Delicious and easy to make, this Habanero Hot Sauce is a must-try! It's hot, spicy, zingy, and tangy with delicious balance, body, and depth of flavour from sweet red bell peppers, onion, garlic, & a hint of real maple syrup. You'll be wanting to drizzle it on everything!
💌 SAVE THIS RECIPE!
Enter your email and I'll send the link straight to your inbox.
Watch out for more tasty treats coming your way too! Unsubscribe at any time.
FEATURED COMMENT:
"Hey, crazy lady! Who puts maple syrup in a hot sauce?! I've been making my own sauces for years and never tried that, but we got a bumper crop of habaneros, and I found your recipe. No word of a lie, best sauce ever. Thanks for thinking out of the box. You're a genius!" - Dave ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ More reviews →
If you're someone who likes to turn up the heat and add some spice to your life, then you and I belong to the same hot sauce-loving family. Hello and welcome. Let's make amazing hot sauce together!
My homemade Habanero Hot Sauce has been a reader favourite since 2016 with consistent 5-star reviews. It's spicy, fresh, and delicious with great depth of flavour thanks to the supporting cast of sweet red bell peppers, onion, garlic, and smoky, sweet maple syrup. They all work with the habaneros to balance the heat and add interest and depth.
This is a condiment that can give any meal or snack a good spicy kick! Top of my list are avocado toast, rice dishes like my One Pot Spicy Rice or Easy Savoury Rice, spicy cocktails, vegan scrambled eggs, bowl meals, burritos, tacos, pizza, and breakfast potatoes. Yum!
Mel x
Ingredient Notes
Here is what you need to make habanero hot sauce, along with some important notes & substitution ideas:
- Habaneros - You can use habaneros at any stage of ripeness, green, orange or red, but the colour of the sauce, heat level, sweetness, and flavour will change. I like to use red or orange for hot sauce that turns out a gorgeous colour! Other varieties of chili pepper, such as jalapeno, serrano, or Thai bird's eye chilies, also work well in this recipe.
- Red bell peppers - These add depth of flavour, natural sweetness and body to the sauce. My preference is red bell peppers because they make the colour of the sauce better and are quite sweet. You could also use yellow or orange bell peppers, but I don't recommend using green peppers as they can be slightly bitter and they will make your hot sauce a less attractive colour.
- Vinegar - You can use either distilled white vinegar or apple cider vinegar in this recipe. White vinegar is sharper and tangier; apple cider vinegar is sweeter and fruitier. Use whichever suits your tastes best.
- Onion & garlic - For flavour and to thicken. I use regular yellow onions, but you can use white or red if you prefer.
- Maple syrup - Many a great recipe has been ruined by someone using pancake syrup instead of maple syrup. Don't make that mistake here. You need to use real, natural maple syrup. The same amount of brown sugar makes a good alternative.
If you want to switch things up, some fresh mango, pineapple, cumin or lime juice added to the mix would also be fantastic!
Customize The Heat 🔥
If you prefer a milder hot sauce, reduce the amount of habanero peppers. You can also increase the quantity of bell pepper to mellow it further. If you like a very spicy hot sauce, go wild and add a few more habaneros!
Recipe FAQs
The heat of chili peppers is measured with the Scoville Heat Scale. Habaneros have a Scoville rating of between 100,000 - 350,000. They are up there with the wonderful Scotch Bonnets. Compare this to the very popular Jalapeño pepper, which has a Scoville rating of only 3,500-8,000.
However, although habaneros are very hot, in this hot sauce recipe they are cooked and diluted with the other ingredients for a good balance of both heat and flavour. I'd say this habanero hot sauce recipe is a medium-hot hot sauce.
You can customize the heat to suit your tastes/ heat tolerance, though. Just increase or decrease the ratio of habaneros to other ingredients.
If you want to learn more about the Scoville scale, I love this humorous article written by Anna Maria Barry-Jester called "Rating Chili Peppers On A Scale Of 1 To Oh Dear God I'm On Fire". It goes into a lot more depth about the whole subject and is a really good read.
I get asked this all the time - They are so cute! It came from a store called Canadian Tire and was really cheap. If you're in Canada, you can find them here. If you aren't in Canada, though, Amazon has some similar ones. 
White vinegar is stronger in flavour and will give you a tangier hot sauce. Apple cider vinegar will be slightly less tangy with a little more sweetness.
You can easily make it a little mellower. Roast an extra bell pepper or two, then blend them into the sauce, adding a little water to thin as necessary. This will dilute the spiciness.
Recipe
Habanero Hot Sauce
Author:Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons oil , any neutral-tasting oil such as light olive, vegetable, canola, sunflower oil.
- ½ medium onion , diced roughly
- 2 large red bell peppers , deseeded and cut into chunks
- 3 large cloves garlic , chopped roughly
- 6 habanero peppers (walnut in a shell kind of size) , tops removed and diced roughly (any other chili pepper variety also works well)
- ½ cup (120 ml) distilled white vinegar , or apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- About ¾ cup (180 ml) water You might not need it all.
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
- Make sure you have a window or door open and an extractor fan on high to ventilate your kitchen. When the habaneros start cooking you will get strong chili pepper fumes. Sautéing on a grill outside is an option for a fume-free house.
- Over a medium heat warm a skillet with the oil, then sauté the onions and bell peppers for a few minutes until soft.
- Add the habaneros and sauté for a little while longer until soft and they and the bell peppers are slightly caramelized, then add the garlic. Turn off the heat and let the garlic cook in the residual heat of the pan.
- Turn off the heat and transfer to a blender. Add the vinegar, maple syrup and salt and blend until completely smooth.
- Open the blender and check the thickness. Add water to thin to the consistency you prefer, giving it a quick blend in between each addition.
- Decant into bottles or jars and store in the refrigerator or freezer.
NOTES
💌 SAVE THIS RECIPE!
Enter your email and I'll send the link straight to your inbox.
Watch out for more tasty treats coming your way too! Unsubscribe at any time.
Review the recipe or ask a question: