Cowboy Candy (Candied Jalapenos)

[LeslieDean]

These little beauties are so addictive: sweet, spicy, and tangy. Once you start eating these, you’ll find all sorts of places to stash them—sandwiches, potato salad, grilled meat, and pasta, just to name a few.

Preparation Instructions

Wearing gloves, remove the stems from all of the jalapeno peppers. The easiest way to do this is to slice a small disc off of the stem-end along with the stem. Discard the stems.

Slice the peppers into uniform 1/8-1/4 inch rounds. Set aside.

In a large pot, bring cider vinegar, white sugar, turmeric, celery seed, granulated garlic and cayenne pepper to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pepper slices and simmer for exactly 4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the peppers, loading into clean, sterile canning jars to within 1/4 inch of the upper rim of the jar. Turn heat up under the pot with the syrup and bring to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 6 minutes.

Use a ladle to pour the boiling syrup into the jars over the jalapeno slices. Insert a cooking chopstick to the bottom of the jar two or three times to release any trapped pockets of air. Adjust the level of the syrup if necessary. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, damp paper towel and fix on new, two-piece lids to finger-tip tightness.

If you do not want to can these to the point of shelf stable, you can simply put the jars in your refrigerator and store them there. I prefer to keep the fridge space free so I can them. If you wish to can them, follow the instructions below.

Note: If you have leftover syrup, and it is likely that you will, you may can it in half-pint or pint jars, too. It’s wonderful brushed on meat on the grill or added to potato salad or, or, or … in short, don’t toss it out!

To can, place jars in a canner and cover 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.

Allow to mellow for at least two weeks, but preferably a month before eating. Or don’t. I won’t tell!

Ingredients

• 3 pounds Firm, Fresh Jalapeno Peppers, Washed
• 2 cups Cider Vinegar
• 6 cups White Granulated Sugar
• ½ teaspoons Turmeric
• ½ teaspoons Celery Seed
• 3 teaspoons Granulated Garlic
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cayenne Pepper

 

 

Norma--this is the first recipe I ever tried.  It was very good.  Make it.   Then next time try this. Buy yourself a gallon jar of sliced jalapeno's

at Sam's or Wal-Mart then drain all the liquid into a pot and add 3 cups of sugar and 2 c of vinegar along with celery seed--1 tsp, 1 tsp Tumeric and a shake of garlic powder, and cayenne pepper to suit your desired heat level.  Bring this to a boil stirring often-- then simmer  till syrupy--about 30 mins.  Pour this back into your gallon jar over your ALREADY sliced and prepared pepper slices then let cool and refrigerate.  I tell you, give a canning job to a lazy person and they will find a way around it!  My sister has even just poured in 3 cup of sugar over the top of the peppers and screwed the lid back on and refrigerated for two weeks then ate as desired!  

When you compare buying the peppers (unless you grow your own) and the work it take to wash, slice, then cook the peppers you will see why I like my way better.  Also, I inhaled the vinegar and cayenne while it was boiling and burned the inside of my throat from the fumes.  It was sore for several days.  My husband was in his office and even felt the effects of the fumes immediately.  Very strong stuff.

The peppers are used o everything!  In scrambled eggs.  On sandwiches, burgers, nachos, chili, on top of cream cheese spread on crackers. In chicken, tuna salad.  There is no end to their use!

P.S.  you can use pickling spice too in place of the seasonings.  It is a very forgiving recipe.  

 

 

[Miss Bea]

I will have to give it a try. We love jalapeños most any way, but this sounds fantastic. Thanks for sharing.

[normadenardo]

Thank you so much!!

[izzydee83]

Sounds delicious! I might try the lazy version.