If you love spreading hot sauce on everything you eat, this homemade hot sauce recipe is for you! We first cook up some garlic cloves, white onion, and carrots until soft and flavorful.
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Hold up. Carrots in hot sauce? Where's the chili peppers? The Scotch bonnets and habanero peppers?
We are getting there, but first, you need to set up your flavor base and that includes aromatics like carrots and onions. The carrots also add a natural sweetness to the sauce without having to add lots of sugar.
Once the aromatics are all cooked, place them in a blender (or food processor) and blend until smooth. This is also where you add some water, kosher salt, sugar, and a hint of whiskey. Be sure to remember this sauce is not at room temperature so use a towel to hold the blender cover on to prevent messes.
Remove the carrot mixture from the blender and add in the hot peppers. We used jalapenos and serranos for this pepper sauce, but you can always substitute peppers out depending on the heat level you are looking for. Keep the seeds in if you want it hotter.
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Once blended, run both mixtures through a fine-mesh sieve to pick up the seeds and skins. Flavor with fresh lime, pour into a glass jar and you've got yourself a homemade hot sauce you'll want to eat every day.
Homemade Hot Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 tsp olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1/2 white onion
- 1/2 lb carrots, chopped
- 2 cups water
- 2 tbsp whiskey
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 lb jalapeños, chopped
- 1/2 lb serrano peppers
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 1/2 lb roma tomatoes, chopped
- 1 tbsp lime juice
Instructions
- Sauté garlic in olive oil until soft and fragrant.
- Add onions, carrots, and water to pot. Bring to a high simmer and reduce by half.
- Add reduction to blender while hot, adding whiskey, salt, and sugar. When pouring hot liquid into your blender, only fill halfway to the top, leaving room for the steam to expand during the blending process. Blend until smooth. Pour in bowl, set aside.
- Cut the tops from the peppers and add them to the blender. Pour in vinegar. Blend until smooth.
- Add the tomatoes to the blended peppers and blend together until smooth.
- Taste for heat - this will determine how many seeds you sift through the strainer.
- Add carrot mixture to the pepper mixture and strain into separate bowl. Continue straining until desired heat and consistency is reached.
- Add lime juice to final product. Bottle, and eat!
