This habanero hot sauce recipe is the perfect mix of fire and flavor with Caribbean red habaneros, carrot, shallot, garlic, and a blend of spices.
Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe
It's hot sauce making time in the Chili Pepper Madness kitchen, my friends. I know you love a good hot sauce.
There are many, many wonderful artisan hot sauces on the market today, and I enjoy so many of them. However, there's something about a good homemade hot sauce that really stands out.
When you make your own hot sauce at home, you control everything that goes into it - the peppers, the spices, the flavor additions, the preservatives - and you can really build that flavor and heat you prefer.
Today I'm making a fiery Habanero Hot Sauce, which focuses on the flavor of habanero peppers, with their excellent mix of fruitiness and warming heat.
Habaneros are ideal for spicy food lovers, as they push the heat factor to the edge without crossing the incendiary heat threshold of the superhots.
There are many ways to make a habanero hot sauce, but this particular recipe incorporates the flavor building additions of garlic, shallot and carrot, along with vinegar and spices to really round out the flavor.
I think you'll love this one, though it's very easy to adjust to really make it your own.
Let's talk about how to make habanero hot sauce, shall we?
Habanero Hot Sauce Ingredients
- Habanero Peppers. I'm using Caribbean red habanero peppers, but you can use orange habaneros or other variety.
- Carrot. Carrot adds body and sweetness to your final hot sauce.
- Garlic.
- Shallot.
- Vinegar. I'm using distilled white vinegar for this recipe.
- Spices. Sweet paprika, oregano, salt and pepper.
How to Make Habanero Hot Sauce - the Recipe Method
Gather Your Ingredients. Add all of the ingredients (carrots, onions, habaneros, garlic, vinegar, spices) to a small pot or sauce pan and bring to a boil.
Simmer the Ingredients. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until all of the ingredients are softened.
Blend the Ingredients. Transfer to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Adjust the Hot Sauce. Taste and adjust for salt and spices. For a thinner consistency, add water 1 tablespoon at a time and process to your desired thickness.
Bottle and serve. Makes about 1 cup hot sauce.
Boom! Done! Your habanero hot sauce is ready to serve. Such a great recipe with great flavor and heat. I hope you love it as much as I do! Time to make some hot sauce.
Recipe Tips & Notes
- Let the hot sauce mingle and mellow out for a day or 2 before using. You can use it right away, but the flavor gets better over time.
- Heat Factor: Medium-Hot. You can up the heat factor with more habaneros or hotter peppers. Reduce the heat to medium heat by replacing some of the habaneros with milder peppers like bell peppers.
- Can't find habanero peppers? Scotch bonnets are a great replacement with their fiery, fruity flavor.
- Strain your hot sauce for a thinner consistency. You can also add more vinegar to thin it out. Save the leftover pulp for use in soups, stews, or other sauces, or dehydrate it to use as a dry seasoning.
- Consider this a starter recipe. Feel free to vary up the ratios and ingredients. Use apple cider vinegar for a tangy addition, add citrus like lemon or lime juice, and switch up the spices to really make this your own.
How Hot is Habanero Hot Sauce?
Habanero peppers are considered very hot peppers, ranging from 100,000 to 350,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU) on the Scoville Scale. Some types can even reach up to 600,000 SHU, which is quite hot.
Compare this to an average jalapeno pepper, which measures 5,000 SHU, and you'll see that habaneros can reach 70 to 120 times hotter. This is approaching peppers like the Ghost Pepper, which is extremely hot.
However, because we're using other ingredients to dilute the overall habanero pepper content, the hot sauce will not be as hot as a raw habanero. This particular hot sauce is more of a Medium-Hot hot sauce.
Storage
This hot sauce will last for many months in a sealed bottle or container because of the vinegar content. Keep refrigerated for longer keeping.
If you'd like to make it shelf stable, measure the pH and adjust to 3.5 or lower for home processing, then process in a water bath. Be sure your bottles are sterilized or very clean before bottling.
See my post on "Does Hot Sauce Need to be Refrigerated?"
That's it, my friends. I hope you enjoy this habanero hot sauce recipe. I love this recipe. Let me know if you make it and how you decided to change it up.
This Recipe Is In our Cookbook - FLAVOR MADNESS
Did you know that you can find this recipe in our new cookbook FLAVOR MADNESS? It's waiting for you on PAGE 56.
Tools Used For This Recipe
Amazon Affiliate links, my friends!
Ninja Food Processor. I use this like crazy to make hot sauces and other sauces, and quick and easy purees.
Hot Sauce Bottles. 5 ounce woozy bottles. I have to buy these in bulk because I keep giving hot sauce away!
Try Some of My Other Popular Recipes
Got any questions? Ask away! I’m happy to help. 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.
Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 3.5 ounces chopped habanero peppers seeds/innards included
- 1 ounce chopped carrot
- 1 ounce chopped garlic
- .5 ounce chopped shallot
- 1 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a small pot and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes, or until all of the ingredients are softened.
- Transfer to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
- Taste and adjust for salt and spices. For a thinner consistency, add water 1 tablespoon at a time and process to your desired thickness.
- Bottle and serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Lori Crane says
Hello! I don't have a food scale. About how many orange habaneros do you think are in 3.5 ounces? I currently have 45 orange Habs from my plant. Can I safely add fresh Cilantro to the sauce? How about tomatoes? Apologies for all the questions. I'm canning for shelf stable storage in pint jars. Thank you.
