Recipe Sweet Jalapeno Peppers

Spicy jalapeño slices in a sugary glaze, these Candied Jalapeños (aka Cowboy Candy) are the perfect sweet-and-spicy condiment to liven up your favorite foods. Enjoy with cream cheese and crackers, as a topping on burgers, hot dogs, or even in your baked beans and salads!

Candied jalapeños have been a huge favorite here in our house. Every time I make a batch, I find myself fielding almost daily questions of “can we eat them yet?!” Once a jar is opened…well, let’s just say they disappear quickly!

I love the sweet and spicy flavor and tender texture of these jalapeños. The sugar balances out the heat nicely and one of the things that makes cowboy candy truly addictive.

Candied Sweet Heat Pickled Jalapeno Recipe < Call Me Pmc

Cowboy candied is simply another name for candied jalapeños – jalapeño slices cooked in a sugary syrup for a delightfully sweet and spicy treat. Cowboy candy is a condiment that can be added to so many dishes, from tacos and nachos to baked beans and salads. Or enjoy them straight from the jar with a fork or on a cracker with cream cheese.

Wondering what exactly to do with cowboy candy? There are so many ways to use these candied jalapeños as they make a great topping for any dish that needs a burst of flavor. Here are a few of my favorite ways to use them:

I hope you love this delicious and easy recipe – be sure to give it a review below! Also don’t forget to follow Belly Full onTikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, andYouTube!

Candied Jalapenos A.k.a. Cowboy Candy Or Sweet Pickled Jalapeños

Canning. For longer shelf life, you can take the additional step of canning cowboy candy. To do this, place the filled sealed jars in a canner, covered with water by 2-inches. Bring the water to a full rolling boil. When it reaches a full rolling boil, set the timer for 10 minutes for half-pints or 15 minutes for pints. When timer goes off, use canning tongs to transfer the jars to a cooling rack. Leave them to cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours. When fully cooled, wipe them with a clean, damp washcloth then label. They’ll last in the pantry for up to a year.

Calories: 171 kcal | Carbohydrates: 43 g | Protein: 1 g | Fat: 1 g | Saturated Fat: 1 g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1 g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1 g | Sodium: 8 mg | Potassium: 87 mg | Fiber: 1 g | Sugar: 42 g | Vitamin A: 172 IU | Vitamin C: 17 mg | Calcium: 23 mg | Iron: 1 mg

Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and any changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are very important to you, I would recommend calculating them yourself.

How To Make Pickled Jalapeños

Subscribe for free to receive new weekly recipes and instantly get a week’s worth of family meals that are quick, easy, and inexpensive to make!Candied Jalapenos are an easy to make sweet and spicy jalapeño pickle that make sandwiches, salads, tacos, and everything sing! These are a long time favourite recipe of our family and readers alike!

Find out why everyone loves Candied Jalapenos so much, and if you need independent verification, read the many happy reviews in the comment section below the post.

Once upon a time, my friend Katie casually mentioned eating a sandwich made with Candied Jalapeños. She enthusiastically sang the praises of what she described as an addictive jar of goodies.

Candied Jalapeños (cowboy Candy)

I spent a couple of weeks working on how to recreate these. After carefully examining close to thirty recipes on Candied Jalapeños, also known as cowboy candy (who KNEW there were so many people candying jalapenos?) I called my local Cooperative Extension office to pick the brain of their home food preservation specialists.

Since jalapeños are a low-acid food, some precautions need to be taken when canning them. You have two choices for safely canning peppers of any kind; you can pressure can them

I opted for acidifying the pepper liquid instead of pressure canning. I wanted to maintain some of the texture of the peppers through the process and I knew pressure canning Candied Jalapeños would turn them to flavorful mush.

Sweet & Spicy Pickled Jalapeños

The result was gobsmackingly, head-spinningly, brain-addlingly delicious. Sweet, spicy and savory, Candied Jalapeño rings are way too easy to eat on just about everything.

I’ve stashed them in sandwiches, chopped them up on baked beans, tucked them into tacos, used the syrup to brush meat on the grill. You’ll find them perched on top of a cream cheese laden cracker and all sorts of other evil things at our house.

