Nashville Hot Candied Jalapenos
Nashville is hot right now. For one thing it’s going to be 90 plus degrees all week and its September. Also – everyone seems to want to move here - and finally there is our crazy reputation for famous Hot Chicken. My son has tried every hot chicken restaurant out there, at least all of the actual Nashville Hot Chicken ones, not the impersonators, and he can take the heat. I’m a mild to medium girl on the heat scale, so when my son suggested we turn his ever-increasing crop of jalapenos into hot peppers I was not super enthusiastic. Then he said, “What if we candy them too?” Well now, that’s more my kind of pepper, sweet and spicy. The harvest for the day yielded about a pound and a half. We washed them and sliced them into about 1/8th inch rings just leaving the seeds in and hoping that enough sugar would kill some of the heat. We sort of combined the basic pepper jelly recipe (blog post) with my favorite pickle recipe, which includes celery seeds, turmeric, garlic, and a cinnamon stick. Now here’s the only downside to making these, you have to wait a couple of weeks for the candied jalapenos to be ready, so if you’re reading this right now and thinking about what a tasty appetizer this would be for tomorrow night, well I’m sorry.
Patience isn’t one of my top qualities either, but I have to admit that this recipe is worth the wait. We timed everything just right so we could sample our pickles on the Labor Day weekend. It was a good plan. Although the Hot Candied Jalapenos are delicious all alone, the perfect vessel (in our opinion) is a Triscuit smeared with cream cheese. Just delightful. After consuming about half of the jar, we wondered what to do with all that yummy spicy pickle juice. Two ideas were tested with raving success – a bit poured into the dressing for cole slaw and a drop added to the mixture for stuffed eggs. Next experiment will be brushing it on grilled chicken. These won’t last long – the next batch will have to be a double. What makes them Nashville Hot Candied Jalapenos? This is Nashville and we are hot!
Nashville Hot Candied Jalapenos
Ingredients
1 ½ pounds of fresh jalapenos, sliced into 1/8th inch rings
1 cup apple cider vinegar
3 cups sugar
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp celery seeds
½ tsp mustard seeds
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
3 cloves garlic, peeled and cut into large pieces
1-pint jar (sterilized- can be done in dishwasher or microwave to save time)
Directions
In a large pot, bring sugar and vinegar to a boil.
Add turmeric, celery seeds, mustard seeds, and cinnamon stick and lower heat to a simmer.
Cook for 4 minutes.
Add jalapenos and cook for another 4 minutes. (Don’t overcook)
Use a slotted spoon to put peppers in the jar, boil the liquid another 5 minutes and pour it over the peppers.
Add the garlic to the jar and give it a stir with a wooden skewer or chopstick to release any air.
Seal, refrigerate, and try to wait 2 weeks before you eat them. Love at first bite!
