Make Homemade Fermented Hot Sauce with Dried Peppers: An Easy Recipe to Make Any Time of Year — All Posts Healing Harvest Homestead (2024)

NOTE: This post includes the directions for how to make the perfect, BEST fermented hot sauce with dried chili peppers. It’s an easy recipe, with complete directions, and probably the BEST hot sauce you’ll ever eat…not to mention healthy with all the probiotics! This is the best kind of condiment to make: Healthy and Homemade!

I am REALLY missing our summer harvest of peppers and other fresh vegetables to can, dehydrate, and ferment.You see, here in Idaho, I am really struggling to grow peppers, and it seems this year will be a bust. And isn’t it this way with gardening efforts? Some years are A-Mazing! Some….Meh.

While in the grocery store recently, my eyes fell upon a very large bag of dried hot peppers: Chiles de Arbol, to be exact. Chiles de Arbol are bright red peppers that can be substituted for Cayenne or Pequin peppers, as they have a similar heat unit rating. In other words....They are HOT!

And an idea crept into my head….

Might these work for making fermented hot sauce?

I was inspired to try fermenting these lovely bright red peppers! After all, we just ran out of our supply of fermented hot sauce from our fresh peppers in the garden last summer. Here are the results of and the recipe for my latest fermentation experiment!

And YUM! They are awesome!

Hey! Are you wondering why I would want to ferment this hot sauce instead of just blending everything together? You can find out more about the powers of fermentation in this article.

FTC Disclosure: There are affiliate links scattered throughout this article. If you click through and make any kind of purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Make Homemade Fermented Hot Sauce with Dried Peppers: An Easy Recipe to Make Any Time of Year — All Posts Healing Harvest Homestead (1)

Fermented Hot Sauce: A Recipe to Make Any Time of Year with Dried Peppers

Ingredients for Fermented Chile de Arbol Hot Sauce

1. 8 oz bag of dried Chile de Arbol (These peppers can be found in most grocery stores these days, but you can use the link if you can't find them. This link is for a bag twice as large as the one I used, so you could just cut it in half or even fourths, if you wanted!)

2. filtered water

3. raw apple cider vinegar

4. sea salt

5. garlic (optional)

6. 1/2 cup brine from other ferments OR whey See how to make your own whey here. (Adding one of these is optional but it will help speed up the fermentation process by adding probiotic yeast/bacteria right away. Your peppers will still ferment without adding one of these, but it will be much slower with a slightly greater chance of mold forming.)

If you don’t want to make whey, then you can always just buy a bag or container of raw kimchi or sauerkraut from any good grocery store. You’ll find it in the refrigerated section, and it should say “raw” on it. Just use 1/4 to 1/2 cup of this liquid in your ferment.

NOTE: The room temperature kimchi or sauerkrauts on the store shelves (not refrigerated) will NOT contain the probiotics you want. These room temperature ferments have been pasteurized and are for all intents and purposes….dead food.

How to Make Fermented Hot Sauce with Chile de Arbol Peppers

Step 1)

Pour your peppers into a gallon size jar, or in my case, I used two half-gallon jars. This will give the peppers some room to dehydrate---they will expand some!

Make Homemade Fermented Hot Sauce with Dried Peppers: An Easy Recipe to Make Any Time of Year — All Posts Healing Harvest Homestead (3)

Step 2:

Fill the jars to within 2 inches of the top with filtered water. We are on a well, so I just use our water straight from the well with no issues. If you have city water, you need to be sure there is no chlorine in the water, as it will affect the fermentation process. If you leave it out overnight, the chlorine will evaporate.

Step 3:

Add about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of sea salt to each jar. Put a lid on and shake until the salt is dissolved. It doesn't take much shaking. Add your garlic if you like!

Make Homemade Fermented Hot Sauce with Dried Peppers: An Easy Recipe to Make Any Time of Year — All Posts Healing Harvest Homestead (4)

Step 4:

If you have any brine left over from other ferments or whey handy (see how to make your own whey here), then add about a quarter to half cup now.

Step 5:

Weigh down the peppers using some kind of weight. You don’t want the peppers above the water line because they may mold. You can find out more about mold on ferments here.

You can buy fermenting weights, but with this wide-mouth jar, I just used a little jelly jar with a boiled rock placed inside. Some of the peppers and seeds were still at the surface, but I just decided to keep a close eye on the ferment. (They didn’t cause a problem, it turns out.)

