This Superhot Hot Sauce Recipe is made with a variety of superhot chili peppers including carolina reapers, 7-pot peppers and scorpion peppers. It's extremely hot and not for the faint of heart. For true chiliheads only!
Superhot Hot Sauce Recipe
OK, my friends. It's time to reveal one of the hottest hot sauces I have ever made in my own kitchen. Yes, it's homemade and it's crazy hot. Crazy hot in a good sort of way, the way only a serious chilihead can enjoy. This might just be the hottest hot sauce in the world that you can make right at home!
I grow a big variety of chili peppers every year. I love a range of heat and flavors, from flavorful sweet peppers all the way up to superhots with their incredible heat.
I use them in so many ways, and one of my favorites it making homemade hot sauce. I do enjoy milder sauces that focus on flavor over heat, but every now and then, I want some seriously heat in my hot sauce. That's when this hot sauce comes in - a hot sauce made from superhot chili peppers.
Superhot Hot Sauce Ingredients
- Superhot Chili Peppers - Use reapers, scorpions, 7 pots - use your favorite varieties - stems removed – use a mix! Anything over 1 Millions Scovilles, baby!
- Garlic
- Basil Leaves
- Vinegar
- Salt
Hot to Make Superhot Hot Sauce
Roast the peppers. Heat an oven to 400°F. Set the superhot chili peppers and garlic on a baking sheet and bake them about 15-20 minutes, or until the skins slightly char. Keep an eye on these. You don't want them to burn, and watch out for any fumes.
NOTE: Alternatively, do this on your grill outside.
Process the ingredients. Add peppers to a food processor. Squeeze garlic out of their skins and into the food processor they go. Add basil leaves and process.
Vinegar. While processing, add in vinegar until it is nicely pureed. Watch out for the fumes!
Salt and strain, if desired. Add salt and stir. Push the sauce through a strainer or use a food mill to really strain it, if desired. Adjust with more vinegar or water to your desired consistency.
NOTE: I don't always strain. It really depends on how thick you want your hot sauce.
Bottle it up. Pour into bottles and enjoy. Give to your friends! The longer you let it sit, the more the flavors will meld.
Recipe Tips & Notes
- Protect yourself from fumes. Aside from the obvious heat you will achieve with this sauce, you must also beware of fumes in the kitchen. Make this sauce in a well ventilated room. Open the windows if you can. Pepper fumes can be rough, especially with superhots. Consider a mask and/or goggle to protect your eyes.
- Also, wear gloves. I cook with superhots all the time and the oils usually do not bother my skin, but when cooking with a large amount, cutting them open, handling them, you will get some on your skin. It may burn, but if not, it can still burn other parts of your body that you touch.
- Let it sit. Once you've made the hot sauce, jar or bottle it and let it sit a week or two for the flavors to truly meld, though you can eat it right away if you'd like.
Where did you get that hot 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. If you like the smaller bottles that most hot sauce makers use, here's another link: Hot Sauce Bottles, 5 Oz - 24 Pack.
How hot is this superhot sauce?
With superhots, you can expect a wide range of heat, though the majority of them start at over 1 Million SHU. Some will approach or surpass 2 Million SHU, which is somewhat insane, but again, these are ranges so you can typically expect your pepper heat to fall in the middle somewhere.
The heat depends on many factors, such as soil and growing conditions of the particular peppers. Well, my peppers must have been grown under some ideal conditions, because they were HOT. I didn't want them to go to waste, so I turned the majority of them into a hot sauce that I still have today.
This is a Louisiana style hot sauce with a few extras added in for flavor. A Louisiana style hot sauce consists of peppers and vinegar, and they're extremely popular.
With good reason. This superhot version brings in the variety of superhots and adds in roasted garlic and basil. That's it, with a bit of salt. You can expect variable results depending on the chili peppers you choose to work with.
To push for the top end of the scale, use only Reapers or 7-Pot Brain Strains if you can get them. Pure Scorpions would be crazy killer hot. Or vary it up like I did. You can also make this with roasted jalapenos, or pretty much any pepper you prefer.
Choose your peppers with love. That is always a good place to start.
Storage
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.
I have not measured the ph of this sauce, but I won't have it around very long anyway. If you're concerned, add more vinegar to lower the ph.
The best ph meters that I recommend are from Thermoworks. Get yourself a ph meter from Thermoworks today. I am a happy affiliate.
See my post on "Does Hot Sauce Need to be Refrigerated?"
Enjoy More Hot Sauce Recipes
- Homemade Sriracha (both fermented and non-fermented varieties)
- Cayenne Pepper Sauce
- Ti-Malice – Hatian Creole Hot Sauce
- Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce
- Habanero Hot Sauce
- How to Make Hot Sauce: The Ultimate Guide
- More Hot Sauce Recipes
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.
Superhot Hot Sauce Recipe (The Hottest Hot Sauce I Ever Made)
Ingredients
- 1 pound superhot chili peppers (reapers, scorpions, 7 pots - use your favorite varieties) stems removed – use a mix! Anything over 1 Millions Scovilles, baby!
- 4 cloves garlic
- 12 large basil leaves
- 1 cup vinegar + more as needed
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Heat an oven to 400 degrees. Set the superhot chili peppers and garlic on a baking sheet and bake them about 15-20 minutes, or until the skins slightly char. Keep an eye on these. You don't want them to burn, and watch out for any fumes. Alternatively, do this on your grill outside.
