Canning Jalapeño Peppers (quick, canned, jar-by-jar)

Do you love pickled jalapeño peppers? This easy recipe for canning jalapeño peppers is perfect for first-time or experienced canners. With this jar-by-jar recipe, you can easily alter the recipe for as many pounds of peppers as you have. This jalapeño recipe gives directions for refrigerating your canned pickled jalapeños or water bath canning jalapeños; it’s up to you which direction you choose to go!

My garden harvest was a little so-so this summer, which is partially because we were gone for three straight weeks. My sweet dad did everything in his power to battle the tenacious raccoon and voracious hornworm caterpillars, but there was not a lot he could do for the extreme temperatures. Our sprinkler system is automatic, but had we been here, we might have increased the watering during July’s heatwave.

All that to say, while our late summer tomato and cucumber harvest hasn’t been much to crow about, our jalapeños, bell peppers, and eggplant have really tried to fill in the gap. 

Table of Contents

Why You’ll Love These Canned Jalapeños

• Flavor: They strike the perfect balance between heat, tang, and a hint of sweetness (if sugar is added), enhancing any dish.
• Versatility: Beyond being a great topping for nachos and tacos, these pickled jalapeños can be added to sandwiches, salads, and even mixed into dips for an extra kick.
• Preserve Your Jalapeño Pepper Bounty: Jalapeños are often a very prolific garden producer. This is a great way to preserve that bounty.
• Customization: The recipe allows for easy adjustments. You can tweak the levels of sweetness, the variety of spices, and even the heat to suit your taste preferences.
• Shelf Stability: When properly canned, these jalapeños can last for at least a year, ensuring you have a delicious condiment ready at all times.
• Can Refrigerate Instead of Can: If canning isn’t your jam 😉, you can just refrigerate your pickled jalapeño peppers.
• Satisfaction: The process of learning how to can jalapeños and other produce offers a rewarding sense of accomplishment, plus it’s a great way to make use of a bountiful harvest.

Ingredients for Pickled Jalapeño Peppers

Fresh jalapeños: Always look for fresh, firm, and brightly colored jalapeños without any blemishes or soft spots. The thickness of the slices will affect the heat and crunchiness of the final product; 1/8″ is a good middle ground.

White distilled vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or a combination of the two: The vinegar’s acidity (minimum of 5%) is crucial for the pickling process. You can use either distilled white vinegar for a more neutral flavor or apple cider vinegar for a slightly sweet, fruity undertone. You can also mix both for a balanced flavor.

Water: This dilutes the vinegar and makes the pickling liquid less harsh.

Sugar: This is optional. The sugar will help balance out the acidity of the vinegar. If you prefer a less sweet pickle, you can decrease the amount.

Pickling or Kosher salt: Salt helps pull moisture from the jalapeños and aids in the preservation process.

Whole black peppercorns: Adds a slightly spicy, aromatic note to the pickles.

Whole cumin seeds: Gives a warm, earthy flavor.

Mustard seeds (optional): Adds a tangy, slightly bitter depth of flavor. Leave it out if you’re not a fan of mustard flavor.

Bay leaf: This adds a subtle layer of flavor; some people find it slightly floral, others slightly bitter.

Whole garlic clove: The garlic infuses into the vinegar, providing a slight sharpness and depth of flavor.

go-to canning jars

• wide-mouth makes canning easier.
• use for water bath canning or just refrigerating.
• BPA-free lids
• freezer safe for 18 months

Ball, Glass Mason Jars with Lids & Bands, Wide Mouth, Clear, 16 oz, 12 Count

How to Can Jalapeños, Jar-by-Jar

My most recent pepper haul was shy of 1 pound, so I augmented with a few from our local grocery store to make 1 pound of hot peppers. The beauty of this recipe for Pickled Jalapeño Peppers is that it easily lets me alter the recipe for as many pounds of fresh jalapeños as I have, similar to my Jar-By-Jar Dill Refrigerator Pickles.

If you choose the refrigerator route for your canned pickled jalapeños, you don’t need much more than fresh jalapeños, garlic cloves, vinegar, spices, and pint jars.

1. Prepare Your Peppers: Wearing gloves, slice jalapeños into 1/8″ rounds. Discard stems.
2. Sterilize Jars: Clean your jars and lids. Sterilize jars in simmering water or a dishwasher.
3. Make the Brine: Combine vinegar, water, and sugar (if using) in a saucepan. Heat until nearly boiling.
4. Spice the Jars: To each jar, add salt, peppercorns, cumin seeds, mustard seeds (if using), a bay leaf, and a garlic clove.
5. Pack the Jars: Fill jars with jalapeño slices, leaving 1/2″ headspace.
6. Add the Brine: Pour hot brine over jalapeños, maintaining the headspace. Remove air bubbles with a bubble remover tool or chopstick.
7. Clean and Seal: Wipe jar rims with vinegar-dampened paper towels. Apply lids and rings until fingertip tight.
8. For Refrigerated Pickles: Let jars cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 3 days before eating. They will keep for several months.
9. For Water Bath Canning: Process in a boiling water canner with jars covered by 2″ of water. Boil for 12 minutes (adjust for elevation), then let sit in the canner for 5 minutes post-processing. Cool jars on a rack for 24 hours. Check seals; refrigerate any unsealed jars.

If you are water bath canning, ensure that your pint jars are mason jars, and you need the lids and rings to go with them. On top of that, you will need a pot deep enough to cover the jars by at least 2″. Some equipment will surely make your canning experience more enjoyable, and luckily, it’s inexpensive.

Questions About Canning Jalapeño Peppers

How Should You Use Your Pickled Jalapeño Peppers?