Make Homemade Fermented Hot Sauce with Dried Peppers: An Easy Recipe to Make Any Time of Year — All Posts Healing Harvest Homestead (5)

Step 6:

Let sit on your counter top or window sill for about a week or two. I let this ferment go two weeks, and it was perfect! If you use a regular lid like I did, you will have to "burp" it by opening the lid just slightly once or twice a day to allow the gases from the fermentation process out.

You should see bubbles rising to the surface of your jar within two to four days. This is a great sign, and means fermentation is happening.

You can taste test the liquid over time if you want. I actually began scooping some out with a clean spoon to use in my cooking about a week after the fermenting started.

When you are happy with the taste (and you'll know), then it's time to make the hot sauce!

Step 7:

Drain out about half of the liquid from each jar. Pour your peppers and liquid into a good blender like a VitaMix or a Nutribullet. I have both, and for this I just used the NutriBullet because it is always on my counter. The VitaMix probably would have been easier, though, because I could have fit all the peppers and liquid in at once.

Add some vinegar. I ended up adding about a half bottle (1/2 liter) of raw apple cider vinegar all told, into the two half-gallons (minus about half of the original liquid). Blend well! Pour into bottles for storage and/or use. The amount of vinegar you use is dependent on your personal taste.

Hey! Want to make your own raw vinegar?

You can!

Here is an article about how to make your own raw apple cider vinegar, and here is another one on making raw fruit vinegars of all kinds. You’ll be addicted to these and save tons of money too.

Make Homemade Fermented Hot Sauce with Dried Peppers: An Easy Recipe to Make Any Time of Year — All Posts Healing Harvest Homestead (6)

The Total Cost for a Bit Over a Half-Gallon of Hot Sauce that's Even Better than Tabasco!

LOVE this part…..saving money!

The total cost to make this huge amount of delicious homemade hot sauce with probiotics for our health was about $7.50, and with some bags of peppers, it may be far less.

The bag of Chile de Arbol cost $5.99 at the grocery store, but you can probably buy them for less on Amazon.

The raw ACV came from Costco, and was about $3.00 a bottle, so for half a bottle, that's just $1.50. If I had used our own homemade raw apple cider vinegar, it would have been practically free.

Meanwhile, Tabasco sauce costs a whopping $8.00 for a medium jar, which is actually just a fraction of the amount of hot sauce I just made!

Amazing savings, and a big plus for health benefits too!

Final Thoughts on the Benefits of Making Homemade Fermented Hot Sauce

First off, I love fermented foods. I’ve found that when I’m eating them regularly (raw, that is), my tummy just feels better. Second, I love, love, LOVE hot sauce! And when I see the exorbitant prices in the stores…well, I am highly motivated to make my own.

Once I discovered that yes! You CAN use dried peppers to ferment your own healthy hot sauce to use as a dip, condiment, or as an ingredient in other condiments, like fancy mayonnaise recipes….I’m now all about this, and I don’t let it run out!

Plus, bottled up in a pretty bottle or jar, it makes a wonderful gift from your kitchen.

What do you think? Do you make your own hot sauce or other fermented foods? If you have questions or comments, please leave them in the comments section.

There are tons more fermentation articles and recipes on the blog, so head over and check them out. And you may also enjoy these related articles:

How to Make Homemade Fermented Ketchup

Fermented Zucchini Pickles (Another Way to Preserve ALL That Zucchini from a Summer Harvest)

8 Myths About Fermentation: You’ll be Ready to Go for It After You Read This!

How to Make Homemade Chamomile Ale

And so many more for your fermenting pleasure—-

Hugs, Health, and Self-Reliance,

Heidi

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, I'd love it if you sign up for our newsletter and never miss a thing! When you do, you’ll get immediate access to my Resource Library, which is filled with all kinds of down loadables for you to print and use as resources for your self-reliance journey!

