Name: Easy Pickled Jalapeños
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Ingredients: 6 large large jalapeños (sliced, stems discarded (3 cups)); 1 cup filtered water; 1 cup distilled white vinegar; 3 garlic cloves (peeled and gently crush); 4 tablespoons sugar; 2 tablespoons kosher salt

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Easy Pickled Jalapeños are super cheap and simple to make and so much better than store bought! These pickled jalapeños are an excellent addition to sandwiches, burgers, and even your favorite pasta dish.

We promise you that you’ll need a jar or two of these in your fridge…always!! They are that good! Summertime means keeping it as quick and easy as possible. We try to avoid (as much as we can!) too much heat in the kitchen.

I’m dreaming of my mother-in-law’s pickled Calabrian peppers. This summer in Italy she didn’t have any extra to send us home with. She had actually asked me to bring her jalapeños so she could make them for herself and for us in Italy.

The last time they were visiting us in Florida she pickled 3 really large jars of the jalapeños. My in-laws were putting them on absolutely everything they were eating. It was most often added to her Calabrian eggs, on top of most pasta dishes she made, and she even added them to her minestrone.

So you see, even if these aren’t the Italian hot peppers, they could be used essentially the same way on any thing you want to give some spice to. If you like it hot like we do, you will truly enjoy these super easy to make pickled jalapeños. Besides adding to your favorite Italian dishes, they are great on sandwiches and burgers.

Do pickled jalapenos need to be refrigerated? How long will they stay fresh?

This particular recipe is for storing the peppers in the fridge. They will stay good in the fridge for up to 6 months.

Not only is it more economical to pickle your own jalapeños, they truly taste so much better than the store-bought version (and no preservatives). I can’t recommend enough using disposable gloves to cut up the peppers!! The residue from the oil of the peppers will stay on your fingers for hours and burn (speaking from experience!). So put on your gloves before you chop the peppers, use your gloved hands to fill the jars, and then throw the gloves away.

If your peppers are larger, you’ll use less. Since the pepper size could vary, your goals is to get 3 cups of sliced peppers. Adjust the vinegar mixture as needed depending on how many you’d like to pickle.

How to make pickled jalapenos less hot?

Adding sugar will soften some of the heat and sweeten the peppers a little bit.

Most of the heat is found in the seeds, so you could try to leave as many out as you can for a milder pickle. Place the jalapeño slices in a big bowl of cold water and swirl them around to get out as many seeds as you can. Drain the peppers and then place them in your jars.

If you truly can’t stand the heat, it’s better to reach for a glass of milk than water. The hot capsaicin oils in chiles are soluble in full fat dairy (and even alcohol) but not water.

If you are just as obsessed with pickled jalapeños peppers, you have to try out this recipe! And if you are lucky enough to have a garden that is overgrowing with jalapeños, this is what you need to make! Here is another version of this recipe that uses soy sauce (also, really good!).

Let’s get to the recipe.

What you need to make these homemade pickled jalapenos:

jalapeños
garlic
water
vinegar
sugar
salt
glass jars with a tight fitting lid

How to pickle jalapenos:

• Rinse off jalapeños and slice into evenly sized rings.
• Pack jalapeño rings into a glass jars (or one very large jar) with a tight-fitting lid. Add a clove of garlic to each jar. If using one large jar, add them all into that jar.
• In a medium saucepan, combine water, vinegar, salt, and sugar.
• Bring water to a low simmer and stir until sugar and salt are just melted (not boiling).
• Remove vinegar mixture and using a ladle very carefully pour the mixture into the jars with jalapeños rings.
• Allow to cool for approximately 1-hour, cover and refrigerate.
• The pickled jalapeños are ready to eat in 24 to 48 hours!

One last and important thing to remember is that this pickled jalapeño peppers recipe is the quick cheater’s version made in the refrigerator. These pickled peppers are not shelf-stable as if you were canning them. They should be stored in the fridge.

We give instructions to store these peppers in the refrigerator. We don’t have a truly cool room where we could store things for a many months. We do can things. We store them in the coolest part of our pantry and we end up eating what we can relatively quickly. We store most of what we can in the refrigerator. For more detailed info on canning instructions or directions, follow the USDA guidelines.

Looking for other easy pickled recipes?

Our Easy Pickled Watermelon Rind and Easy Pickled Cucumbers are two other great recipes to preserve summer!

One more to try: Easy Pickled Thai Chili Peppers

Originally published August 2019 and updated for content on July 20, 2021.

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