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edOur favorite serrano pepper hot sauce is from a restaurant at one of our favorite North Carolina beaches. I brought a bottle home last time I was there, and it ran out this past weekend.
We love hot sauce in our house, and there are lots of really great hot sauces on the market. But, we can’t just go to the store and buy THAT one. It’s also not very feasible to drive 1,500 miles just to get some hot sauce. The fish tacos there are pretty much amazing, but still probably not worth a 1,500-mile drive (not to mention we can’t travel right now anyway.)
So, I got to work on a copycat version!
This weekend I took the label that lists the ingredients, and I made a copycat recipe. Before I tell you any more about it, I want to be clear that this is NOT a canning recipe. For me, it yielded approximately 16 ounces. We will store one jar in the refrigerator to use within a month or so, and the rest will go in the freezer until we need it.
Every summer when our garden is producing, I always chop and freeze a lot of all kinds of peppers. We use them in our cooking throughout the year. I still have quite a few Serrano peppers left, and the beauty of hot peppers anyway is you don’t need very many!
So, the peppers used here were from our garden last year. We also keep whole bulbs of garlic in the freezer from a local farmer, and I buy big pieces of ginger root and store them in the freezer as well.
We always have yellow onions and vinegar in the pantry, so I had everything I needed to give this a shot without making a trip to the store.
Putting everything together
First I took two yellow onions and about 6 Serrano peppers and chopped them. Since they will be blended into the sauce after they are cooked, you don’t have to be precise with this. Then, I cooked them on medium-low heat in my 12-inch cast-iron skillet for 15-20 minutes until they were tender, stirring regularly to prevent burning/sticking.
While the peppers and onions cooked, I peeled my garlic and ginger and minced them. When the peppers and onions were almost done, I added the ginger and garlic to the mix and sauteed the mixture for a few more minutes.
Then, I took the onion/pepper/garlic/ginger mixture, added the salt and pepper, and put it all into my food processor with water and vinegar to blend it until smooth.
I also ended up putting the final mixture into the blender for a final blend to get it even more smooth. Depending on your appliances and your preference, the appliance(s) that work best may be different for you. I think an immersion blender would probably also work just fine.
I’m calling it a success!
There you have it! A successful copycat attempt of our favorite Serrano pepper hot sauce, without a 1,500-mile drive! I think we’ll make fish tacos for dinner soon.
(I just want to repeat that this is NOT intended to be used as a canning recipe. It’s a make-and-eat-or-freeze recipe!)
The Hot Sauce Recipe
Serrano Pepper Hot Sauce
Equipment
- Cutting Board
- Knife
- Skillet
- Wooden spoon
- Food processor and/or blender
- Glass jar(s) or bottle(s) of your choice
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 medium yellow onions, chopped (about 2 cups)
- 6-8 Serrano peppers, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
- 8 fresh garlic cloves, peeled and minced (about 3-4 Tbsp)
- 2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and minced (about 2 Tbsp)
- 1 cup distilled water
- 3/8 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- To get started, chop the yellow onions and serrano peppers with a knife on a cutting board. The chop doesn't have to be perfect here, the mixture will end up being pureed after it's cooked a bit. (If you are sensitive to hot peppers, you may elect to wear gloves for this part.)
- While you have your cutting board and knife out, you can peel the garlic cloves and ginger, and mince those. Set them aside for now - they don't cook for as long as the onions and peppers.
- Preheat a skillet with olive oil on medium heat. Add the chopped onions and peppers. They will cook for 15-20 minutes or so on medium-low heat until they are tender. Stir them every few minutes to make sure they don't burn.
- When the onions and peppers are almost done, add the garlic and ginger to the pan. Also, add the salt and pepper. Cook for just a few more minutes. Remove from heat.
- Put the onion/pepper/garlic/ginger mixture into your food processor (or blender) with the water and vinegar to puree the mixture. I ended up doing the food processor first and then the blender for the final step because the food processor gets it all pureed and then the blender makes it even more smooth. Depending on your appliances, you may be able to use just the food processor or just the blender. An immersion blender may also work.
- Taste. If you feel like it needs anything else, you can put back in the skillet and add whatever you think it needs. If the consistency seems too runny, you can cook it down some more to thicken it. If it seems too thick, you can add more water and vinegar in ratios equal to the recipe (not quite 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water.) Since I didn't write or test this to be a canning recipe, you can be flexible with the ingredients. It's going to get stored in the refrigerator and/or freezer.
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