Make Homemade Fermented Hot Sauce with Dried Peppers: An Easy Recipe to Make Any Time of Year — All Posts Healing Harvest Homestead (8)

Recipes, Fermentation

Heidi Villegas, MA, CA, Herbalist

fermentation, how to ferment, how to ferment peppers, how to ferment dried peppers, how to make fermented hot sauce, steps for making fermented hot sauce, how to make hot sauce

10 Comments

Make Homemade Fermented Hot Sauce with Dried Peppers: An Easy Recipe to Make Any Time of Year — All Posts Healing Harvest Homestead (2024)

FAQs

How to make fermented hot sauce shelf stable? ›

A fermented hot sauce must be stored in the fridge, or else have vinegar or citric acid cooked into it in order to make it shelf stable. Karla keeps some of her blends fresh in the fridge, with no additives, and to others adds vinegar at a rate of 1/4 cup per quart for longer-term storage.

How long should peppers ferment for hot sauce? ›

Culture at room temperature until the color of the peppers changes and dulls, usually 5-7 days. If you like, this ferment continue to ferment at room temperature for many months. We like it best after at least 3 months; the flavors become more complex and rich, the longer it ferments.

Why add vinegar to fermented hot sauce? ›

*Many fermented hot sauces also contain some additional vinegar to either bolster the existing acidity, or to lower the pH further for even more shelf stability.

Can I ferment dried peppers? ›

While dried peppers tend to be deficient in the surface microbes necessary to initiate fermentation, they do still have sugar to fuel that process. Here I add dried chipotle morita chiles to a salt brine, along with a healthy amount of fresh garlic and toasted cumin seeds.

How do you increase the shelf life of homemade hot sauce? ›

Now let's get to the six hot tips of keeping that hot sauce as fresh as can be:
  1. Keep it in the fridge. An often debated topic is whether to keep hot sauce in the fridge or not. ...
  2. Optimal Conditions. ...
  3. Cap Hygiene. ...
  4. Pour, Don't Dip. ...
  5. Refraining From Licking. ...
  6. Check the Ingredients and Expiration.
Oct 4, 2021

Does vinegar make hot sauce shelf stable? ›

In general, any hot sauce will have a pretty decent shelf life. That's because most contain vinegar and chili peppers as essential ingredients. It's safe to say that an opened bottle of vinegar-based hot sauce could last three-to-five years if its refrigerated, and unopened could last even longer.

What is the best container to ferment hot sauce in? ›

“Woozy” bottles: These are special little bottles designed for hot sauces and other types of liquid condiments. They are typically very sturdy and come in sizes perfect for your finished hot sauce. If you don't want to buy new woozy bottles, just reuse old hot sauce bottles!

How to tell if fermented hot sauce is bad? ›

If the hot sauce has changed colors, chances are it's no longer good. Hot sauce that has been exposed to oxygen will typically turn from red to brown over time. Additionally, if the texture of the hot sauce has changed or become more watery than before, it's probably best to ditch it.

What fruit is good for fermented hot sauce? ›

A combination of blackberries, blueberries, and habanero chiles produces a more homogenous mash that ferments quickly. Berries temper the aggressive heat of habaneros, and provide natural sweetness. Fermenting with an airlock inhibits unwanted microbial growth.

Which vinegar is best for hot sauce? ›

There are all different kinds of vinegar used in cuisine today, from white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, rice wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and champagne vinegar. However, the best and most common kind used for hot sauces is white wine vinegar.

What is the white stuff in fermented hot sauce? ›

One of the most common visible contaminations is a white, cloudy substance called Kahm Yeast. While Kahm yeast isn't harmful it can indicate that there is a problem with your ferment. Kahm yeast is actually safe to eat as long as there are no molds present and the ferment tests at a pH of 4 or lower.

Do you have to burp fermented hot sauce? ›

Use a gallon glass jar with an airlock lid for fermenting the hot sauce. Without an airlock lid, you will have to "burp" the jar a few times a day early in the fermentation process to release excess gasses.

What makes hot sauce shelf stable? ›

The main ingredients of most hot sauces are vinegar and chili peppers. Both of these ingredients have natural preservation properties that keep your sauces safe to eat for longer periods of time.

Does fermented hot sauce need to be refrigerated? ›

Finished and bottled fermented hot sauce should be kept in the fridge. This is the safest way to store it and it will last for up to 6 months this way, though I recommend using it within a month or two for optimal flavor and color.

How do you stabilize hot sauce? ›

Xanthan gum is a common food additive used as a thickening agent, popular as a hot sauce stabilizer to prevent separation, but it has many other uses.

How do you keep fermented hot sauce from separating? ›

The addition of about 0.05% to 0.1% xanthan gum, by weight, is enough to start holding the particles in suspension without changing the consistency or thickness of the sauce very much.

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