Want spicy salt? Or salt with additional flavor? Learn how to make your own salt blends for gifts or home use. Here is a method with recipe.

How to Make Spicy Salt

If you've ever perused the aisles of a specialty food store, you've probably encountered a variety of salt blends available to you. There are some wonderful blends and combinations for pretty much anything you might need. You might even own a few. I do. I've received them as gifts and I've picked some up myself.

But, I soon realized that I wanted specific blends of my own, and the stores just weren't selling them.

So, we made our own. We have small batches all over the house now with different combinations, like a spicy celery salt blend in the bar for Bloody Mary's, or the excellent superhot salt blend in the kitchen that I like to use as a finisher.

Some meals call for a fresh blast of salt over the top for serving, but as you know, I personally enjoy the heat. You may or may not like it as hot as I do, but the principle still applies.

You can incorporate milder peppers or other dried ingredients to achieve the flavors you desire.

To make your own salt blends, you'll need... SALT! But not just any salt. Look for flaky salt, the larger the flakes the better. You'll be blending or grinding them into smaller flakes.

You'll also need dehydrated chili peppers or pepper flakes. You can purchase some in the store or order online.

Or, if you're like me, you can dehydrate them yourself. See: “How to Dehydrate Chili Peppers” or our “Spicy or Chili Pepper Blends” pages.

This is a very basic recipe that only uses salt and peppers, though you can also add in other dried ingredients, such as garlic powder, peppercorns, dried lime zest, etc.

How to Make Spicy Salt Blends - Ingredients

Coarse sea salt.
Crushed dried peppers. I used a blend of Reaper, 7-Pots and Scorpions, but use milder peppers for less heat.

Homemade Spicy Salt Blend looking extremely good

How to Make Spicy Salt Blends - The Recipe Method

Set the ingredients into a food processor or use a mortar. I used our molcajete. It works great. Focus on the amount of salt. This is a salt blend, after all.

Pulse to combine in the food processor, or use the pestle to grind up the salt and peppers into a uniform blend.

Once everything is ground up to your desired consistency, transfer it to a serving jar or better yet, to a grinder.

Storage Tips

I like to store it in a jar, but with a grinder, you can grind just a bit over your foods as needed. I keep versions of this down in our bar for meals. I also like to keep a superhot spice blend with just a few pinches of salt in the bar for pizza nights. It is the PERFECT spicy pizza topping. So good!

Also, homemade salt blends make wonderful holiday gifts. Again, you don't have to use SUPERHOTS like I do. Consider what flavors you might want to incorporate for your family and friends.

What do they love? Focus on that. But if you know any chiliheads out there, and I'm guessing you do, they would LOVE to receive something like this at the next holiday gathering. Enjoy!

Making my own Spicy Salt Blends in a molcajete

Recipe Tips & Notes

You can use a food processor to make this recipe, but also - a mortar or molcajete.
This homemade salt blend makes a wonderful holiday gift.
You don't have to use superhots like I do. It's totally up to you!

Patty's Perspective

I particularly LOVE salt, more than I should, I'm sure, but I often want more flavor than just salt. This type of salt blend is great because when you grind it onto your food, it will be very fresh and powerful.

And yes, this makes an excellent holiday gift because most people won't think of making it for themselves. Once they try it, though, they'll be asking for more.

Check Out Some of My Other Homemade Seasoning Blends