Sweet Garlic-Chili Hot Sauce
A quick and easy hot sauce recipe that is tangy and garlicky and tart-sweet, more about the flavors of sweet chili and garlic than the heat of your typical hot sauce. Perfect for adding some zing to anything.
It’s hot sauce making time again, my friends. Expect a LOT of new sauces and hot sauces coming your way because it’s the end of our garden season here at Chili Pepper Madness and I’m in full-on preserving mode, trying to use up our crazy pepper harvest.
The garden produced copious amounts of peppers (and tomatoes) and I’ve been a cooking/preserving madman this past week, and I see no end to it in the near future.
I love it!
Gorgeous little things, aren’t they? These are sweet Frontera Chili Peppers.
They look and taste VERY much like Scotch Bonnet peppers, but have practically ZERO heat. I was thankful to receive them, but thought, whoa! What am I going to do with these peppers when I have so many others popping out of the garden?
How about a sweet hot sauce? Yes!
That was easy, right? Viola – Sweet Garlic-Chili Hot Sauce.
Behold.
This is a super easy and FAST hot sauce recipe because we’re not fermenting the peppers this time. I wanted to let the sweet, fruity flavor of the Frontera peppers come through, so I added a bit of honey and enough vinegar to give a good level of tanginess for a tart finish.
And! Let us not forget – GARLIC. I’m crazy for garlic and my taste buds go a little bonkers for the combination of garlic and peppers, especially in a hot sauce.
“Hot Sauce”, by the way, is a bit of a misnomer here, as there is no heat to speak of with this particular sauce.
The focus is on the fruity, sweet, tangy flavor, but since the resulting sauce is quite vinegary and has the consistency of your typical Tabasco brand hot sauce, it’s more identifiable as a hot sauce than a simple chili-garlic sauce, which is thicker and more akin to a cross between a sauce and a chili paste.
If you’d like a thicker sauce, reduce the vinegar by half or more.
Give this one a try, my friends. It’s great for drizzling over anything for a tangy, sweet pop of flavor. No fermenting here, so you can have it ready in very little time.
If you can’t find Frontera Sweet Peppers, any thinner walled sweet pepper will do. Or, try making this with Scotch Bonnet peppers for a very similar flavor but LOTS of nice heat.
Enjoy!
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.
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
- Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce
- Homemade Ghost Pepper Chili Hot Sauce
- Sweet Habanero Chili Sauce
- Pineapple-Jalapeno Hot Sauce
- Ti-Malice – Haitian Creole Hot Sauce
- Caribbean Style Mango-Habanero Hot Sauce
- Pineapple-Mango Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce
- Homemade Caribbean-Style Sweet Chili Sauce
- Sweet Pepper Chili Sauce
- Hawaiian Chili Pepper Water
Check out more Hot Sauce Recipes or learn more about How to Make Hot Sauce.
If you enjoy this recipe, I hope you’ll leave a comment with some STARS. Also, please share it on social media. Don’t forget to tag us at #ChiliPepperMadness. I’ll be sure to share! Thanks! — Mike H.
Sweet Garlic-Chili Hot Sauce – Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ounces sweet peppers chopped – I used 5 Frontera Sweet Peppers
- 6 garlic cloves chopped
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup white wine vinegar
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a small pot and simmer for about 15 minutes to soften everything up. Some of the vinegar will evaporate.
- Cool, then transfer to a food processor. Process until nice and smooth.
- Strain out the solids, then pour the hot sauce into a bottle.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
9 comments
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Made this sauce today using Albino peppers. Lawdy it is good!
Excellent! Glad to hear it, Kevin!
Hi, Do you think Albino peppers would be a good substitute for the Frontera peppers?
Hi, Kevin. Yes, albino peppers would work great here for flavor. Let me know how it turns out for you.
Mike,
Great recipe that I have used for my Lemon Drop Peppers. The first round of picking I actually used about 50/50 lemon drop and ghost to give a bright orange color and now I’m processing with exclusively lemon drops from the garden. I’ve used white vinegar and cider vinegar to ensure 5% acidity for canning and it seems to be holding up nicely.
Scott
Excellent, Scott! I love the updates! Glad to year. I hope you enjoy it.
????
Hello!, I have been looking for this kind of sweet peper where I live but seems like it is hard to find, is it possible to make this sauce with any other pepper like the yellow bell pepper? great sauce recipes here btw 🙂
REPLY: Thanks, Christopher. Yes, you can make this recipe with other sweet peppers. I would choose colorful red, yellow or orange pods available from your grocer. You can usually find a small variety, depending on where you shop. It would also work with bells. You could easily include a mix of peppers to add a bit of spice, too. Let me know how it turns out for you. — Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
Does this need to be refrigerated?
REPLY: Larry, I like to refrigerate my sauces, even the ones below 4.0 ph, but the choice is yours. — Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.