- Add peppers to a food processor. Squeeze garlic out of their skins and into the food processor they go.
- Add basil leaves and process.
- While processing, add in vinegar until it is nicely pureed. Watch out for the fumes!
- Add salt and stir. Push the sauce through a strainer or use a food mill to really strain it, if desired. Adjust with more vinegar or water to your desired consistency.
- Pour into bottles and enjoy. Give to your friends! The longer you let it sit, the more the flavors will meld.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
NOTE: This recipe was updated on 11/26/21 to include new information, photos and video. It was originally published on 11/20/15.
ajacobs3 says
If you dehydrate the peppers and make a flake/powder, how much would you use to make this sauce?
REPLY: The ratio by weight is typically 10 raw to 1 dry, so you should factor accordingly, though it may take a bit of experimentation. I make hot sauce from dried pods frequently and it always works out great. One habanero sauce I do calls for about 30 dried pods. Love it. -- Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
Jason L says
I am growing some Carolina Reapers and some Carolina Reaper hybrids this year and plan to make a sauce using this method but adding a twist to it. I am going to use some strawberry to add some natural sweetness, throw in a bunch of cayenne peppers I am growing for more color and add some lime juice. The lime juice adds a punchof flavor and helps preserve it a bit longer. I can't wait for my Reapers to ripen, thanks 🙂
Horácio says
Just made mine, used 6 scorpion morugas I purchased at the local market, plus some garlic gloves. Baked then, gave the scorpions a little char, then into the food processor they went, along with some vinegar and sunflower oil. They desintegrated and turned into a great sauce, really spicy, but not as killer as I imagened it would be. Didn't need to strain, but some seeds remained. I had never tried superhots before, but they sure did put all my previous sauces to their knees 😀 They all seem like vinaigrette to me now 🙂
REPLY: Horacio, that's awesome! -- Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
Jay says
Thanks for great sauce recipe. I used Carolina Reapers and it is divine! I wish I could capture the roasting smell in a bottle. So yummy and fiery
Mitch says
I'm conditioned so that my head starts to sweat just reading recipes like this.
I'm growing Reapers this year and I also have a nice crop of habaneros coming in.
I've seen many recipes that ferment the sauce for about a week before bottling.
What does that do for it?
Also: do you include the seeds and membranes?
REPLY: Mitch, fermenting the pods mellows them out and does add a lot of flavor. I am currently fermenting a load of peppers and will be writing about this soon. I DO include the membranes and seeds, though you can remove them before fermenting and saucing. With superhots, though, removing the membranes won't really reduce the heat as the heat is spread throughout the pod, unlike milder peppers. -- Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
Barry Moon says
I have one rookie question- why the basil? I've never seen herbs of any kind in hot sauce ingredients lists before- commercial or otherwise. Salsa, yes, but not hot sauce. What does this do for it?
REPLY: Barry, I LOVE fresh basil in sauces. Adds a nice dimension. You can try cilantro, which would be nice as well. -- Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
DAniel Lehman says
I am assuming using dried reaper peppers is OK for the recipe?
REPLY: Daniel, yes, you can use rehydrated dried peppers. No problem! Let me know how it turns out. -- Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
Jess says
I tried this recipe yesterday because my husband loves hot chilli sauce but following heart surgery we are watching his salt intake and the commercial sauces are pure salt - even a lot of recipes I've found are very salt heavy. This sauce was quick to make and tasted great - or so I'm told - I lost all feeling in my face : )
carol says
Hi, I have just made this recipe today, thanks, so easy to do. I do not grow any super hots so just used several orange habanero and made up the rest with a mix of other milder chillies I grew last season - still very tasty and very hot.
Ronald says
Texan stuck in Ga. Other than ONE Mexican restaurant, the ideas of spicy in ga I call tap water. I am real happy to have found your page. I heard of a chili a long time ago that is so hot it could cook an egg when the chili is still cold. Any ideas what types of spices they used for that? Also what is the best garden or Greenhouse setup for getting the most flavor and keeping the heat?
REPLY: Ronald, thanks, and glad you found the site. You can refer to our growing section on growing info, though I have not personally setup a greenhouse. Sorry. I haven't heard of an egg being cooked in a cold chili. Not sure on that one! But I'd love to see that! -- Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
Jon Hendrickson says
Do you have a resource for dried peppers? I can't find any of the ones mentioned in my area, fresh or dried.
REPLY: Jon, check out some of our Resources pages for links you can try: https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/resources/chili-seeds - Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
Kris says
Looks wonderful. I fortunately live close to Smokin Ed Currie's shop in South Caroilna and was able to pick up a packet of Carolina Reaper seeds among a few other varieties. Just now getting a few seedlings, and I'll have then growing in a table-top greenhouse over the winter until I get them outdoors. Can't wait to try the recipe. Do you know where to get the small bottles to store the sauce? Amazon?
REPLY: Sounds great, Kris. Yes, I get bottles from Amazon. I have some linksin some of the hot sauce pages where you can find them. Thanks! -- Mike from Chili Pepper Madness.
Kristin says
I made two batches with these recipe--one with ghost pepper, one with Trinidad Scorpion. Both turned out great, but I did add extra vinegar to thin it out. I used my NutriBullet to purée it so I didn't need to use a strainer. Thanks for the recipe!