A recipe to make your own homemade cayenne pepper sauce in your own kitchen, with store bought or garden grown cayenne peppers, garlic, vinegar and salt. It's super easy and super flavorful.
Make Your Own Cayenne Hot Sauce
Cayenne pepper sauce is by far one of the most popular hot sauce varieties in the U.S. You'll see it packed into specialty hot sauce bottles all over the place, and there are some pretty famous cayenne pepper sauce products out there.
Perhaps you've heard of some of them - Frank's RedHot? Original Louisiana Hot Sauce? Crystal?
Yeah, some big names out there making some pretty awesome cayenne sauces. I love them all.
The thing is, when your garden is EXPLODING with several cayenne pepper type varieties, you really gotta make some yourself, because if there's anything better than hot sauce, my friends, it is Homemade Hot Sauce!
YES!
So yeah, we're talking Homemade Cayenne Pepper Sauce and it's fabulous.
I'm making this particular sauce purely with cayenne peppers, though I'm adding in some garlic for a bit of extra flavor. I flat out LOVE garlic in sauces.
Brings it over the edge for sure.
About the Cayenne Peppers
You may have heard of cayenne chili peppers, but there are also a number of cayenne types out there, so you don't have to limit yourself to what you find in the stores.
Check these babies out, picked straight from my garden.
Don't get me wrong. Store bought cayenne peppers are outstanding for this sauce, but I've made with this other cayenne types that I grew in my own garden, like the ones above, including:
Yes, I've even made this Cayenne Buist's, which are yellow pods, and the hot sauce came out great. It's a super simple base recipe, but that's the great thing about it.
You're free to play around with it and include other ingredients to your preference.
So let's talk about how to make cayenne pepper hot sauce, shall we?
Cayenne Hot Sauce Ingredients
- Cayenne Peppers.
- Garlic.
- Vinegar. I'm using white wine vinegar, though others will work.
- Salt.
How to Make Cayenne Pepper Sauce - The Recipe Method
First, gather up your cayenne peppers. Clean and dry them.
Chop up the cayenne peppers along with garlic cloves and add them to a pot with white wine vinegar and a bit of salt.
Bring the mix to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer everything for 20 minutes. The peppers and garlic will be nicely softened.
Cool the mixture slightly, then transfer it to a food processor or blender. Process it until the sauce is nice and smooth.
Strain the sauce through a fine sieve if you'd like a smoother sauce, or pour it into bottles as-is for a thicker sauce.
Done! Simple enough, right? I use this to make a great homemade Buffalo sauce recipe.
Recipe Notes and Information on Yields
My included recipe yields 5 ounces of strained sauce, which is the size of a typical hot sauce bottle. To make enough strained cayenne pepper sauce to fill a 5 ounce bottle, you'll need to start with 10 ounces of cayenne peppers, 6 garlic cloves, and 1/2 cup of vinegar. Plus some salt.
This is approximate, but should get you quite close. And note again that this is STRAINED. Unstrained, the above measurements will yield you about 1-1/3 cups of cayenne pepper sauce.
Straining definitely thins out the sauce, though you can also thin it and/or stretch the sauce out by adding more vinegar or water, or perhaps another liquid, such as lime juice or beer. Consider the flavor possibilities.
Just be sure to weigh out your peppers first based on how much you're looking to make.
Fermented vs. Non-Fermented Cayenne Pepper Sauce
As you'll see, this is a fresh pepper hot sauce, meaning I did not ferment it. I have no preference over fermented or non-fermented hot sauces, as either has their advantages, though fermenting your peppers first does mellow them out considerably.
If you're interested in fermenting, check out my post on How to Ferment Chili Peppers, and simply incorporate them into the recipe below.
Learn More About Hot Sauce Making
That's it, my friends! I hope you enjoy the hot sauce! Go cayenne!
Safety Advice
When working with very hot chili peppers peppers, including superhot chili peppers, it is important to wear gloves when handling the peppers both in raw and dried forms.
The oils can get on your skin and cause burning sensations.
Need help? How to Stop the Chili Pepper Burn On Your Skin.
Frequently Asked Hot Sauce Questions
Here are answers to some of the most common questions I get on other sauces:
How long will this sauce keep?
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.
The best ph meters that I recommend are from Thermoworks. Get yourself a ph meter from Thermoworks today. I am a happy affiliate.
Where'd you get that 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.
Can I process this hot sauce for longer storage?
Absolutely. Just be sure to use proper canning/jarring safety procedures.