There are even a significant number of readers in the comments section who advise putting the syrup on vanilla ice cream! Have you tried this?

Hot Jalapeno Honey

For such a simple thing to can, these pack tons of flavor. You’re going to want to make as many Candied Jalapenos as you possibly can simultaneously.

Because once that first jar is cracked open you’re not going to be able to stop eating them. And I mean that.

These are one of the things that I can annually without fail. Knowing that we have a few dozen jars of these makes my family happy at mealtime and makes holiday gift giving easier.

Miss Carroll's Cowboy Candy Jalapeno Peppers

For those of you who may be freaking out slightly or massively over the idea of canning, rest easy. You do not actually have to can these: you can refrigerate them instead.

To skip the canning portion simply do this. Follow all of the instructions up to the actual canning portion, then stash the jars of candied jalapenos in the refrigerator for up to three months.

If you can them, they’ll last for a year. That said, if an alternative is all that stands between you and making them, use your chill chest!

Easy Fresh Jalapeño Relish

This is one case where there is no substitute for fresh peppers. Many folks have asked whether they can substitute frozen or canned jalapeños for the fresh ones in the recipe.

The bad news is that you cannot swap in an already cooked or frozen pepper in this cowboy candied jalapeño recipe. When you cook or freeze any produce, you are beginning the process of breaking down the cell walls.

If you cook them in the syrup again (which is necessary!), you’ll break down the walls even more. The extra cooking will make for mushy peppers, which we are trying to avoid.

Cowboy Candy Recipe

One of the fun mysteries of jalapenos is you never quite know how hot your peppers are until you cut into them. I’ve read that the more tan veins a jalapeno has, the hotter it is, but I’ve not proven that to my satisfaction yet.

That said, how how your candied jalapenos will be is a little bit of a toss-up unless you know how hot your peppers are. Please remember that they’re going to be lava hot as soon as you’re done cooking them, but they’ll mellow a bit as they age.

It’s just that jalapeños have a notoriously wide range of heat on the Scoville scale. Trust me when I tell you that it’s a rude surprise when you process 3 pounds of wicked hot ones without wearing gloves!

Sweet & Spicy Jalapeño Jam

This recipe is designed to be made with jalapeño peppers, but many readers have substituted serranos, habaneros, bell peppers, banana peppers, and all sorts of other peppers with good results. Please feel free to get creative here!

You can safely use any fresh pepper you’d like as long as you keep to the 3 pound quantity. Several readers have also reported chopping the peppers instead of slicing for candied jalapeno relish and I can confirm this is delicious!

How many jalapeño peppers are in 3 pounds? There isn’t perfect answer to this because the peppers vary so much in size naturally.

Cheesy Jalapeño & Corn Stuffed Sweet Pepper Poppers

Three pounds of jalapeños is approximately 60 peppers. You’re much better of going by weight, though, because of the wide range of sizes in peppers.

Let’s address slicing the peppers, because we’re going to be going through 3 pounds, folks. The quickest, easiest way to do so is with a slicing blade on a food processor, standing the peppers on their ends in the feed chute.

No food processor? Use a mandolin! No mandolin? Just take your time and slice by hand with a very sharp knife and gloved hands.

Candied Jalapenos Recipe (homemade Cowboy Candy)

Contrary to the old wives’ tales, seeds do not contain the heat of a pepper. It is the membrane inside the pepper packs the most punch.

Please do not reduce the sugar in our cowboy candy recipe. It is there both to improve the texture of the pepper and syrup as well as to help preserve the peppers.

I originally added turmeric to the recipe just to help improve the colour of the finished peppers. But I ended up loving the very subtle warm hint of mustard flavour the turmeric adds to the party, so it stayed.

The Best Candied Jalapenos! Easy To Make And Extra Delicious!

I’m keen on using Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar, but any undiluted cider vinegar will work in our cowboy candy recipe. In a pinch, you could substitute white distilled vinegar, but it will have a slightly sharper taste to the syrup.

While I positively love granulated garlic in this recipe because