This recipe produces pint jars of pickled jalapeño peppers, which are barely sweet, perfectly spicy, and delightfully HOT! Not that I consider myself a hot stuff weenie, but these pickled jalapeños are just a little too hot for me to eat right out of the jar. My son, however, is another story. Rob has no concept of the Scoville scale of pepper hotness and has no problem with popping one or two in his mouth. It comes as no surprise that his favorite stocking stuffers are different varieties of hot sauce. And his endorsement of these canned jalapenos carries A LOT of weight, so you know they’re good!

So, once you have your Little Slices of Hot as Hellfire, AKA canned pickled jalapeños, what will you do with them?

I like mine on my nachos, either traditional nachos or pulled pork. But they’re also good on tacos (I use them in my chile-braised short-rib tacos), Tex Mex rice bowls, white chili, and other sandwiches. I regularly toss them in my southwestern or Mexican salads. They are de rigueur for all of your Mexican dishes. 

Canning Pickled Jalapeno Peppers, Jar by Jar

A pickled jalapeno pepper recipe with just the right amount of spice and a touch sweetness.

4.41 from 155 votes

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Cook Mode

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Water Bath Canning (optional) 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course Canning, Preserving, Jam + Jellies

Cuisine American

Servings 2 pints

Calories 20 kcal

Equipment

• Küchenprofi 18/10 Stainless Steel Funnel with Filter
• New Norpro 606 Magnetic Canning Jar Lid Wand Lifter Removing Tool Sale
• NORPRO 591 Canning Bubble Popper/Measurer, Green
• Roots & Branches VKP1002 Home Canning Jar Lifter, Securely Grips, Red
• The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving: Over 350 of the Best Canned, Jammed, Pickled, and Preserved Recipes
• Ball Wide Mouth Pint 16-Ounce Glass Mason Jar with Lids and Bands, 12-Count

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

For Each Pint

• 1/2 lbs. fresh jalapeños sliced into 1/8″ slices

Pickling Brine

• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar apple cider vinegar, or a combination of the two
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar optional

Add to each pint jar

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 1/4 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds optional
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 whole garlic clove peeled

Instructions

 

• Wearing rubber gloves, slice your jalapenos into 1/8" thick rounds. Discard the stem end.
• If you will be canning these pickled jalapenos, then prepare your water bath canner, mason jars, and lids. Wash your jars and lids. Sterilize your jars in a large pot filled with water. Bring the water to almost a simmer over medium heat. Keep the jars in the simmering water until you are ready to fill them. Use a jar lifter to remove them from the water when you are ready to fill them, dumping the hot water back into the pot when you remove each jar from the water. Right before you are ready to can, put your lids in a small pot or bowl with hot, but not boiling water. Put some additional white vinegar in a small bowl, alongside a clean washcloth or paper towel. Keep the water in your canning pot at a simmer while you fill your jars.
• See The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving for additional guidance
• Combine the vinegar, water, & sugar in a medium saucepan and heat until just before it starts to boil.
• Add the salt, pepper, cumin, mustard seed, bay leaf, & garlic to each jar.
• Divide the jalapeño slices between each jar, packing them in compactly until jars are filled.
• Pour the hot vinegar water mixture into each jar, leaving 1/2" headspace; a canning funnel is helpful for this.
• Insert a bubble remover tool (or clean chopstick) down the side of each jar and press in toward the center to release any bubbles.
• Clean jar rims with a wet paper towel, dampened with white vinegar.
• FOR REFRIGERATOR PICKLED PEPPERS: Allow jars to cool to room temperature and then store in the refrigerator for at least 3 days before eating. The pepper slices will keep for several months.

FOR CANNED PICKLED PEPPERS: Process using standard USDA water process canning procedures:

• Bring your large pot of water to a boil. The pot needs to be deep enough to hold enough water to cover the jars by 2".
• After filling the hot jars as directed above, wipe your rims with white vinegar, apply the lids and rims, tightening the rims until just 'fingertip tight'.
• Fingertip Tight means that you can tighten with your fingers only, that you won't use the palm of your hand or all of your fingers to tighten.
• Place your jars in the canner, making sure the jars are completely covered with water by 2". Add additional boiling water as needed to raise the water level.
• Cover canner and bring water to a gentle boil. Once water is boiling, process for 12 minutes, adjusting time as necessary for elevation. (see notes)
• At the end of processing time, turn off the heat, remove the pot lid, and let the jars sit in the canner for 5 minutes.
• Remove jars, keeping them upright as you transfer them to a rack. Allow the jars to cool completely, undisturbed, for 24 hours.
• Refrigerate any jars that do not seal.
• May be eaten within a few days, but best if allowed to marinate for several weeks.
• Good for at least 1 year.

Notes

This recipe assumes some knowledge of proper and safe canning techniques. See The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving for guidance.

Nutrition

Serving: 2gCalories: 20kcalCarbohydrates: 2gSodium: 37mgSugar: 2g

Keyword canning, jalapeno, pickled, slices

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Looking for More Jalapeño Recipes?

I’ve got’em!

Jalapeño Wine Jelly is not only great to include on your next charcuterie, but oh man…you need to try it on bacon! And then there is this Jalapeno Cheese Spread! It is a twist on pimento cheese and is made regularly in our home.

For a twist on a traditional margarita, make sure to give our Jalapeño Margarita recipe a spin!

Nab some red jalapeños, Anaheim, or Sonoran peppers for this red pepper jelly.

Alternatively, if you’re into some truly wonderous pickling experiences, pop on over and try our Spiced Pickled Cranberries or these tangy Pickled Blueberries! Enjoy!

 To refer to this post on canned jalapeños, bookmark this page or pin the following image. 

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