Homemade pickled jalapenos are so easy to make! I love adding these to any meals needing a little extra "kick". These refrigerator pickled jalapenos require no special equipment and are made using simple ingredients. They’re a great way to add flavor to sandwiches, salads, and soups.
UPDATED: This recipe was originally published in April 2020 and has been updated for photos and additional content.
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💚 Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- A great way to use up extra jalapenos from your summer garden.
- These jalapenos are perfect for adding to all kinds of dishes to add a bit of a kick.
- Quick and easy. All you need is a handful of ingredients and about ten minutes!
🛒 Ingredients
Refrigerator pickled jalapenos are made with simple, easy-to-find ingredients.
- Jalapeños: Choose firm, blemish-free jalapenos for the best results.
- Garlic cloves: Whole garlic cloves add mellow garlicky flavor to refrigerator pickled jalapenos.
- White vinegar: White vinegar has a clean yet sharp vinegar flavor and works great for making pickles. For a milder flavor, you can swap it with apple cider vinegar. Or use white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar for a little kick.
- Organic cane sugar: The sugar balances out the white vinegar and salt when making refrigerator pickled jalapenos.
- Kosher salt: Fine-grain kosher salt is best for clean salty flavor. It also doesn't contain anti-caking ingredients which may make the brine become cloudy over time. If you can't find fine grain, you can grind up regular kosher salt using a spice grinder into finer grains which makes it easier to dissolve in the liquid.
✅ How to Make Pickled Jalapenos
- To get started, rinse and dry the jalapeños. Trim the stem end off and thinly slice each jalapeño.
- In a small saucepan, add the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt. Heat over low heat, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes.
- Place the jalapenos in a 16-ounce glass jar with the garlic cloves.
- Pour the brine over the jalapeños.
- Set aside and let cool to room temperature, for about 30 minutes. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.
🍽️ How to Serve
Refrigerator pickled jalapenos work great added into so many different dishes and recipes! You can even use the juice to spice up salad dressings and dips!
- Try them out on Vegan "Pork" Lettuce Wraps! Yummy!
- For breakfast add them to your favorite tofu scramble or spicy rutabaga home fries.
- Add them to your favorite nachos, vegan tacos, and other Mexican faves along with some vegan sour cream.
- A great topping to add to your salads or this quinoa buddha bowl.
🌿 Recipe Variations
Dependent on the "heat" of the jalapeños, you can add additional spices or types of peppers to the pickling brine. When adding other vegetables, the spiciness of the jalapenos infuses the pickling brine adding a hint of spiciness to them.
- Pickled jalapenos with carrots: Slice up one medium carrot into thin slices, slightly thinner than the jalapeno peppers. Add to the jar with the jalapenos.
- Pickled onions and jalapenos: Slice red onions or sweet onions and separate the rings. Layer them in the jar with the jalapenos.
- Prefer whole jalapenos over sliced? No problem, leave them whole instead of slicing!
- Add other chilies. For a more colorful jar of jalapenos consider adding chilies in a variety of colors. Just be careful as many red and orange peppers can be quite hotter than jalapenos.
- Other spices. Add in whole cumin seeds and whole peppercorns for a subtle splash of flavor!
- Want less heat? Increase the amount of sugar in the pickling brine.
❄️ Storage Tips
- Refrigerator jalapeno peppers should be stored in a well-sealed glass jar. No need for anything fancy. You can even use larger recycled jars from condiments and other jarred ingredients. Just be sure it's cleaned and washed with hot water before using.
- Do not freeze pickled jalapenos.
- To store them outside the refrigerator, you will need to follow instructions for canning pickled jalapenos.
♻️️ Zero-Waste Tips
- Start with the freshest ingredients. Since you will be storing these for up to a month you want them to be as fresh as possible to start.
- Make sure your jars are clean. We're not canning, so they don't need to be sterilized, but it's important to make sure they are well-cleaned before adding the jalapenos.
- Store them on a shelf in the refrigerator rather than the door. This placement will ensure they are stored at a colder temperature.
- A one-month shelf life is just an estimate. Keep an eye out for any off colors or textures and if they start to smell funny, throw them out.
- You may need two jars depending on the size of your jalapenos. If so, increase the amount of brine liquid to ensure that jalapeños are entirely covered with liquid.
❓FAQ
In my experience, they will last about a month but this can vary depending on the freshness of the ingredients used and the actual temperature of the refrigerator where they are stored.
Fresh jalapenos will taste hotter than pickled ones. That's because when jalapenos are stored in vinegar, some heat is transferred to the pickling brine making the jalapenos less spicy. As a matter of fact, the longer they sit, the less spicy they become. But don't worry, they don't lose all their heat and still make a great way to spice up meals.
🌎 Sustainability Suggestions
Did you know pickling helps to reduce food waste?
Let’s talk about food waste. In the United States, 30-40% of the food supply is wasted. This is perfectly good food that could have fed families in need but instead ended up in landfills.
It also includes the waste of the soil, water, and human labor that went into getting the food to consumers.
Most food waste is due to spoilage, so a good rule of thumb is to only buy as much as you need to feed yourselves and your family. This way, what you purchase won’t end up in the trash and will save you money!
So how will pickling help this growing problem? Pickling is a great option for preserving leftover produce that may otherwise end up in the garbage. It is a practice that started thousands of years ago when modern refrigeration didn’t exist.
As long as you have salt and a basic vinegar, you can be as creative as you want when it comes to what you want to pickle and how you want to flavor it.
More Pickling Recipes
If you made this recipe, please leave a star 🌟 rating on the recipe card right below! You can also drop a review in the comment section. Your feedback is appreciated! And don’t forget to tag @themindfulfork so we can see your creations.
📖 Recipe
Refrigerator Pickled Jalapeños Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 jalapeños
- 2 whole garlic cloves peeled and smashed
- 1 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1 cup water
- ⅓ cup organic cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon fine kosher salt
Instructions
- Rinse and dry the jalapeños. Trim the stem end off and thinly slice each jalapeño. Place them in a 16-ounce glass jar with the garlic cloves.
- In a small saucepan, add the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt. Heat over low heat, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Pour the brine over the jalapeños.
- Set aside and let cool to room temperature, for about 30 minutes. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.
Notes
- Dependent on their size, ten large jalapeños may require two jars. If so, increase the amount of brine liquid to ensure that jalapeños are entirely covered with liquid.
- Pickled Jalapeños can last up to one month in refrigeration. The longer they sit in the brine, the milder they will become.
- You can increase the sugar used if you desire less heat.
- For a different flavor, you can vary the vinegar used (apple cider vinegar - try cayenne apple cider vinegar for an extra kick, champagne vinegar, white wine vinegar) or the spicing (chile peppers, rosemary sprigs, juniper berries).
- Use kosher or pickling salt for pickling - they don't contain anti-caking agents, making the brine cloudy.
- Can't find fine ground Kosher salt - use a spice grinder to grind further; the salt will dissolve quicker.
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