Easy Roasted Jalapeño Sauce

This roasted jalapeño sauce is incredibly easy to make, and one that I whip together often. It uses only four ingredients: charred jalapeños, roasted garlic, a spoonful of crema, and salt.

I made this way back in 2015 and the recipe is just as good as it ever was. It started with crab claws.

We picked up fresh stone crab from a local fishery on a trip to Florida, and we had a pile of gorgeous red and green jalapeños from the market sitting on the counter. A buck for the whole lot. Stone crab usually comes with a creamy mustard sauce, and I've made my own version of that plenty of times, but we both wanted something different that day.

There's a Tex-Mex place near us that serves a roasted jalapeño sauce I've always loved. I figured I'd make my own and see how it played against the crab.

Here it is, my friends.

Roasting the jalapeños pulls out the sharp green bite, and you get new flavors with smoke, sweetness, and the perfect mellow heat. Blend them with roasted garlic and a little crema and you have a sauce that goes on everything.

Let's talk about how we make it.

Roasted Jalapeno Pepper Sauce Ingredients

• Jalapeño Peppers. Red jalapeños are worth grabbing if you can find them. Leave them on the plant longer if you're growing them, until they turn read. They roast up a bit sweeter than the green ones. A mix of red and green gives you the best of both.
• Garlic. Roast them right along with the peppers. Roasting turns garlic sweet and mellow.
• Crema. Mexican crema is thinner and tangier than sour cream and it blends in nice and smooth. See the substitutions below if you can't find it.
• Salt. To taste, at the end.

How to Roast Jalapeños for This Sauce

Roast them. Heat your oven to 450 degrees F. Set the jalapeños and unpeeled garlic cloves on a baking sheet and roast about 20 minutes, flipping the peppers halfway through. You want the skins charred in spots and blistered up.

Or use the broiler. Faster if you're in a hurry. Set the rack a few inches from the element and broil, turning the peppers every couple of minutes until they're blistered all over. Watch them. Broilers move quick and garlic burns before peppers do, so pull the garlic early if it's coloring fast.

See my post on how to roast peppers for alternate methods.

Steam them. Move the peppers to a bowl and cover it, or seal them in a bag. Ten minutes of steaming loosens the skins and makes peeling easy. A bowl with a plate on top works just as well as a bag.

Peel, or don't. Slip the loosened skins off with your fingers. Honestly, peeling jalapeños is fiddlier than peeling poblanos or bells because they're small, and you don't have to do it. Leaving the charred skins on gives you a darker, smokier, slightly more rustic sauce. Peel for a smoother, cleaner-tasting one. I love this either way.

Blend it. Peppers and peeled garlic into a food processor or blender. Add the crema and process until smooth. You can also blitz it for a chunkier sauce instead of going full creamy. Great for when you want some texture over tacos.

Season and serve. Salt to taste. Boom.

Adjust the Thickness

The amount of crema makes the difference between a dip and sauce.

• Thick and scoopable. Stick with the 1 tablespoon in the recipe. You get a chunky, jalapeno-forward sauce with good heat, great for dipping crab claws or chips.
• Creamy and spoonable. Bump the crema to 2 or 3 tablespoons. It's slightly looser and more mellow, great over tacos and grilled fish.
• Pourable drizzle. A quarter cup of crema, or thin with a teaspoon of milk at a time until it drips off the spoon. Good in a squeeze bottle.

More crema means milder, every time. Dairy knocks down the heat in chilies, so if you overshoot on the peppers you can always cream your way back.

You control the texture too. Process it a long time for extra smooth, or pulse it a few times and leave it chunky.

Adjust the Heat

• Milder. Cut the peppers open before roasting and scrape out the seeds and the white membranes. Most of the heat lives in those innards, not the seeds themselves. More crema does the rest.
• As written. I leave everything in. Two whole jalapeños with the seeds and membranes puts this at a solid medium, and roasting already tames the heat some.
• Hotter. Swap in serranos, or use one jalapeño and one serrano to keep some of that jalapeño flavor. Serranos roast beautifully.
• Wild. Roast a habanero along with the jalapeños. One is plenty. Habaneros bring fruit and a very different kind of heat, and roasting deepens it.

Roasting always mellows a pepper compared to raw, so if you've made my raw jalapeño sauces and found them hot, this one will hit softer for you.

Serving Suggestions

• With seafood. Stone crab claws, snow crab, boiled shrimp, anything you'd normally serve with a cocktail or mustard sauce. It's outstanding on grilled fish, especially something firm like mahi or snapper.
• As a dip. Keep it thick and set it out with tortilla chips, crackers, or raw vegetables. Works on a party table.
• Over tacos. Fish tacos especially, but it's good on carnitas, shrimp tacos, and anything Tex-Mex.
• On burgers and sandwiches. Spread it on the bun. Great on a grilled chicken sandwich.
• On eggs. Scrambled eggs, breakfast burritos, huevos rancheros.
• With grilled meat. Chicken thighs, skirt steak, pork chops. Spoon it over after they come off the grill.

Substitutions and Variations

No crema? Sour cream is the easiest swap and it's usually in the fridge. Try sour cream with a splash of heavy cream for a touch richer and closer to the real thing. Greek yogurt works, though it's tangier.

Add lime. A squeeze brightens the whole thing up. Not how I first made it, but good.

Add cilantro. A tablespoon or two blended in takes it in a greener direction.

Make it a hot sauce. If you're after something bottled and vinegary instead, skip the crema entirely and go make my Jalapeño Hot Sauce or Roasted Red Jalapeño Hot Sauce. Different recipe, different flavors.

Use red jalapeños. Sweeter, and the sauce turns a beautiful muted orange instead of green.

Storage & Leftovers

Store this sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator and use it within 5 days. It's a dairy sauce, so it doesn't keep the way a vinegar-based hot sauce does. Make what you'll use.

You can freeze it for up to 3 months. The crema may separate a bit as it thaws, so whisk or re-blend it before serving.

Get it into the fridge promptly after serving. Don't leave it sitting out on the table all afternoon.

More Jalapeno Sauce Recipes to Try

• Creamy Jalapeno Sauce (Salsa Dona)
• Roasted Red Jalapeno Pepper Hot Sauce
• Pineapple-Jalapeno Hot Sauce
• Jalapeno-Honey-Bourbon BBQ Sauce
• Or try this Spicy Serrano Hot Sauce Recipe or this Roasted Poblano Cream Sauce Recipe.

See my other Sauce Recipes and 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.

FAQ

Do I need to seed the jalapeños?

I don't. The seeds are edible, and most of the heat comes from the white membrane surrounding them rather than the seeds themselves. Scrape out both if you want a milder sauce.

Do I have to peel the roasted peppers?

No. Peeling gives you a smoother, cleaner sauce, and leaving the charred skins on gives you a smokier, more rustic one. Both are good.

Can I can this sauce?

This one should can fine, though I'd point you to tested canning guidelines for the process. My oil-based jalapeño sauce is a different story, because canning sauces with oil in them isn't recommended.

Can I make this ahead?

Yes. It's good the day you make it and honestly better the next, once the roasted garlic settles in. Five days in the fridge.

What's the difference between this and jalapeño crema?

Roasting. This one uses charred peppers for a smoky, sweeter sauce with a heavier pepper-to-dairy ratio. My jalapeño crema uses raw jalapeños with lime and cilantro in a much larger dairy base, so it comes out bright and pourable.