What should I do with hot sauce?
Aside from drizzling it over anything you please, here's a post I did about How to Cook with Hot Sauce. As if you need even MORE reasons to eat hot sauce. I hope you find it helpful!
Try Some of My Other Popular Hot Sauce Recipes
- Homemade Sriracha (both fermented and non-fermented varieties)
- Roasted Red Jalapeno Hot Sauce
- Fermented Aji-Garlic Hot Sauce
- Devil's Tongue Hot Sauce
- Honey Roasted Hot Pepper Hot Sauce
- Spicy Serrano Hot Sauce
- Ti-Malice – Hatian Creole Hot Sauce
- Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce
- Superhot Hot Sauce (The Hottest Damn Hot Sauce I Ever Made)
- Homemade Tabasco Sauce
- How to Make Hot Sauce from Chili Powders
Also see: Cayenne Pepper Benefits.
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.
Homemade Cayenne Pepper Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 ounces cayenne chili peppers
- 5-6 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup white wine vinegar (or more, as desired - use 1 cup for a thinner sauce)
- 1 teaspoon salt + more to taste
Instructions
- Chop up the cayenne peppers along with garlic cloves and add them to a pot with the vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt.
- Bring the mix to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer everything for 20 minutes.
- Cool the mixture slightly, then transfer it to a food processor or blender. Process it until the sauce is nice and smooth. Adjust to taste with more salt if desired
- Strain the sauce through a fine sieve if you'd like a smoother sauce, or pour it into bottles as-is for a thicker sauce.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Kimberly says
I can’t find fresh cayenne peppers at this time of year. Can I use dried cayenne peppers?
Mike Hultquist says
You sure can, Kimberly. I have a post on How to Make Hot Sauce from Dried Peppers that you can refer to as well: https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/recipes/how-to-make-hot-sauce-from-dried-peppers/
Clark Dunson says
Mike!
All fresh from our garden, cayennes 1st,YUM! Then red Fresnos, Pretty good, and today, a mix of Calabrian, cayenne, and king fu peppers. Smelling pretty good in here right now!
Cheers and thank you-
Kathryn & Clark
Mike Hultquist says
Awesome! Happy hot sauce making, Kathryn & Clark!
Carmine Campana says
The recipe sounds fantastic, I'm having issues finding cayenne peppers at the stores , I even looked online, does anyone have a source , I would appreciate it ...I'm in the process of trying to grow them inside. I'll be getting seedlings in a few days...but I would love to find a place to buy them ...thank you
Mike Hultquist says
Carmine, you can check my Resources page here (https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/resources/) but also check with some online Facebook groups that sometimes sell fresh pods. This is a late time of year for peppers and will be harder to find.
N Beattie says
delicious! I made about a gallon. can I freeze some and how long would it be good in the freezer?
Mike H. says
Thank you! Yes, you can! And we are talking about 6 months at least without significant loss of flavor or quality.
Heather Priestly says
SO good! Did not strain- really exciting to use the whole pepper! My sons love the amazing flavour in this sauce- not just overwhelming heat
Mike Hultquist says
Yes!! I love it! Thanks, Heather. Glad they enjoyed it!
Swapna Mazumder says
Due to the crazy summer we had here on the west coast a lot of the cayennes didn't ripen to red. Can I add ground gochugaru pepper to the above recipe only because i have a couple of packages kicking around from my kimchi recipe. Does it matter how much? Will the green and red give me a muddy color final product? With our habanero and bhut jolokia I made apple pepper jelly, habanero jam and cranberry bhut jolokia jam. Thanks for the recipes. I also made a indian style pickle with bhut jolokia(mustard oil, garlic, ground coriander,lime and turmeric) it is a killer but the neat thing is that after the initial shock the heat mellows out and doesn't linger.
Mike Hultquist says
Hi, Swapna. Yes, you can add gochugaru. I often like to add a tablespoon or 2 to my batches of hot sauce. Chili powder often helps meld the overall flavors. It's a nice addition. You can mix red and green for hot sauce, though yes, you won't get the vibrant red color, but it will be tasty. You can save the green and make a verde version. Sounds like a great harvest. Cheers!
Cristina says
Second year using this as my go-to hot sauce recipe, it’s so easy and puts out a great product. Added different chilis this year. I don’t strain it and keep it fairly thick, putting it into small canning jars. I store them in the freezer until I need them. Plan on giving a few jars away as gifts.
Mike Hultquist says
Awesome! Thanks for sharing, Cristina! Perfect gifts!