A Simple Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe

Habanero peppers are absolutely perfect for making hot sauces. Habaneros provide an amazing flavour as well the expected searing heat. There are literally thousands of habanero sauce recipes out there but this is my ‘go to’ recipe for making a basic habanero sauce.

In this recipe I’ve used red habaneros, however any variety will be perfectly adequate. The addition of the carrot means the sauce ends up with a vibrant orange colour. If you don’t have habaneros then any ‘super hot’ pepper or chinense variety of chilli such as Scotch Bonnet, Butch T or  Scorpian Moruga will be fine in this recipe.

Habanero Hot Sauce Recipe Ingredients

This recipe makes about 500ml of sauce. You can scale up or down the ingredients if you want to make more or less.

• 10 x Fresh Habanero Chillies
• 1 medium sized carrot
• 1 onion
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 cup of water
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of corn flour
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup of cider vinegar

1. Finely chop the carrot, onions and habaneros and add to a small saucepan with the water and vinegar. Bring to the boil then simmer on a low heat until the carrots and habaneros are soft. This should take roughly about 20 minutes.

2. Meanwhile add the garlic cloves (unpeeled) to a dry frying pan on a high heat. Once the skin is charred remove from the heat and set aside.

3. After 20 minutes of simmering, add the habanero mixture to a food processor along with the garlic (peeled), salt, sugar and corn flour and blend until the mixture is smooth.

4. Add the mixture back in to the saucepan and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Use your judgement here, if the mixture looks a little thin continue to cook down until it reaches a consistency you’re happy with.

5. Once you’re happy with the consistency of the sauce, pour it into sterilised bottles and allow to cool.

The sauce will keep for a few months if left unopened. Once you’ve opened a jar/bottle keep it in the fridge and consume it within a few weeks.

Feel Free to Experiment

Hot sauce recipes such as this are very flexible. As mentioned above, this is my base hot sauce recipe so feel free to tweak and adjust as you feel. If you want to liven the sauce up you can substitute some of the vinegar for some lime juice. Also you can add some sweet fruit such as papaya or mango, to add extra sweetness and an extra dimension of flavour. Just remember the more fruit/vegetable you add the more vinegar/lime juice you’ll need to add to maintain the preservative nature of the recipe.

When you’re cooking this sauce it is worth opening a few windows in the kitchen. While the cooking of the habaneros gives off a wonderful smell, you’ll likely find your eyes and nose watering if you don’t let some of the fumes escape!