Jamaican Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce is fruity, hot, sweet, and incredibly easy to make! A mix of bold Jamaican seasonings compliment the natural flavors of the peppers in a beautiful way. Serve this sauce with chicken or seafood to really elevate your meal!
Jamaican Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce
Scotch Bonnet peppers are some of my favorites! In fact, I grow them myself because I just can't get enough of them. They have a good level of heat, very similar to a habanero pepper, along with the duo qualities of being both fruity and somewhat sweet.
It’s the ideal trifecta for me, really – fruity, spicy, and slightly sweet. Yeah, baby! Give me that combo any day of the week. This is a recipe that begs to take your chicken or seafood to the next level.
It's a particularly fiery sauce takes you straight to the Caribbean in the most delicious way!
Ingredients in Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce
- Scotch Bonnet peppers (more info on Scotch Bonnet Peppers)!
- White onion
- Carrot
- Chayote
- Cucumber
- Mango
- Pineapple
- Garlic
- Jalapeño peppers
- Cumin
- Salt
- Apple cider vinegar
- Lime juice and zest
How to Make Jamaican Hot Sauce
Blend, boil, simmer, serve. This recipe couldn't be easier to make!
Blend the ingredients. Add all of the ingredients to a food processor or blender and process until nice and smooth.
Boil, then simmer. Transfer the blended sauce to a large pot and bring to a quick boil. Once boiling, lower the heat and simmer for about 1 hour to let the flavors mingle.
Enjoy! Let the sauce cool to room temperature, then transfer to a container and seal. Refrigerate for at least 1 day to let the flavors develop.
Recipe Tips & Notes
- Adjust the heat level. If you’d like to dial back the heat level, skip the habanero pepper. You can also reduce or skip the serranos, and go with jalapeño peppers only. You’ll still get a nice kick from them.
- Use a good sauce bottle. 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.
- Use it in a variety of ways. You can use it as a marinade for your chicken or fish, or as more of a finishing sauce, or both! It’s also great for swirling a few tablespoons into soups, stews or other sauces to give them a bit of a fiery kick and blast of flavor.
- Let it chill for a while. I let my Jamaican hot sauce sit in the fridge at least a day before using, allowing the flavors to mingle even further.
Storing
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.
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.
Jamaican Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 Scotch Bonnet peppers chopped
- 1 large white onion chopped
- 1 small carrot peeled and chopped
- 1 chayote peeled and chopped
- ½ cucumber chopped
- 1 mango peeled and chopped
- 1 cup chopped pineapple
- 5 cloves garlic chopped
- ½ cup pickled jalapeno peppers chopped
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- Juice from 2 limes plus lime zest
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a food processor or blender and process until nice and smooth.
- Transfer the mixture to a large pot and bring to a quick boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 1 hour to let the flavors mingle.
- Cool, then transfer to a container and seal. Refrigerate at least 1 day to let flavors develop.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Kris says
Do you recommend leaving the seeds in?
Mike Hultquist says
Kris, I usually do, but you can remove them if you'd like. Most of the heat is in the pepper innards, so removing the innards will tame that heat.
Robert says
Awesome!
Mike Hultquist says
Thanks, Robert!
Sydney says
Hi there!
Would it be horrible to omit the pineapple from this? Would you recommend subbing more mango or leaving as is? Just debating, also dont love sweet salsas but since ive never tried this recipe i dont want to misassume the sweetness ratio, thank you!
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Hi, Sydney. Not horrible at all. You can skip it and replace it with mango or more peppers. No problem at all. Make it your way for sure! Enjoy.
Imtiaz says
Fresh, fruity and kicks like an Ox!
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Nice! Thanks for your rating! Glad you enjoyed it!
Jen says
This is the best hot sauce I've ever tasted. I followed the recipe but used half the salt, twice the vinegar and extra mango.
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Boom! Thanks, Jen!
Jesse says
I like this recipe but I find the cumin is overwhelming. Is there something I can do after the fact to dilute that.
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Jesse, sorry to hear. Dilution is the best way, really. You can make another batch without cumin, then combine them. Or, add in some other ingredients to balance it.
Shane says
Hey I have a question can you ferment the scotch bonnets or is this better without doing that? I usually ferment my peppers so not sure if that’s something necessary with this recipe. Can’t wait to try it!
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Hey, Shane. I do not ferment them when making this sauce, but you absolutely can use fermented peppers. I think it would add a very interesting dimension. Let me know how it goes. I'd love to hear it!
Patrick Hofstetter says
Hello Mike,
I have to say that I just completed this recipe with a few of my own tweaks and it is amazing. The two changes I made were simple, I used Zucchini in place of the Chayote and added 1/4 cup of Coconut Sugar to reduce the overall heat.
The sugar also helped with the fact that the mango I used wasn't completely ripened.
I would not say the heat level is that strong on the palate, but blends well with the other flavors.
Thank you for posting this as I needed a great base, and this is it. I would highly recommend this recipe.
I'll be trying it as a marinade tomorrow for some chicken, so I will post the results later as an update.
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Great, Patrick! Thanks!
Amy Hansen says
Hi Mike,
I had an abundance of Scotch Bonnet peppers and was lucky enough to stumble across this recipe which I doubled because of how many peppers I had. I took a taste as it was simmering and after it cooled. Although the heat was tamed a bit after cooling, I can tell I will be the only one in the family enjoying this due to the heat level. Do you think adding brown sugar will help tame the heat?
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Thanks, Amy. Yes, usually a bit of sweetness can help tamp the heat a bit, or at least make it more palatable. Not a ton, but it does help. Let me know how it goes.
Vicki says
I'm a Scotch Bonnet Snob, Habaneros are hot like Scotch Bonnet but they do not have that extra flavor that you taste in Jamaican dishes. My friend got me a bag full on Amazon and they are truly Scotch Bonnet peppers. I have not tried this recipe yet but I will. My sister made Scotch Bonnet sauce that is more of a relish consistency and since I am not a mayonnaise lover the relish makes any can of tuna taste good! Commenters: Try Amazon for SB Peppers!
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Thanks, Vicki. I hope you enjoy it. Yes, definitely a flavor difference. I love my Scotch Bonnets. I grow them often.
Sue says
What can I sub for the chayote? Not sure I can find that here on my little island lol
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Sue, you can use zucchini or yellow squash.
Mike says
I would give this 6 stars.. Followed recipe exactly and what happened.. One of the best sauces I've ever had. And not just me. Anyone I have this through went through their jar in a week. They are asking for more! So much flavour and nice kick.. What a sauce should be!
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Nice! Glad you enjoyed it, Mike!
monique H says
How do you work out the calories for your recipes? I would love to be able to do that
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Monique, it is part of my recipe card software. There are many online calculators you can try as well.