Homemade Hot Sauce

In our house, we LOVE spicy! Spicy everything! Sometimes I use crushed red pepper, sometimes it’s cayenne, sometimes it’s chipotle, and sometimes I want a really yummy sauce to bring on the heat! This Homemade Hot Sauce was absolutely sensational! It was spicy, kinda smoky, zesty and punchy! It completely blew us away! This felt like something I’d have from my favorite little Mexican joint near our home. It felt SUPER authentic, and it was really easy to make! This was the perfect spicy sauce to drizzle over our smash tacos! It also doubles as the tastiest restaurant style type salsa and it’s SUPER healthy for you! Total guilt free snacking!

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So, when did people first start making hot sauce with chile peppers?

Well, humans have been eating chile peppers and using them to make sauces for thousands of years! The earliest hot sauces were created by the Aztecs and the Mayans who would grind up fresh chile peppers and mix them with water, herbs, seeds, and occasionally, fermented ingredients!

In Mesoamerica, chiles were roasted over open flames to make deep, bold flavors that would be incorporated into stews, salsas, and moles. And from there, chile peppers were eventually roasted to make fresh hot sauces, with the invention of bottled hot sauce coming much, much later! Super interesting stuff. I mean, I couldn’t imagine life without hot sauce!

Did you know?

Every jalapeño, serrano, sweet bell pepper, ghost pepper, and habanero comes from one single wild species of pepper from Central America! People bred these selectively and strategically, to create all of these varieties we have today! Isn’t that wild?!

And peppers aren’t actually hot from the seeds! It’s actually that weird white stalky, situation that holds the seeds in! The seeds get coated in something called “capsaicin” which binds to the receptors in our brain that causes us to feel heat, burning, and physical pain. So, eating spicy food literally causes us “physical pain,” which some of us love! I get really into it too! When my nose is running a little and I get that hairline sweat…yeah, that’s the good stuff!

What ingredients do I need to make this Homemade Hot Sauce?

Tomato
Red Bell Pepper
Orange Bell Pepper
Habanero Pepper
Serrano Peppers
Garlic
Red Onion
Lime
Sugar
Cumin
Salt
Black Pepper
Cilantro
Olive Oil
White Vinegar
Hot Water

What equipment do I need to make it?

• Large Baking Sheet
• Measuring Cups and Spoons
• Large Blender
• Cutting Board
• Chef Knife
• Zester
• Juicer
• Tongs

How do I make it?

To get started on this recipe, first wash all of your produce! Next, halve the tomato, quarter the red onion, and chop the cilantro. Add all the veggies to a large baking sheet. No need to peel the garlic either, we’re going to roast it with the skin on, that way it can build that deep flavor without burning! Drizzle the olive oil over everything and toss well with your hands.

Broil on high until charred and roasted, flipping halfway through with a tong.

Next, chop the tops off of the peppers and remove the seeds from the habanero. I left the seeds in my serrano peppers because I wanted some serious spice, but I felt like with the habanero seeds, it would’ve just been too overwhelming! You can choose to remove the seeds or leave them in whichever peppers you choose. Just remember, habanero peppers are EXTREMELY spicy!

Squeeze the garlic out of the peel and add it to a large blender along with all of the other roasted veggies. Zest and juice the lime into the blender and add all remaining ingredients.

Blend until a smooth sauce forms! It should be like a restaurant style smooth salsa consistency or that of a fresh authentic hot sauce!

Chill Homemade Hot Sauce for 30 minutes to an hour before serving any way you like! Drizzle over tacos, dunk your quesadilla in it, stuff your burrito with it! You can even just eat it with chips…it’s flippin delicious! Enjoy!

Tips:

• Store unused homemade hot sauce in an airtight container such as a tupperware or mason jar in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks!
• This was VERY spicy! To simmer it down a little bit, consider removing all of the seeds from the peppers. If you want it to be even SPICIER, skip the bell pepper and add another habanero into the mix along with a jalapeño or Fresno pepper.
• This recipe will yield about 2 1/2 cups of hot sauce!

Looking for some inspo on ways to use this amazing sauce? Check these recipes out!

• Pulled Pork Carnitas
• Shrimp Quesadillas
• Cheesy Chicken Burrito

Looking for more Mexican inspired dips and sauces? I have a whole bunch!

• Chunky Homemade Salsa
• Cilantro Lime Crema
• Guacamole