Mike Hultquist says
Hi, Lori. It's hard because the sizes can really vary. It's best to get a small kitchen scale, but I'd say a good size habanero is about 1/2 ounce. If yours are small, consider them 1/4 ounce. For tomatoes, 3-4 average sized can be about 1 pounds (16 ounces). Yes, you can add fresh cilantro, no problem. Let me know it turns out! Enjoy!
Alex says
I've been on and off experimenting with various hot sauce recipes for over a year now, but none of the recipes that I've tried felt competitive with my favorite store-bought hot sauces, which for me are El Yucateco (red) and Marie Sharp's Original.
This recipe might finally be the exception.
Adjustments I made:
• Had to settle for red habaneros as opposed to Caribbean red habaneros specifically.
• Used 1 oz shallot instead of 0.5 oz (I personally love shallots).
• Used 1/2 tsp of oregano.
• Used 1/2 to 3/4 tsp of salt.
I also did strain the sauce to get rid of pulpy components, but I wanted to re-thicken the sauce somewhat with xantham gum. What amount of xantham gum do you think would be appropriate for this amount?
Adjustments I will explore in the future on top of the xantham gum:
• Trying something like a white wine vinegar instead of just white vinegar.
• Maybe throwing in one ghost pepper to see what it does to the heat of the final batch. I'm lucky to be living somewhere where either that or Carolina reapers are available locally.
Once again, this recipe was definitely a winner. Thanks for sharing.
Mike Hultquist says
Sounds great, Alex. Happy sauce making! I love it. For Xanthan gum, it is customary to use 1/8 teaspoon per cup of hot sauce to thicken the sauce, though you can use more to your tastes.
Ben says
I finally have some ripe habaneros and garlic from my garden and really excited to make this sauce this weekend! Your recipes are super fantastic!
Mike Hultquist says
Thanks so much, Ben! Enjoy!!
Frank says
Mike,
This is by far my favorite hot sauce recipe. I'm fermenting the red habaneros now to give that a try. Would you still add the salt and vinegar? Sub it for brine? Maybe some of both? Any input is appreciated!
Thanks for all the awesome recipes!
Mike Hultquist says
You don't have to add vinegar after fermentation, as the brine will be acidic enough to keep. You can just process as-is, then taste and adjust for salt.
Jenny says
I love this recipe ! What I did with the moosh after squeezing the hot sauce liquid through the strainer was, I put the moosh in the food processor with fresh basil from my garden, olive oil and made pesto. It was AMAZING !!!
Mike Hultquist says
Boom! Heck of an awesome pesto, Jenny! I love it!
Aleni says
Love this. I used Birdseye peppers that grow wild here, and added two drops of Liquid Smoke, because I like the bbq smell. Next time, maybe just one drop for a milder bbq aroma?
Mike Hultquist says
Nice! I think it's perfect with bird's eye peppers. I love it. Yep, I'm sure you can adjust the liquid smoke a bit to taste. Thanks, Aleni!
Ryan says
This recipe is 5 stars as written. If you like vinegar based hot pepper sauces you will enjoy this one too. The sauce is very tangy and spicy, but not overpoweringly spicy.
In the last batch I added 1/4 tsp of ground Chipotle Pepper, and 3oz of fermented sweet peppers (2 week ferment in a 2% salt brine) to the original recipe. The result was the most incredible habanero sauce I have ever tasted. Highly recommend both the original recipe and with additions.
Mike Hultquist says
Awesome, Ryan. I appreciate it. I also love that you've made it your own. It's what I live for. =) Thanks for sharing this.
Tanya says
Haven't tried this recipe yet, but will do so tonight. Love that it's a simple one pot recipe! I have a habanero plant, which I thought was a pepperdew, until I cut it open and licked it They are "touch my eye and go blind" hot! Lol.
Mike H. says
Haha - let me know how it goes, Tanya. Enjoy!
Chris C. says
This is my second time making the habanero hot sauce recipe. I love it so much I made a quadruple batch this time. Thank you!
Mike Hultquist says
Awesome! Thanks, Chris!
Jesse says
This one lets the Habanero flavor really shine through. That wonderful fruity flavor and heat allows the Habanero to be the star of the show. This recipe is a trye keeper. Thank you, sir.
Mike Hultquist says
I know, thanks! I love this sauce. I want to do one like this commercially. BIG habanero flavor.
Chip says
Woo hoo!
Cooking up this recipe was easy. The taste is a little vinegary for my tastes, but maybe a bit longer simmer would help. It's still a great recipe.I never knew there was such a thing as sweet paprika and didn't have any so I subbed in 3/4 teaspoon of sugar with regular paprika. My next attempt will be subbing in poblano peppers instead of habañeros. A little caution should be taken when handling habañeros, they're nearly weapons grade on the Scoville scale!
Odd question:
Is this recipe served at Lerua's in Tucson?
Mike Hultquist says
Glad you enjoyed it, Chip! Easily customizable. I've never been to Lerua's, but there are many ways to make a habanero hot sauce. =)
Danielle Greenwood says
Great recipes thank you! I’m just starting out with my chilli sauces and have grown all my own chillies from seed. The habanero’s are HOT
Mike H. says
You are welcome! And enjoy it! =)
Michael Lawson says
Absolutely the best sauce I have made full of flavor an a nice kick the doesn’t hang around forever. Definitely recommend you try this one no need to tweak it’s perfect
Mike Hultquist says
Nice! Glad you like it, Michael! I love it when the flavor of the peppers shines through.
Beth says
Love this recipe! I typically follow a recipe initially, then tweak it to my taste. I wouldn't change a thing for my next batch.
Mike H. says
This really makes me happy, Beth. Thank you!