometimes the SEEDS can be a bit bitter, so that is a possible source of it.
Is there a way to determine how many scoville units this sauce has? Habaneros are supposed to be from 100,000 – 350,000, and there are five of them. Does it stack? I would think so, since capsaicin concentration increases. But there’s also a dilution factor, too. Does anyone know a good way to kinda ballpark the intensity of a hot sauce? I want to make a bunch and label their relative intensities.
REPLY: Michael, the overall sauce will still be the same SHU. It does not stack. The thing is, you only need a little to notice the heat. — Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
I like to reuse the swing top bottles that Grolsch beer comes in for bottling hot sauce. They are 16 oz and green, not clear. If you don’t like drinking beer they are sold used and empty on EBAY.
Why does it need to be cooked?
REPLY: The flavors are much more developed this way. — Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
I put my own spin ont the sauce. I added 6 ghost pepper with it. It kicked up a few notches.
Beautiful salsa ! Wonderful taste,
I just made it today and it was phenomenal! I must say I replaced the powdered ginger with fresh ginger, and replaced some of the garlic with garlic powder (I only had 2 cloves). Also, I added a pinch more allspice. It’s soooo gooooood I want to put this sauce everywhere! Just spicy enough, not too much (but still really strong!). Super nice. Thanks for the recipe! I think next time, I’ll try adding some lime juice too, and maybe remove a little vinegar to balance it out. I think it could really work well!
Can I blevnd it instead of putting it in a food processor, coz I don’t have one ?
REPLY: Per, yes, a blender will work just fine. — Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
This sauce rocks! The layers of flavor are fabulous. I also sautéed the garlic and onions. I grew the habaneros and a friend visiting from Florida gave me mangos from her tree.
I want to ship her some bottles–is this safe unrefrigerated for a couple days?
REPLY: Sue, I would think it would be OK if properly sealed. You might want to do a waterbath with a proper seal to ensure safety for food shipping. — Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
Can I can it?
REPLY: Kathie, yes, just be sure to follow all proper canning procedures. If you’re going to bottle/jar it and use the waterbath method, be sure to check the ph level. — Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
Ok, wow! This sauce is just awesome! Subtle Caribbean flavours with a great heat and fruity kick.
I didn’t follow the recipe exactly but I wasn’t too far off – I used tinned mango as I couldn’t get fresh, fresh ginger as I didn’t have ground, the mango syrup from the tin as I didn’t have honey and I fried my onion and garlic as I didn’t want any harsh onion / garlic flavours. I also used dried Orange Habaneros as, well, getting proper chillies in the UK is difficult.
This isn’t an “everyday” or “all purpose” sauce, like Sriracha as it’s so fruity but regardless, as a speciality sauce, it’s just stunning, if I brought this from the store, I’d be raving about it.
Mike, thanks so much for putting this site and recipes together, what an amazing resource. This is the second of your sauces that I’ve tried, I going to have to work my way through all of them!
REPLY: That’s great, Mike! Glad to have inspired you. — Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
How long can the sauce be saved?
REPLY: Jim, this sauce has a lot of vinegar in it so it should last quite a while. — Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
Looks great. Heat and color. Come alive. I have 16 habanaro and scotch bonnet plants ready for picking. Grew them in black 5 gallon planters. What an explosion.Wanted to send you picks. Cheers Stevo