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.
Daphne Timms says
I am not a chilli lover, but my son wanted me to make him super hot chili sauce. I used your recipe, went off with a bang He called it Mumma’s gotcha sauce. Thank you. Christmas now sorted!!
Mike Hultquist says
This is awesome to hear, Daphne! I love it! And I love the name. Perfect.
Allie says
Love!! Made it with bell peppers for movie night. Not everyone could handle it, but I loved!! The heat was just right! Will definitely make again!!
Mike Hultquist says
Nice! Something fun for movie night! I love it. Thanks, Allie!
JONESCRUSHER says
If you wish to truly make a super hot sauce; you need to increase the amount of peppers
being used. Instead of 1 pound of assorted peppers; you should use 5 pounds of each pepper. Be sure to add all the seeds and the membranes of each peppers(that's were the pepper's heat is located at).
what should you do with your hot sauce?
let's say you're still in high school. I'm sure you'll know some "REAL MAN" type guys(usually football players). Challenge them to test your hot sauce. Possibly place a sizeable bet too. Make sure the test will be witnessed by a large group of students. Have them eat a hot dog that's been completely coated in the hot sauce. If they eat ALL of the hot dog; they'll win the bet.
Mike Hultquist says
If you increase the amount of peppers, you may need to increase the amount of liquid, or else you'll wind up with a paste. Adjust with liquid to your desired consistency.
Daniel says
Could you ferment this as well?
Mike Hultquist says
Absolutely, Daniel.
Ara says
i made a mixed pepper vinegar sauce and added in a few too many scorpions... honestly i couldn't tell the difference btw the habaneros, scorpions and the hot pimentos. so now i have a huge mason jar of my beautiful peppers and it's too hot for me to enjoy. what's the best method to dilute the heat? sugar? more vinegar? help, please. thanks
the only ingredients in my recipe are cider vinegar, salt, olive oil, garlic clove and the peppers.
Mike Hultquist says
Ara, the best way is to mix another batch of sauce with mild pepper or no heat peppers, then combine them. Or, add in other ingredients for dilution, like tomato, fruit, carrot.
John Adams says
Honey
Gay McDonald says
Try this one, Mike: 30 Carolina Reapers, 3 cloves garlic, 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, 1.5 cups vinegar, 0.5 cups water,1 tsp salt, 1 tsp smoky paprika. Start by hot-smoking the Reapers lightly. Blitz the Reapers with the garlic and ginger until fairly fine. Add all ingredients to a pot and cook on a low heat for around 20 to 30 minutes, until reduced to a sauce consistency. Enjoy! I have also fermented the smoked Reapers with the garlic and ginger - wow!
Mike Hultquist says
An excellent combo! 5 Stars!
Melanie Grzesik says
Hi Mike, I just opened a new restaurant and I was looking for a sauce to use in combination with other ingredients for my wing sauce. Is this something I could use for a very, very hot wing sauce?
Mike Hultquist says
Hi, Melanie. Yes, this is VERY hot. You can pretty easily order up some jars of superhot pepper puree and make this recipe in bulk. Let me know how it goes for you.
Craig says
Made this several times. Can’t get enough. I put it on just about everything. Many folks I know say they love hot but few can handle it. Waiting for fresh peppers but have a huge bag of dried. Can’t roast these but make sauce anyway. Thanks for all your recipes.
Mike Hultquist says
Glad you're enjoying it, Craig! I love this style of hot sauce. You actually can lightly pan toast the dried pods in a dry pan, just enough to coax out some extra flavor, a minute or 2, then rehydrate to make hot sauce. Works great! I appreciate it!
Kort Kramer says
I usually ferment my peppers when making sauces so I'm looking forward to giving this fairly straightforward recipe a try. I didn't grow my own yet this year -- where would you recommend purchasing pods from at a reasonable price? The grocery stores near me top out with serranos and habaneros. Thanks!
~ Kort
Mike Hultquist says
Hey, Kort. You can check with Superhotchiles.com, or honestly, there are many chili pepper groups on Facebook where people sell boxes of their harvest.
Thomas Wagner says
I like to make my own hot sauce but I like to ferment the peppers first. How would you make this recipe by fermenting? Would you roast everything first then ferment including the basil?
