Reid Main

After my successful grilled pineapple jalapeño hot sauce I decided to step up my game and move on to habaneros. I went with the second recipe from the Hot Ones video I mentioned previously but simply substituted habaneros for the scorpion peppers. I am not that crazy…yet.

I really loved how this sauce came out because the amount of habaneros we used resulted in a very slow burn that wasn't too overpowering. I was terrified that I was going to make this too spicy but everyone who tried it said it was the perfect amount of burn.

Necessary Utensils

• A blender obviously. You will need one that holds at least 60 ounces because we will get pretty close to that with our recipe.
• A cutting board and knife. I recommend getting an assortment of these so you can can cut up multiple things at once.
• A measuring cup. Ideally it would hold 16 to 24 ounces (2-3 cups) because you will be using more than 1 cup of multiple ingredients.
• Measuring spoons. You only need one that can measure a tablespoon for this recipe but it never hurts to have a set.
• Something to bottle your sauce in. I recommend 5 ounce bottles because they are small enough that most friends would be comfortable taking them.
• A funnel to pour the sauce into your bottles. Thank me later for this pro-tip.

Ingredients

• 4-5 habanero peppers.
• 2 red bell peppers. You need 1.5 cups so you can eyeball the size of them but the great thing is you can easily put more in if you want. This isn't an exact science.
• Sweet onions. You need 1 cup of them diced so if you can buy a large individual one that should be fine but I could only find them in bags.
• 1 cup of sun-dried tomatoes. They can be either the wet or dry kind. It doesn't matter.
• Italian parsley. You're gonna need two tablespoons of it so you can either buy the dry spice or a fresh sprig.
• 1 bulb of garlic (assuming it has at least 7 cloves).
• Basic salt but I use kosher salt.
• Ground black pepper. I buy it preground but you can grind the peppercorns yourself if you want them to be super fresh.
• Any type of olive oil.
• Bragg's apple cider vinegar

Preparation

1. Cut up your red bell peppers into quarters or eights. You don't have to worry about being too thorough. You just want to get them small enough so they aren't leaving a lot of empty space when you pour them into the blender.
2. Dice 1 cup of sweet onions. Like the red bell peppers don't worry about being too thorough. 1 inch pieces will be fine.
3. Finely chop your Italian parsley so you have easy access to 1 tablespoon of it.
4. Chop up your habaneros. Cutting them into quarters should be enough. Leave the seeds in for an extra kick of heat!
5. Peel 7 cloves of garlic out of the bulb. Put them in a bowl or cup for easy access when you are about to blend.

"Cooking"

When blending sauces you usually want to start with the liquids and then the spices to ensure they mix well. You can then add all of the solids on top.

1. Add 3 cups of Bragg's apple cider vinegar to the blender.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of salt.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of ground black pepper.
5. Add 2 tablespoons of Italian parsley.
6. Add 1 cup of sun-dried tomatoes.
7. Add 1.5 cups of red bell pepper.
8. Add 1 cup of sweet onions.
9. Add habaneros.
10. Add 7 cloves of garlic.
11. Turn the blender on and let it go to town. You can try to leave the sauce a bit thicker if you'd like but I found that whenever you think you've blended enough you actually should go 30-60 seconds longer because the sauce is probably thicker than you want.

Chow Down!

And there you have it. The second hot sauce I have ever made which amazingly turned out just as well as my first. I honestly expected to mess up the habanero ratio but somehow I hit it out of the park on my first try. As is customary, Elsie and I dressed some chicken wings with this sauce but it has proven itself to be capable for all dishes.