Mike Hultquist says
Thomas, check out these posts for Fermented Hot Sauce (https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/recipes/fermented-hot-sauce/) and How to Ferment Peppers (https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/cooking-with-chili-peppers/how-to-make-fermented-pepper-mash/). You can do it the way you suggest, or just ferment the peppers and add in other ingredients later.
Carsten says
delicious! I used Serrano and Thai chillies for this recipe. It worked great.
Mike Hultquist says
Glad you enjoyed it, Carsten!
tim schafer says
Hi Mike, just made a batch which I cooked, pureed & bottled. They fermented in the bottle. What did I do wring?
Mike Hultquist says
Tim, it likely the cook wasn't long enough if fermentation started in your mash/puree.
David Ellis says
Just made my first ever bottle...I have never made hot sauce before so this was my first attempt, using some ghost chillies that my friend grew for me from seed (from last year's chillies). I only made a small batch as a tester but really impressed by how easy it was, and wow, what a punch...looking forward to enjoying this over coming weeks.
I plan to do a few different versions, trying various ingredients such as mango, ginger, etc. Really pleased with my first attempt though, and I am very much hooked!
Many thanks for providing that inspiration through your wonderful website.
Mike Hultquist says
Awesome! Thanks for sharing, David! I love it!
Robert says
I don’t know of I did something wrong but mine became very weak. Level of spiceiness is equal to siracha.
I used 25 ghost pepper, 10 trinidad scorpion and 3 Carolina reaper, that’s all my plants produced this season.
It all came down to around 3,5 dl of sauce but still it wasnt really spicy.
Some of the chillies has been frosen before, does that affect the heat? Or does some of the heat dissapear in the oven? 15 minutes sharp on 200 c (≈400f)
Mike Hultquist says
Robert, I'm not sure why yours came out not hot enough with all those superhots. The cooking process can lower some of the heat, but my guess is those peppers you used just weren't all that hot to begin with. Or you have an insanely high tolerance! Yes, frozen CAN affect heat a little, but they'll still be plenty hot.
Bobby Collins says
Can I add more water and vinegar to this mix to maximize the number of bottles of sauces I get from this?
If I cook this sauce and keep my ph around 3.4 I should be able to bottle this right?
Mike Hultquist says
Yes, Bobby, you can add water to thin. No problem. Also, yes. 3.4 pH is great.
Sean says
I make fermented super hot sauce every year. I have always had great luck with vacuum sealer bag method. I don't believe you have ever mentioned that method and was just wondering your thoughts.
Mike Hultquist says
It's very similar to dry brine fermenting in a jar, just in a sealed bag. Works great, I've heard, though I use jars for mine. I have some relevant info at this page: https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/cooking-with-chili-peppers/how-to-make-fermented-pepper-mash/. Thanks for sharing!
Christa says
We had an unexpectedly large harvest of Carolina Reapers this year - probably due to the hot, dry summer - so i tried the recipe. Once the fumes had cleared a bit and I could approach the sauce safely, I gave it a try. I like the flavour - the basil really works. I would consider to do the processing entirely outside and maybe wear a snorkel pointed backwards next time...
Mike Hultquist says
Thanks, Christa. Yes, fumes!!
Jes says
I’ve just received a variety of super hot peppers. Single peppers of about 7 varieties. What can I make to try them each individually? Is there a single pepper recipe?
Mike Hultquist says
Jes, this and most of my hot sauce recipes can be made with a single type of pepper. Also, see jellies/jams, dehydrating (you can make spices/flakes), other sauces, and more. Check through the recipe section at the top. I hope you find a lot of recipes you enjoy. Try this one, but with your single peppers: https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/recipes/carolina-reaper-hot-sauce/
Norman T. Paul says
Why does the hot sauce separate. Oil sits at bottom of bottle. I ferment for 2 weeks just chilli and Garlic then blendwith a dash of Vinegar then boil and bottle. The pulp separates from the oil that sit on the bottom of the bottle. How can I resolve this separation?
Mike Hultquist says
Norman, you can look into a thickener to help. Separation is normal, and you can just shake the bottle, no problem. But, for a thickener, check out Xanthan Gum. It works great and has no affect on flavor. https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/ingredients/xanthan-gum/
Donna says
I just made this and tasted. WOW. I used scorpion, ghost, and habanero, because those are the hottest we are growing this year. My husband told me (after tasting) that he didn't think he could use it... so I am going to dilute the heat (slightly). Thanks!!
Mike Hultquist says
Boom! Yes! Thanks, Donna!